Once when I was three, my mom stepped outside to check on me. She saw my little group of neighborhood pals two houses over, standing at the bottom of a tall pine tree. As she approached, she asked where I was. Their faces and little arms raised skyward as they pointed to the very top of the tree.

My mother had two choices: tell me to come down or go up and get me. She was concerned that I would get flustered and rush if she told me to come down to her, so she yelled for me to stay right where I was and she climbed up. In a skirt.

A mother rescues her child. A father saves his child. I know my Lord hears my calls and comes to me. No matter how high I climb, how far I wander, God has his eye on me. He will never abandon me.

Sometimes, when I am not hearing the answer I want or seeing the things I’ve prayed for, I have wondered if God is even there.  Other times I believe He is there but my pain in the waiting makes me abandon hope anyway. The more I come to know the Lord, the more willing I am to wait in faith, wait and see what He is doing because I know He is coming. He has not abandoned me.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

I love Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken. It tells of a traveler trying to decide which path to take, the well-worn one or the one that was “grassy and wanted wear”. The last stanza has always deeply stirred my spirit:

I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

One day as I walked I was thinking about a problem that seemed to only have two options. I didn’t resonate with either so I talked to God about it. A few steps later, I glanced up into the woods and saw a faint trail passing through the brush and over a rise, one that perhaps deer often took, leaving a hint of their passing. Sometimes I don’t see all of the possibilities. Sometimes my head tries to figure out things before my heart seeks to hear from God. He knows all the ways through, all the trails and where they lead.

The same old trails can be handy but they generally lead to the same old places. When I listen to God with my heart and let my eyes focus on His guidance, He can take me new ways to new places that will make all the difference.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good. Psalm 107:9.

They say sometimes when we think we are hungry, our bodies are trying to tell us that we need to drink, that actually we may be thirsty. This awareness can help us make the best choice in a moment of need and serves as another metaphor for my relationship with my Maker.

When I have a need, discomfort, an ache—for anything—and feel I need to reach for some thing to make me feel better, I should kneel first and take a drink from the spring of Jesus. His living waters satisfy me with good things, the exact right things for my needs.

Kneeling often, asking God to guide and fill me and receiving in faith, will keep me well fed and quenched. He leads me to the highest, Godly way of fulfilling my cravings and aspirations. It is easy to grab for something, say or do something that feels to be a satisfying fix in the moment, but this can lead me further away from my loving Father and His good purpose for me. Developing a habit of kneeling before God and receiving His quenching waters satisfies my soul with what is good.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.   John 4:13-14

Hi!  I just needed to take a moment to celebrate 100 days and entries.  I am loving writing about my walks with God this year and hoped you are blessed reading them.  I have 36 walks to go, 265 more entries to write and I am just filled with gratitude for the experience.

❤  Jennie

When I was in my twenties I began transcribing the notes from my grandfather’s Bible into a new one. His eyes were failing and he needed one with larger print. Pop Pop had another reason, though. He wanted me to be in the word.

At the time, I was working two jobs, a Philadelphia WIC nutritionist by day and a waitress at night. Then I came home late, sat at the dining room table and scribed his notes into the night. There were only three pages in his Bible that were not stained with the ink from his pen. Pop Pop loved the Bible. He lived his life in the word.

Years later, pregnant with my third child, I toddled into a newly formed Bible study and never left. People came and went and then it was just the six of us, every Tuesday night in that sweet home on Grandview Avenue. And what a grand view it gave me, walking through God’s word with those wonderful ladies.  Eventually life crowded in, health issues and schedule clashes, and we stopped meeting.  But the word we shared for those eight years will never leave me. Nor will the friendships we bonded.

Early this morning at Bethel, God told me to go back to His word, it is where I belong. It is where my spirit settles, grows and breathes. There is no life apart from it.  It imparts the grandest view.

My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to this who find them, and healing to all their flesh.  Proverbs 4:20-22

As the weather turned colder and fewer and fewer people came out to walk, my passion for the park only grew. As a rule, I have never liked winter. I rarely go out in bitter weather. My jaws chatter and I gripe exceedingly when I am cold. This fall and winter, however, I loved every step, wandering through the unveiled woods and tiptoeing on frozen ponds to watch turtles sleep under the ice.

I think it was during these cold barren months that my relationship with God rooted deeply. It felt like me and Him and no one else, save the few other creatures who held on too—the lone cardinal where the path curves, the small flock of geese who decided to stay, and all the other little ones who left their tracks in the snow, then disappeared to their warm shelters and holes. The deer froze and fixed their eyes on me, blending in with the stark woods. Then—one, two, three—they would leap away, leaving me refreshed with a peace from Heaven itself.

