Chapter
32

God was always doing things like that for us. We would call them God winks. At different times when we needed anything from a hug or a nudge from God, He would give us a thing like that star. Sometimes it was a lizard coming out of nowhere. Sometimes it was the song, “I Love You, Lord,” being sung when we didn’t expect it. There was one event where I remember that I could always count on a God wink. Each year when I would put the Christmas tree up on the roof, there would always be something that I would clearly see as a miracle. The first year I remember a major struggle getting the tree up on the roof. However, when it was done, I looked back at the tree from a distant part of the roof. It was beautiful, and I was sure that Jackson would have been pleased. Then I felt something on my right thumb. I looked down and there was a ladybug which had landed gently on my hand. Jackson loved ladybugs. I lifted my hand to bring the ladybug up to my face to view. Then I noticed another one landing on my forearm. Then another, and another, and another. Pretty soon I was covered in ladybugs. There must have been more than a thousand ladybugs covering me and flying on the roof of the house. It’s hard to simply call that a God wink. It was more like a God Bear Hug.

 

Each year that I put that tree up on that roof various God winks would happen. They didn’t always hit me like a thousand ladybugs, but they were always there. However, one year after coming down from the roof, I had to tell Elna that I had not seen a God wink that time. I thought that perhaps God was bringing me to a new season of faith where He wanted me to simply trust Him even when I wasn’t covered in ladybugs. Days went by and then an exceedingly rare thing happened in Covington. It snowed. The house and yard looked beautiful. That night we were very excited to see how the tree on the roof would look all lit up. We were confident that it would be awesome. We thought this had to be the God wink. However, when we went out to look at the tree with its thousands of white lights, I was sad, shocked, and disappointed to see that not one light was on. It was completely dark. Its darkness seemed as dark as a black hole. It seemed to be a complete let down. We went back inside the house that night. I was actually grieving the loss of a brightly lit Christmas tree. At one point God had allowed me to be covered with ladybugs. Now it seemed that there was emptiness in the darkness.

 

The next morning, the snow had left the yard. The beauty of a once in every ten years snow had melted off the grass and plants around the house. I decided to go on the roof and replace the lights on the tree so that they would again be lit. When I got to the top of the roof and the base of the Christmas Tree, I stood in awe. There had been a small fire at the base of the tree. The electrical extension cord that I used to connect to the tree had somehow had its wires exposed. I don’t know if a squirrel or other animal had done it, but it had caused an actual fire. The fire had charred a small part of the roof structure and the base of the Christmas tree had been scorched. All of this was now covered in ice and a pocket of remaining snow. The picture of what happened was clear to me. A fire with the capability of burning the entire house down with us in it had been on the roof of the house. However, God, The Lord Almighty, had sent snow to cover and extinguish the fire. God had never and would never leave my side. Whether covered in ladybugs or protected from fire, God’s love for me is never ending. That love is not dependent on me seeing it nor me understanding how He chooses to express it.

 

God was revealing so much to me. Just like in our salvation, if no one else would have benefited from Jesus’ sacrifice, he would have gone to the cross for only me. He would have paid the price for only my sins if I were the only one that it would have benefited. The same God that could bring down snow to put out a fire, at one time made the sun stand still in the sky at the request of Joshua.

 

Joshua 10 NIV

12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

 

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,

    and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

13 So the sun stood still,

    and the moon stopped,

    till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

 

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

 

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

 

 

 

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 

 

 

Romans 8 NIV

24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

 

Matthew 6:25-34 New International Version

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

 

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.