I am so thankful for what I have gone through and learned, because in the process, I discovered God’s truth and love for me. Consequently, I was freed and healed from the demonic lies and traps that held me in pain and bondage. I ultimately recognized that the only way I can truly know, experience, and love God is through the truth that is found in His Word and what He says. Anything else is counterfeit. God speaks through His Word and He teaches me how to sort through the cluttered mess and confusion of whatever I may face.
As I have said many times, red for me is symbolic of the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life and God’s love for me. In the beginning stages of learning about God’s Word, I constantly heard this one verse over and over. It became so visible and audible that I even saw it framed in gold leafed lettering, and it now hangs on the kitchen soffit above my sink for everyone to see. It says, “I know the plans I have for you says the LORD…. to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11.
This new venture into blogging is God’s plan for me, and He has used my daughter Lauren, to get me to realize it. I have agreed to do it because I have learned that God’s plans are far greater than mine. There is peace in doing life God’s way rather than my way.
Prior to getting the cancer diagnosis of Waldenstrom’s, my friend Julie would call me up and say, “Do red birds mean anything to you? Whenever I pray for you and your health I see red birds.” I replied, “No, they mean nothing right now, but maybe down the road they will.” And that was it; our conversation about red birds was over, or so I thought.
The Bible is filled with symbolism, but our focus is never to be solely on the symbolism, which is a very prominent theme in New Age thinking. Our focus is to be on God who is the Creator of all creation. God uses symbolism and His creation to speak to us, but so does the enemy, and that is why it is so important to look at these “signs” in relationship to what God’s Word says and what the voice of His Holy Spirit tells us in regards to our experiences.
After my last Rituxan treatment, I was lovingly taken into the home of my friends, Johnny and Lynn. Lynn and I had taken a brisk morning walk on the Loveland bike trail, when I saw what I have never seen before – a red feather in my path. Just seconds before seeing this feather I had this sense in my spirit that I was to continue writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom, even though my treatments had ended. I picked up the feather and I asked Lynn, who is an artist and has a keen eye for color and beauty, “Have you ever seen a red feather on the ground?” She said, “Never, but I am sure it’s the feather of a red bird, a cardinal.” I shared with Lynn what I had been thinking about in continuing to write Red Wednesday’s Wisdom, and how this red feather was an obvious attention getter for me.
Over the past 11 years, God has used feathers to represent a quill for me. When I start seeing them on a regular basis I know that it’s time again to concentrate on writing that class, that curriculum, that book, that article, that BLOG! But this was the first time I had ever seen a red feather!
A few days later, after leaving Lynn’s, I was working at my client’s home. And as is typical in my business, my clients often become close friends. My friend Vicki tells me to stop working at 2:15 PM and says that she wants to take me somewhere. We end up in the salon she likes to go to, and I am clueless as to why we are there. While waiting to see what is to happen, I share my red feather story with Vicki. How she remained straight faced when hearing my story, knowing what she herself was about to do with me, was beyond my comprehension, but she did. As it turned out, her gift and surprise to me was a strand of red feathers to be weaved into my hair!!! All I could do was cry! I was moved by the fact that Vicki knew nothing about my red feather story and I was in awe of how God had neatly arranged all those precious red feathered moments with my friends to take place!
Vicki is a decorator, so naturally she wanted a way to decorate me in red every day of the week! The feathers in my hair were her way of doing this for me. Every time I am asked about the red feathers in my hair, it is an opportunity to share this story and talk about the power of God’s Holy Spirit in transforming me, loving me, and healing me!
A good 6- 8 weeks had gone by since I had that conversation with Julie about the cardinals that she would see when praying for me. Their appearance now had meaning as I thought about them in relationship to the red feathers and God using it all to leading me in writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom.
As I write this post, I am drawn into my kitchen to retrieve the decorative rock that Lynn gave me while I was staying at her home. The inscription says, “My help comes from the Lord” Psalm 121:2. The red feathers will always remind me that my help does come from the Lord and they will also symbolize the plan that God has for me to continue writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom in this blog format. It will be used for God’s purpose and for His glory. I am honored to be His servant and child!
I love being a witness to God’s detailing, timing, and presence in my life. For He is not dead but alive, He is the Resurrected and Living God! It is so awesome to see how He uses all of us to come together as a body to help one another. We can see it when we slow down enough to listen and reflect.
Even the Damask border that my daughter was drawn to as she and I were led to designing this blog, has its own symbolic meaning. As we prayed about this pattern being used as our border, I had to laugh when I went to get my blood drawn one Wednesday and saw that one of the techs was wearing a Damask printed smock! In our research we learned that the Damask pattern actually derived its name from the city of Damascus, which today is the capital city of modern Syria. In Acts 9 we can read the story about Saul, who was on the road to Damascus. While on that road, he had an encounter with Jesus in the Spirit and he was forever transformed. I hope that Red Wednesday’s Wisdom can help Jesus to transform us as He did with Saul, who became known as Paul, and wrote more of the New Testament than any other author.
I pray that Red Wednesday’s Wisdom will help all of us to know, experience, and love God more intimately. May God’s infinite wisdom bless all of us as He continues to show us the plans He has for us that give us a future and a hope, no matter what circumstances we may face!
1 comment:
Sweet Mom, I am SO proud of you and this blog! I have NO DOUBT, you will be blessed through it, and that others, myself included, will be hugely blessed too. I love you so much, you go girl!
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