Dancing in the sand

       I was talking with someone the other day and reminiscing, as we often do when we get older. Ah, the god old days. Not always as good as we might recall. Further, we often miss out on the present when we dwell too much on the past. 

       In the passage from Scripture today, there is a bit of a litany. God takes care of everything. At yet other point in Scripture it notes how beautifully dressed are the flowers of the fields and they do not worry. How much more will God take care of you? Under the circumstances here, one cannot help but think back over ones life. When reminiscing with the chap I spoke of earlier, I noted some of the amazing twists and turns my own life had taken. The clincher was ' I never would have imagined being married to a man at the age of sixty! ' It becomes more of an overall amazement with what God has done in my life than longing for those good old days. After all, I have seen a lot of shit in my day. If not that, then trying times , the struggle to 'come out' from my cocoon and much, much more. The challenges were many, the road not straight, but windy and hilly and filled with all sorts of challenges. 

        One thing that I do know, like the writer of today's passage, God was and is always with me. God always sustains me, holding onto me, holding me upright, feeding me, nurturing me, loving me enormously and forgiving me without bounds. 

       What a wonderful life, but more than good old times, a good old journey.  Not dwelling on the past but recognition of the love of God in my life and that I have been taken places that I had never dreamed or had even conceived of.

       Where will we go from here? The journey for each of us continues. The possibilities are as infinite as God if we choose to accept it, cooperate with it.  God loves us more than we may ever be able to know and is with us always. In a sequel to "footprints in the sand", the writer looking at the footprints of their life, notes a period when the prints in the sand are all jumbled, going round in circles, doing figure eights, seemingly mindless in direction. A real mish mash. The writer says 'see God, I was wandering aimlessly and you were not there'.  God responds , 'don't you recall, you were not alone wandering, that is when we danced.' 

         God wants nothing more than an intimate relationship in which we dance together, no cares not worries just the relational love that is God. God will take care of the rest.

        

Job 4:1, 5:1-11, 17-21, 26-27

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

‘Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn? 
Surely vexation kills the fool,
   and jealousy slays the simple. 
I have seen fools taking root,
   but suddenly I cursed their dwelling. 
Their children are far from safety,
   they are crushed in the gate,
   and there is no one to deliver them. 
The hungry eat their harvest,
   and they take it even out of the thorns;
   and the thirsty pant after their wealth. 
For misery does not come from the earth,
   nor does trouble sprout from the ground; 
but human beings are born to trouble
   just as sparks fly upward. 

‘As for me, I would seek God,
   and to God I would commit my cause. 
He does great things and unsearchable,
   marvellous things without number. 
He gives rain on the earth
   and sends waters on the fields; 
he sets on high those who are lowly,
   and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 
‘How happy is the one whom God reproves;
   therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. 
For he wounds, but he binds up;
   he strikes, but his hands heal. 
He will deliver you from six troubles;
   in seven no harm shall touch you. 
In famine he will redeem you from death,
   and in war from the power of the sword. 
You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
   and shall not fear destruction when it comes. 
You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
   as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing-floor in its season. 
See, we have searched this out; it is true.
   Hear, and know it for yourself.’