No Sniveling!

It is time to move forward.  I woke this morning from a dream about a paisley Nehru jacket, a green velvet dress and the woman who helped me make them, my step-mother, Ruth.  In that dream I had stopped to visit her, went to my work, then on to lunch and decided to run back. I have moved past grief, to gratitude, and now on to gratefulness.  But the Lord had more in store for me on this day.

It was time to take a visit to the cemetery this morning, to see if they had put down my dad’s headstone.  I woke way beyond early, made coffee, debated on whether to go or not, and then put my hair up in a ponytail and headed off to the cemetery with coffee in hand. 

It is a beautiful clear morning, but hot already, and I decided I had made a good choice to go before the traffic started.  As is with Him, there were other plans for this trip.  I put on my favorite Christian radio station, and was just grooving along with the music.  Arriving at the cemetery, I inched my way past the new graves that have been filled since my dad passed just 2 months ago.  When I finally got to Dad’s, my suspicions were confirmed that the cemetery has yet to put down a headstone.  I stood there a minute in the morning quiet.  Another confirmation. Yep, Dad is not there.  He has moved on to other realms.  It was a comfort to know this. 

 Since there is no one there to visit, I decided to take my coffee and take the long way home.  I turned the radio back on, and the song, “I will rise” by Shawn McDonald came on.  This song had brought me to tears many times during the years of watching my dad suffer in his pain and confinement.  This time I did not cry (well, just a little), but got that smile that says, “I get it God!”   Suddenly, I was alert. My ears were on and tuned.

As I drove along, I passed a car at an intersection with a sign across the front that said, “NO SNIVELING.” I chuckled at that, until, not 50 feet from there, I passed a woman in a wheelchair struggling to get on down the road.  Then I passed an elderly gentleman, clearly homeless, struggling along with his walking stick.  Then an accident with a motorcyclist.  Then an elderly man walking along picking up trash along the road. 

I GET IT, LORD!

I have little to snivel about.  I am blessed every day, with a job, with family, with friends.  I am not attempting to wheel myself down a cobbled up street in a wheel chair.  I am traveling in a nice black car with leather seats.  I am not homeless, I am on my way to my comfy apartment.  I am not relegated to picking up trash, I have a job.  But I have so much more. 

I have a God who loves me, who knows that most days I am not paying attention to the spiritual realm I live in, and some days am just plain stupid. Here is the greatest blessing of all.  He loves me anyway!   He talks to me even though most of the time I am not listening.  Then is when he posts signs clearly that say things like STOP SNIVELING!

I hope you are blessed today to hear His voice!