Suddenly a park worker would drive by in her motorized cart with that terrible exhaust and I would fume. She was working her job, after all, and I had the nerve to be bothered. God showed me my pettiness, how easily I could be ruffled. I was walking in a wonderland with the Creator of the universe–and demanding more?  I must never be bothered. I am with God. He is with me. That is all.

Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.  Psalm 34:8

One day on my walk two helicopters flew over me in perfect configuration, one slightly ahead, one following behind keeping an exact angle and distance. I could see they were military helicopters and were flying in close formation for a reason—defense, efficiency, performance.

I watched them proceed north beyond the trees and thought about being in formation with God. Could someone observe my life and see the One I follow, the One with whom I fly? Do I strive to stay in place with God to carry out the missions He gives me? Well, certainly not with the excellence the two pilots flew those machines. But as I seek Him more and He shows me more of Himself and His word, the closer I want to stay and the more I am able.

Staying in formation with God entails constant connection, listening, walking with Him every day and throughout my hours. I need to know His word so I can recognize His voice and hear clearly. And I need to relinquish my own will, trust Him every moment. When I am close behind Him, He shields the wind in my face, we proceed together according to His plan and the sky is the limit.

He has made it clear to you, mortal man, what is good and what the Lord is requiring from you—to act with justice, to treasure the Lord’s gracious love, and to walk humbly in the company of your God.  Micah 6:8

After Jesus was put in the tomb, Mary, Mary Magdalene and Salome went to anoint His body. When they arrived, the stone was rolled away, Jesus’ body was gone and an angel was there where He had been laid. The angel told the women not to be afraid, that Jesus had risen and gone to Galilee. Two disciples also ran to the tomb and found that He was gone. None had believed that Jesus was going to rise from the dead.

Mary sobbed outside the tomb, still wondering where Jesus’ body had been taken, when He appeared behind her. In her grief and confusion, she couldn’t recognize Him until she heard Him speak her name.

In His death He took my sin and gave me eternal life. In His resurrection He left my sin behind and my death as well. Shall I sit at the door and gaze into the tomb, or run to Him on the road to Galilee in worship and gratitude?  Whatever befalls me, whatever threatens, whatever snares, it is good to grieve it while acknowledging the One who is victorious over it all. Death, in whatever form it occurs in my life, is never the final word. I do not choose to sink into its clutches anymore than I would knowingly walk into a pit of quicksand. In my pain, I will look to Him and He will respond and call me by name.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55

There are special glasses that allow those who have color blindness to see in full color. I have watched touching videos of people beholding for the first time the entire rainbow of the world around them. How poignant is the moment when a beautiful truth is revealed, showing that which had been missed all along. How awesome is my God who blesses me with these moments day after day.

I think most people have had times when living felt drab and dreary. During my third pregnancy I was stricken with a strange depression. I wasn’t able to experience things as they normally were. It seemed as if there was a thick layer of dullness between me and the outside world that I just couldn’t penetrate. I remember watching my sister and our children laughing and playing in a pool and feeling like I was completely removed from that vibrant existence.

I could liken that to my experience before I began walking with God. I didn’t see life the way that I, a child of God, should see it. Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Without God or with God? In gray shadows and shades or in His rich, colorful spectrum? I choose God’s palette.

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17.

Eating well has been a challenging conundrum for most of my life. I studied food in college, earning a Bachelor of Science in dietetics, but gained no degree of change in feeding myself. My twisted thoughts concerning food remained.

I do not have a great success story to relay even yet. I still struggle a little, but less often. Whatever success I have seen in this area has come by remembering who I am in God, who He made me to be. In mind, in spirit, in personality, in my strengths and limitations, and in my body. When I do this, the knots loosen and I breath easier.  I think the “knots” come from an unwillingness to accept God’s ways. I create gnarls and complications in my life when I separate from God and believe, even momentarily, that my ways are better than His.

He created me and this body. What if I cherished it as the blessing it is and did not entertain for one moment changing it in any way. He has provided wholesome food for me. What if I cherished that as the blessing it is and did not entertain eating all the other nonsense they call “food”?

When I focus and simplify my life to embrace only God’s ways and His blessings, He releases me from unhealthy entanglements and I learn to honor the straight path to His freedom.

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.                                  2 Corinthians 11:3