God's "Glow-in-the-dark" Fingerprints

  [LIFE INTERRUPTED:  'When Women Say Yes to God' Blog-Hop post]   

     The story of our life interrupted.  Our family of four was quietly living on the family farm, working long days to make ends meet while raising two toddlers.  In a mobile home in a remote section of our county, we functioned in a comfortable auto-pilot mode.  Lots of hard work and sacrifice, but lots of love too.  "Love grows big in little houses."  The unexpected passing of my father-in-law catapulted our family into a "life interrupted" status, but little did we know that even harder struggles were ahead for us, and God had one messy journey for us to take before we reached our final destination of blessing.
      As we struggled to find a new normal and adjust to a "Dad/Granddad" size hole in our lives and on the farm, our family slowly began to unravel the edges of a rug that covered generations of abuse.  Picture a large braided area rug--the outer ring unravels, the next ring unravels, followed by the next, and soon tattered lives are exposed.  Yes, life was indeed interrupted.  Two young adults trying to make sense of senseless acts while vowing to protect their own two children from the devastation found under that seemingly beautiful family rug.  The song, "I Need You Jesus--to Come to My Rescue" by Newsong, quickly became our cry for help.  We were at the end of ourselves; broken, hurting, lost, and lacking the means, and courage, to do anything about it.  Our world became very dark very quickly.
     God, in His loving mercy, orchestrated a series of humanly impossible events to make it only Divinely possible for us to be rescued from our pit.  We found ourselves packing up our home and belongings on the family farm, because God had a bigger and better plan for us.  Thrilled, excited, hopeful, nervous, and grateful we moved our family to His new home for us.  We had been rescued!  The Lord provided the Way!  We saw the visual rescue; He saw the Spiritual rescue.  We saw this move as the end of our misery--a way to get out from under the "rug"; He saw the hairpin turns up ahead yet knew even they were for our good.  Had God given me a "map" for what was ahead on our journey because of our move, I wouldn't have moved.  I would have suffered in that pit and "made the most of it".  God knew me better.  <3  He only asked me to walk one step at a time in faith.  I didn't need to know the big picture, I knew my big God.

"I will instruct you and teach in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you."  ~Psalm 32:8

     So our family began to settle in to our new home, new community, new schools, new church family, and new friends.  But more importantly, we began to settle in to our deeper relationship with Christ.  The Spiritual rescue.  No more auto-pilot mode.  Our souls had been stripped bare and only Jesus could heal the wounds.  He was like a balm that soothed the hurts in our hearts.  We could finally breathe again, knowing we were safely wrapped in the arms of Jesus.  Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, our new life was interrupted.  One tiny business card placed on our front door would rock our footing once more.  We had a lawsuit filed against us.  Family was seeking revenge against us for unraveling their "perfect" rug and moving our family away.  And so our messy journey continued; with our faithful Lord carrying us so only one set of footprints could be seen in the mud and the mire of our lives (Psalm 40:2).
     I desperately wish I could tell you the lawsuit ended well and the Lord allowed truth to prevail.  But it did not.  In this fallen world, lies and money carry more weight than they should.  Yet our God is Sovereign, and nothing comes into our lives without first passing through His Hands.  He knew the outcome.  He allowed the outcome.  Because He knew the blessing He had designed for us.  Life interrupted was a dark valley of betrayal for us.  But through that valley God ministered to us in ways only He knew we needed, because God intimately knows us and how our hearts beat.  We could not have severed unhealthy relationships on our own.  We would have fought the battles, but never won.  A severed family is counter-intuitive to the way He designed us, yet in this situation, it is God's very best for us and our children.  Through devastating circumstances God enabled us to walk away from harmful family when we would not have had the strength to do so on our own.   God knows best, because He's GOD.

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."   ~Jeremiah 29:11

     That is the blessing of life interrupted.  God loves us enough to carry us through heartache so that He can firmly plant us on the other side where His blessing awaits.  Only He can see over the mountain.  We must be faithful and obedient to climb one step at a time.  For us, God's greatest gift came in the ugliest package.  My human eyes would have refused the "gift" because I could not see through the painful packaging.  But God knew the blessing waiting inside and the stronger faith He was creating through complete dependence on Him.  God heals, God restores, and God delivers.  I'd never volunteer for life interrupted, but then I'd never enter the blessing God has designed for me in His rescue.  Our life interrupted produced a life now lived for His glory.  Looking back to that long, dark season for our family, we can so clearly see God's "Glow-in-the-dark" fingerprints all over our lives.  He was fighting for us in the darkest of hours and now His glory shines so brightly as the victory belongs to the Lord!  Our story.....His Glory.

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive."   ~Genesis 50:20