The LORD’s Crooked Lines (06/14/2024)

Yesterday, as I shared in my blog, I found myself feeling “spent.” As I wrote, I had all the energy of a rock. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that yesterday was not going to be the day I discovered the 8th continent. But if you are a person of faith, you might have suspected that I would find something better. Yep, the LORD writes straight with crooked lines. The day I found myself without the energy to go forward was the day the LORD guided me to refuel with loving assurance of times past.

After my blog was posted, I sat at my desk not knowing what to do. I decided that while I didn’t have the energy nor desire to mop floors, I could straighten my desktop. And as I did, I found emails from friends, I found a card from my husband, and I found a special note from a member of the parish scripture study group. The lines of the note touched me, they reminded me that the LORD was with me, leading me, loving me. The note read: “Through you, we know more. You share Him without judgment.” And I found myself thanking the LORD for the way He led me to love scripture and the path He took me on to be able to share it with others. It has been a crooked line, but it made straight my way and helped others.

I got dressed and went outside to water my hanging plant, a gift from my son-in-law for Mother’s Day. As I watered, memories of that day were followed by other memories of time together with the family, me as the matriarch. True, I usually was wearing an apron and pans were involved, but what really shone through was the love of the family, each member for the others. That’s all I wanted as a child. I told the LORD that’s all I wanted as an adult – a loving family that cared for one another, supported one another, was there for one another. The LORD’s crooked line that led me to a hanging plant was the path that led me to gratitude for what is.

I went inside and sat in my chair. Wondering what to do next, my eyes moved around my family room and with them the memories materialized, memories of our family’s Christmas celebrations, of weekly bible study with 10 women of faith, of neighbors gathering for “together time”, of time with my husband in the evenings. The LORD’s crooked line led me to acknowledge the wealth I’d received in this very room over the years and the LORD’s power and presence every moment of that.

My mother called to thank me for her candy. She has a particular licorice candy that she loves. I buy it for her and send it to her. She’d told me earlier this week that she was running low. I’d gone to my Amazon app, ordered it to be delivered to her. She called to let me know it had arrived. And she announced she would take a piece for everyone at her dinner table that night now that she had enough to share. I told her it was just a small thing, but she told me that to her it wasn’t small. And I remembered how I’d found the candy on the app and had begun sending it to her whenever she shared with me that she was running low. “It’s the little things that matter most” I was taught as a child. And I found myself flooded with a sense of gratitude for my family of origin and for their impact on my formation. I didn’t always appreciate it, for sure, but now, looking back with the heart’s rearview mirror, I realize the LORD’s crooked lines were at work even then.

As I was turning off my phone, somehow an image of my trip to Arizona with my sister, Betty, came up. And I thought of that special time, of our adventures, and of the special friendship that began that trip in a hotel garden. I thought of the conversation with my new friend that lasted hours and the multiple connections we have made ever since. I could hear my friend saying, “We were supposed to meet that day.” And I had to agree. She’s from North Carolina, I’m from Wisconsin now but was living in Illinois at the time. Only the LORD’s divine plan could have intersected our lives in Flagstaff.

And before I knew it, it was time to get ready to go to dinner with two friends. As I stood at the mirror, combing my hair, realizing how the day had flown by. True, I hadn’t broken a sweat, but the LORD had led me on a journey I needed to take. I stopped and thanked the LORD for my life, for the many bends in the road that led me straight to where I needed to be. I thanked the LORD for being with me patiently especially when I wasn’t being patient. And I thanked the LORD for bringing me where I needed to be – looking in the mirror and telling myself, “Kate, beloved of the LORD God, you have been blessed abundantly. Thank you, LORD.”

Yes, the LORD does write straight with crooked lines. And I am so grateful for those along the way that helped me see it. My day started with the feeling that I had no energy to go anywhere. The LORD had a way of getting me to travel mentally over years and miles to get my bearing for what lies ahead. The LORD is amazing.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.