Sabbath is a day that I think about almost every day of the week. I count the days of the week by thinking about Sabbath to come. On Sunday, it is a whole week away and I have time for projects. I think about the past Sabbath day at the beginning of the week. On Monday, I start to think about things that will be in the church newsletter and start making a list or highlighting them in my email. On Tuesday I remember things that have been put on my prayer list and that there are only 3 days left before Sabbath!! On Wednesday, I think--I only have today left to finish my weekly to-do list. And Thursday always gets reserved for church bulletin and newsletter things. Friday is always my Get ready for Sabbath day. Sometimes I don't have my "Seeing God Thoughts" ideas early in the week and I begin to wonder if there will be "Seeing God Thoughts!" But this week, early Sunday morning I knew what God had given me to write about. There was no doubt in my mind. I had seen God's hand last Sabbath and during the week!
Once a month we spend a Sabbath away from our Hawkeye church home and travel on Sabbath morning to go to participate in worship with a sister church. We always look forward to this one Sabbath of the month. We get to see our friends and catch up on their joys and needs and sad times. We get to share Sabbath hugs and blessings. Sharing a fellowship meal is always good--and there is always a tasty "pickle bowl" to depend on. We get to travel in all kinds of weather and generally are blessed with good travel. This we thank God.
Last Sabbath we left our house early enough to get to this sister church on time. Walking out of our door, we immediately realized that we probably should have started sooner than we did. It was a frosty beautiful Sabbath morning. You just wanted to stand in awe and take in how beautiful God had made His Sabbath day! A Gorgeous Sabbath!! I wished I had observed how beautiful it was earlier than just before time to leave. One of the problems of a beautiful frosty morning is that it is not just on the trees and plants and clothes line wires, etc.--it is also on the windshield of the car. And that means you have to scrape the beautiful frosty crystals off to allow you to travel safely. Yup! We should have left the house earlier than we did!!
There is a verse in Psalms that says, "God spreads snow like it was wool; God scatters frost like it was ashes." That verse was one of my mother's favorites. The Clear Word says, "He covers the earth with snow like a white wool blanket. He sprinkles nature with frost like ornaments of silver." Don't you just love that picture?
The frost was just the beginning of my Sabbath blessings. We arrived safely at the church still in awe of the beautiful Sabbath morning. Then as we walked in the door, a special God sent helper greeted me and took my contribution to lunch from me and saved me a trip down the basement stairs and my painful hip was so happy!! Later, a young man gave us Sabbath meditations as he played the piano by ear with no sheet music. Maybe someday God will bless me with a new talent like that when I get to heaven! As the church service ended, I could stand up and then I was able to see that there were the "always there" people and I was glad to see them. There were also some "hardly ever there" people and we were thankful to see them too on this Sabbath.
After everyone had a chance to say Happy Sabbath to each other, then it was time for lunch. Again, willing God helpers had worked to make lunch ready for us to eat and enjoy! I am so thankful that there are people everywhere who see a need and are ready to step up and do what their hands find to do. They work quietly but God notices!!!! And I did too! Lots of hands of preparation made it possible for us to have a wonderful Sabbath lunch. I like the Bible verse in Ecclesiastes that says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might......"
When we travel to church on Sabbath morning, we always travel the same road to get there. We have a mission--get to church on time and be ready to meet with God in His house. But when church is over and everyone has said their goodbyes, then it is time to turn around and head back towards our home. Sometimes we have to go directly home to meet an appointment. Other times we don't have to go so directly. We can explore, we can travel east before we travel south--take the long way home! Other times we point the car towards home but just follow our noses. There are many different ways to get back to our home. And that makes each trip different and a trip of discovery. This time we traveled on some roads that we hadn't been on before. I think my love of this kind of travel was given to me by my father. He was good at doing the same thing and I learned to love finding out what was around the next turn or what was "on the other side of the mountain." I grew up sometimes singing the song "The Bear went over the mountain, … to see what he could see!" And we sang it in honor of my father! This reminds me that we each are on the way to heaven. But we each are traveling our own unique way to get there. This doesn't make my way right and your way wrong. God gives us our own choice of how we get to heaven. He just reminds us that the broad heavily traveled way is not a good way. We need to be on the narrow, less traveled road. But the turns I make will not be the turns you make. I pray that in the end we will all arrive at our destination--of our Heavenly Home!
Along the way home, we were blessed with some things that God placed before us! I enjoy traveling in winter! The snow cover lets me observe what passed by during the night. Traveling in summer is harder to spot animal tracks and trails. But when the ground is white, I am always amazed at the number of animal trails that I can see in some areas and in other areas, there are no animal tracks at all! I always wonder what made each track and trail.
Last Sabbath, we saw 3 eagle nests. One of them we check on regularly. This year it seems to have greatly increased in size and we decided it is nearly twice as tall as it has been in the past. God has given our animal friends great skills for building and hunting and fishing. We also got to see 3 different eagles. Seeing them is always special. I remember a time when there were no eagles to see. Now it can be a regular sighting and I am thankful for this. At another turn on the way home, we discovered a flock of about 35 turkeys. Of course, we had to stop to watch them. But they also saw us stop and, being the cautious birds they are, they started to move away. I long for the day that animals will not be afraid of us.
Can you tell I had a wonderful Sabbath?
But it just makes me think--How much better Sabbath in our Heaven Home will be!!
