Walking...

My Daddy has been carving things as long as I can remember.  During our October visit with him, I asked him if he would make me a walking stick.  To my surprise he had finished it by the time we came to celebrate Christmas with him and my sister’s family.  I am thrilled with what he has made, but then I always am.  He does a wonderful job no matter what he makes.  He carved an angel on it for me.  How perfect for me!  

I began my fascination with walking sticks on a mission trip to Costa Rica.  Our team took a “day off” and went to La Paz Butterfly Gardens.  Surely it is very close to what the Garden of Eden looked like in the beginning.  Such beauty filled me with a powerful sense of the presence of the Lord in that place.  While there most of the team members walked to the bottom of the gardens where there were beautiful waterfalls.  My two companions had picked up walking sticks before we left the lodge, but I did not know that they were available at that time, so I trekked off with them without a walking stick.  Little did I know what the Lord had in store for me along the journey.  It was not too long until I knew that I really needed a walking stick to make my feet steady.  I started to pray.  A few minutes later the three of us came to a landing (an infrequent level place on the path down the mountain) and I was amazed and humbled by what I saw there... a walking stick just for me.  I was stunned, overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled as I picked up the walking stick and finished our journey down to the bottom of the falls with the walking stick steadying my steps as I walked on.  There was absolutely no doubt in my mind and in my spirit that the Lord had once again provided my need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.  Absolutely NO doubts.  It still humbles me as I write about my experience.  All I could do that day was thank Him for His perfect provision.  

I love my new walking stick for it symbolizes my daily walk with the Lord.  Every time I see it I think about His faithfulness to me.  That leads me to a desire to follow Him in obedience wherever He leads me.  As 2011 begins that is my “resolution”... to draw closer to Him day by day and go where He leads me.  My new walking stick is a constant reminder of that “resolution”.  May I strive to follow Him moment by moment by His grace as He leads me forward.  I pray that you too will seek Him more and walk with Him

wherever He leads you.  

Have a wonderful Christ-centered 2011.  I can’t wait to see all that He has in store for me and you this year.  

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

Jeremiah 29:11

“... We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”

 2 Chronicles 20:12