Jewelry and Jesus

This morning when I was putting on jewelry for the day, I heard Jesus speak to me clearly. "See. I told you so." Immediately I knew what He meant. When I was a little girl, I read many books that explored continents, books telling of great, adventurous lives, and I so wanted to figure out how to do that. Later as a junior high student, a much admired teacher wrote in my little blue autograph book a verse I memorized the moment I read it. "He knows, He loves, He cares. Nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to Him."

That was a poetic version of the scripture my parents had chosen for their life verse. It was emblazoned on plaques around our house, quoted often, and actually hung in the air as a culture-shaper. "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."(Psalm 37:4) Of course, I was cautioned many times that this actually meant most of all that when I find my pleasure in God, my desires will begin to mirror His.

Now decades into my journey, I know that is true. The more I love Him, the more I want only what He wants for me. But I also see that nothing delights HIM more than giving good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11). I wouldn't trade my life for any other, and I am speechless at how He has led me in pleasant paths. As I look back at the childhood dreams that filled my heart awake and asleep, and then the longings I had as a young adult, I stand amazed at what He has done.

Hear me now. This is what Jesus meant when He spoke to me this morning. I have taken countless classes on time management, strategizing, life mapping, etc. They have all been excellent, and my life has improved exponentially when I follow the directions I have learned. But where I am today has had very little to do with my excellent strategies, and almost everything to do with sheer obedience, taking the next step Jesus has shown to me. Often in following Jesus I have wept and taken significant time to surrender, because I thought in yielding my desires to Him I was losing something I really wanted. I have let go and given away things that mattered so much to me, things that I was certain chipped away at my dreams so thoroughly that I packed them away,  and just quit thinking about them.

But He never did. That's what He was talking about when He watched me select jewelry to wear this morning. The necklace--from India. The bracelet--Malawi. The earrings--Kenya. Remarkable because I purchased them all myself, knee-deep in adventure, swirling smells and sights of different worlds around me, living my dream. Pretty big stuff for a little girl from Caldwell, Ohio.

I couldn't have planned it. Well, yes, I could have. I could have dropped the ball with my family, not had the incredible joys of pastoring the most amazing collection of people one could have the pleasure of knowing, missed out on adventures and satisfactions beyond telling,  as I zeroed in on my desire to see the world. I could have seen more faster, but what else would I have missed?

I'm an accidental adventurer. "Daily obedience"
seems like drudgery when you just read the words or hear them. But the best life mapping strategy I can recommend is simply that. Daily obedience with my time, my money, my relationships, my choices, believing He sees what I can't see, knows what I don't know, and loves me more than I can begin to comprehend. Thanks for the jewelry, Jesus. I love it. I adore you.