Omni what?

Understanding God’s omnipresence had a whole new eternal perspective this week as I engaged in a virtual high school reunion on Facebook.  After 22 absent years, this is what a dear friend messages me yesterday:

“By the way, you were never lost. Maybe gone for a while. But you were always there :)It may be a long time ago, but I remember those days like yesterday. I need those stories in my life. They were good times.”

How true that is! Friendship, like our relationship with God, can be physically distant for any amount of time and as unseen as our Lord is, especially on down days, but it doesn’t diminish the significance of the experience of the person in your life. People struggle with “religion” because they feel we are walking with an invisible man believing an outdated book. Not so! OMINIPRESENCE means God is always with us and His stories guide us today as they did up to thousands of years ago when someone was inspired to write them down with a passionate purpose to lead future generations.

The friend requests piled in when I was finally “tagged” in a yesteryear photo posted on Facebook in 2009. Tears filled my eyes reading the comments made about me during a huge time of transition in my life when I would have no idea what positive words were being spoken of me somewhere in cyberspace. People who once filled my daily being wondered where I was out of a fond memory, shared experience and desire to reconnect always with the joy they felt in the season we were physically together.  Laughter ensued in my soul as I read how they remembered the silly things I did and guessed where I might be now.  Even if I had not messaged one of my closest classmates in April, nostalgia alone would still spark the idea real sisterhood was out there and we are loved (what my scrapbooks are for).

This spring my son, excited about teen years and upcoming high school days, had fun sifting through my yearbook pages of a variety of school books. To add to the experience, I looked up one of the girls from my first high school on the social media site. After moving every two years since 1992, I didn’t know what to say as my mind struggled to remember 1990. 

Finally this week her reply comes in apologizing for the delay? What delay? God’s timing is always ON TIME. He could not have picked a better season in my life than now to show me people out there do care about me, think about me and wish me well. Right now I’m right in the fog of spiritual war again; a battle started this summer. As I lean more toward God’s direction in life serving family and making time for friends in these recent months, the enemy seemed to seep into my life through other avenues. This week in particular my parents are here to share the reunion as we celebrate my son's 15th birthday. There's lots of memories celebrated and new ones being made.

Settling into the location I live now has been the hardest transition so far but the one God surely led me to. He knows I answered His call in 2008,  packed up “Abraham style,” short sold a house and followed His decisions since then. Miracles have truly happened – perfect school for my son's particular needs found, exact house we needed bought, prayers answered, church community discovered matching a mission God put on my heart during seminary, family reunited in one state and so much more! Certainly I was made to be here.

Many times though I need that reminder. Many times I need to look above for His view because if I look around things may not appear as put in place as they are. As I wrote my book documenting my 2008 discovery of my life, I realized God’s fingerprints ordered every step since conception. But many times I had to step out, look up, to really see God has got this all under control on a very mysterious time schedule that is always “on time.” There is so much unseen! And if you look that up in the Bible, its called faith - believing in what may not be visible because an invisible force field called Trinity has our lives covered beyond our imagination!

Cookies crumble, mercy sustains

A beautifully hand-written scripted note filled the entire loose leaf sheet of pristine paper my son handed me yesterday. Humble words described bluntly what has taken place during the last 30 days or more. The confession was honest, real and penned by a teenager.

Something made me worry a bit when I approached this muscular military man to let him know it seemed like his son was bullying my son. My only shred of evidence was the disappearance of 18 cookies noticed on a very frantic Wednesday morning last week. In hindsight I’d laugh at my son for pulling out this foiled container of store bought cookies, peeling back the lid and with a shocked expression say there was nothing in there.

With only two people living in the house and me not touching the item I purchased just a few days before, my son seemed to be the obvious culprit. However, he has not learned the art of forgiveness because he still struggles with the first step of awareness. Surely he must have tried to cover up what he knew was wrong in some way by putting the container away in such perfect condition he was even able to trick himself! Now that’s funny but sad. Any hiding we do should automatically take us back to the hiding Adam and Eve did, revealing there is something we are not owning up to. Alarm bells should sound like emergency sirens when we catch ourselves because if we don’t want to hold on to it or bury it for soul’s sake.

It took forever on an already rushed school day morning to get any shred of truth from my son who obviously held on and buried so much he deceived himself. All he could say was he had a friend who loved cookies. Drawing the only logical conclusion without losing my mind, I figured my son hung out with Cookie Monster and decided to give away our cookies out of the goodness of his heart. Unfortunately the situation escalated at counseling later when I admitted I lost it over cookies the way couples normally lose it over how the toothpaste was left in the bathroom.

