Divine Director

I love getting up in the morning and never knowing what surprises the Lord has in store for me that day!! I find it so unbelievably amazing that the God of all the Universe and beyond is interested in walking with me and directing my day.

I love the verse that says, “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.” (Prov. 16:9)

I learned a long time ago that not insisting on having things my way but rather letting God direct my steps is really a very selfish way to live my life!! Because I always end up with far more than I would ever have if God did what I thought was best!
So I often pray, “Lord, I give you veto power over my requests and my desires…. I want Your will , not mine!”

And so even though I make plans…I am often surprised by God’s hand turning my day in a direction I could never have planned nor foreseen!

Like today!

Vic and I often pray at the beginning of the day for the Lord to guide us and direct the people into our day that He wants us to connect with.
It was our prayer this morning.

When we sat down in church this morning my attention was almost immediately drawn to an adorable little girl sitting across the aisle and a couple of rows ahead of us. I watched the interaction between her and her mother and my heart was warmed by the obvious mother/child love between them. The father sat with them and his face too expressed the love he felt for his wife and child.
I had never seen them before.
Watching them, I remembered when my granddaughters were still little and would sit with me in church, their little arms around my neck...and I missed that time!

Some time into the service when we were singing the last worship song, I glanced over where the little girl was sitting and saw her dark eyes were riveted on my face. Her eyes were deep with intensity and I smiled at her. She did not smile back but continued to stare.
Her mother turned to see who her daughter was looking at so intently.
Then, the little girl slipped off her mother’s lap and walked across the aisle toward me and lifted up her little arms to be lifted onto my lap.
I’m not embarrassed to admit I do not remember too much of the rest of the service...she sat with me until church was over, running back to her mother a few times to get a kleenex or a bag of snacking cereal but always came back to sit with me.
She sat quietly and remembered to whisper!

After the service her parents came to collect their child.
We introduced ourselves and the mother expressed her surprise at her daughter’s behaviour. The little girl kept touching me on the shoulder and telling her parents she wanted to come to my house!
The mother laughingly told her to ask what we were doing for lunch.
We decided to all go out for lunch together! What a good time we had!

It turned out that Marie, the mother, was born in the Ukraine not far from where Vic was born. Chad, the father was born in the same city I was born in.
They are each involved in world ministries and we became so engrossed in each other’s stories that when the waitress came for our orders we had forgotten to open the menus.
Though they are a young couple and we are grandparents we connected on so many levels – and spent a very enjoyable time together.
Even when we parted, Tatiana, the little 2 ½ year old girl – who speaks both Ukrainian and English fluently – was crying and holding out her arms insisting she wanted to come to our house!!
We agreed that our meeting was ordained of God…… “A little child shall lead them!”

It was a joy-filled, Sunday-gift that I am very thankful to the Lord for!

(see part two of my Sunday below)