Every morning I cut open a grapefruit for breakfast, and nearly every morning, our dog, Reggie watches carefully. One day I realized that he has no clue what I'm doing. He doesn't, in fact, know anything of what I know, in even this simplest of things.
He doesn't know that the juiciest grapefruits seem to come from Florida, or that I first enjoyed one when my mom picked one off a tree in her yard. Or remembering that my Dad was alive then. And that soon after, I was buying them by the case and having them shipped from Florida. Or that the dish I use each morning for them is one of the last two things I have that belonged to my dear Granny, who I miss still. That I spent some wonderful weeks with her in Indy before she got moved to Florida to be with mom. That there's the one knife I use that works best, or that I learned how to prepare them by seeing how it was done as I had breakfast with George, my first small group leader. And he doesn't remember the conversation and all that that led to. Oh, and that I eat them! They nourish me and give me vitamins. And I'll just stop there, though I could fill pages with all the trails of knowledge of things that run off of just cutting a grapefruit for breakfast. How many days could my dog watch me and even begin to understand any of this? Even if I tried to explain it? It just isn't possible. And my life has a lot more going on that just cutting a grapefruit each morning!
And to think that we could ever understand the mind of God.
My ways are not your ways. (Isaiah 55:8)....No kidding. We haven't a clue.
The past few days we've spent with dear friends who lost their 22 year old daughter. We now walk this same lonely, dark, and sorrowful road with them. No one saw these chapters in our stories coming. We surely do not understand why God has written these chapters. But He has. We do not want to be here. We've not healed from our own August 26, much less help someone else heal from their Dec. 31. We have grief upon griefs. Yet we must know that God knew about our Aug. 26, He knew that we would draw upon these dear friends in November and December, and that their Dec. 31 was coming. And that we'd be there now. So all our hearts break together as we weep and pray and seek hope in the midst of our losses.
What's the next chapter in our stories? I might as well stare at a grapefruit through the eyes of a dog as try to understand that. He calls us to trust Him, and so we walk the path with Him, and comfort each other along the way.
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