An honest confession on my part led to an honest assessment. More information was revealed with professional probing. My son admitted this boy had been bullying him which concluded the classmate was more “monster” than friend and less sweet than chocolate morsels. The story crumbles further when we return to school and have the opportunity to address the boy’s parent.

Truth does set you free! A apology of such caliber like the one I received, though worried if it came with severe basic training-like pushups, deserved a otherworldly reply. Nothing speaks truth better than the Word so the first verse I thought of was “be merciful for I am merciful.” And nothing spoke it better than writing it on a note card sized just right to fit into a sandwich bag containing one large homemade pumpkin cookie.

The child in me just giggled as I placed the raisins into that dough making it look like pumpkin eyes, nose and teeth. Luckily it still came out of the oven looking like a face. My son was already asleep when the air around him filled with cinnamon spice. So it was quite a surprise to him, who struggles with honesty, to have to be the disciple to deliver the tasty message to a Cookie Monster.

When we were children we probably thought it was funny to watch the blue fuzzy guy spread crumbs all over the other side of our T.V. screen trying to hold a cookie with flimsy incomplete fingers. But never would we imagine that his passion for his favorite food would mean our lunch box needed a padlock. Its moments of such a reality our mind fills up with a new found anxiety, causes us worry in like situations and teaches us new ways to respond. As adults the world would never accept perfect penmanship when revenge is so advocated.

I know I forgot about the time I had to write a note like that to my mother and how embarrassing it was each time she mentioned it again years later laughing at words I probably felt I was writing with my last breath. Discovering I was in trouble was a tough pill to swallow. Somehow I went from respecting authority to self righteous teenage years and full circle back with God who now tells me to drop my backpack full of junk for the world to see at the foot of His cross.

Obviously I could run a lot faster and play more freely without this weight. So why do we carry it? Why not start taking up calligraphy and start farming out forgiveness to everyone in our contact list, starting with our selves first? Everyone wants a cookie but the chain has to start somewhere.

Childlike faith means childlike prayer

One of my superheroes in faith said this morning childlike faith means praying like a child. Perfect timing being that it is the week of my son’s 15^th birthday!

Something popped in my head of how a child has NO LIMITS when asking for stuff. Ever notice how you ask a kid what he wants for his birthday he answers without any hesitation "that robot lego guy"? Yea, that “guy” is $300 and neither your single mother or your PHD father states away buried in college classes can foot that bill.

But as a family we were all online yesterday discussing an agreement on a set price. Sean was deep into scrolling through more than 600 toys and gadgets listed on a website catering to all the geeky stuff he loves. We passed the phone back and forth trying to keep him calm in the coffee shop supplying the WiFi. He understood dad only had $50 and that led to him finding several reasonable toys. His final selection sold for $39.

So what do you think happened next? As dad is punching in shipping information on one end of the phone call, Sean is searching through the “gifts under $10” because our son knows he has $50 to receive. He expects dad will give the full 100%!

Then a coupon pops up for $10 off of a $60 order and Sean’s math genius mind instantly realizes he can now can pick two of those gifts or search “gifts under $20” section. He blurts out the coupon code over the phone.

While Sean announced dozens of ideas to go with the new spending limit loudly into the cell phone, Sean’s dad paused on filling out the rest of the order. My son couldn’t see what dad was doing on the other line. Finally after mom “Shhhed” him enough, Sean settled to hear dad say “search this, son.”

Sean’s frantic page ups and downs came to a halt when he saw the item dad found for $29. In the end dad ended up going past the $50 limit with an idea that wasn’t even in the options we could see on our end. Isn't that just like GOD to go above and beyond our expectations and set limits out of nothing but unconditional love?

Can a child do anything without depending on their parents and/or guardians? Then know you can't do anything without depending on God. Nor do we or the child really know the full picture of what it is we are basing our decisions on.

Only the ALL KNOWING GOD can really give us what we need because He has the full map from His conception knitting to Heaven’s seat holding the same name sticker that was on our elementary school cubby. Father God wants us to get all excited in the marketplace about the options he can provide us. He wants us to share everything we searched for and discovered with Him because only with Him we are found. He gives the final answer-the best option, the means to our discernment. Then we can live our full 100% that is matched by Him and exceeded in abounding grace.

Get out on the playground of life’s possibilities without limits. Enjoy the relationships and experiences that open up to you. Welcome them all as a child imagines everything they can be when they grow up. Set no boundaries other than the one the Bible has already set for you. They will keep you safe and fulfilled with everlasting hope no matter if you are stuck inside on a rainy day.