Sometimes I feel rocked by the events of life. And yet daily, I am rocked in the arms of our Savior. Despite it all, as a believer in Jesus, I am always anchored to the cross. Rocked and Anchored is my place to sort through all that this means....in marriage, motherhood, homeschooling, friendships, LIFE. It isn’t always pretty, often messy, and always beautiful in its time (Eccl 3:11).
*Blog previously titled "Righteous Spunk"; new season, new title, same GOD*
This picture....my four chicks in IKEA. My four chicks all walking through IKEA. As I watched the baby walk to catch up with her sisters I was struck with such awe of all that God has done.
Yes, the other IKEA shoppers saw a mom with four kinda crazy kids playing pretend in all the rooms. But that mom saw miracles, emotions, healing, and victory. It wasn't that long ago that taking four kiddos to the winding, labyrinth of IKEA would have been too much. And having no one strapped into anything would have sent my anxiety over the edge.
But on this day, our IKEA adventure was a sign of the healing God has done. Oh, there is still more work to do but so much has been done.
I have a note in my bible next to Isaiah 40:30-31. The passage reads:
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up on the wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
The note I have written next to it says We aren't always called to soar--sometimes JUST walk! I have pretty high standards for myself and I really want to soar everyday!! Which I can't do on my own. But the really pivotal point in these verses above is that even when I wait on the Lord, sometimes he has me walk while ensuring I don't faint. It's saying that no matter the season, God is working.
I love the part when Inigo Montoya tells Vizzini "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Almost everything Vizzini says is inconceivable is actually very conceivable and often logical. Herein lies the comedy of it throughout the movie. He uses it to describe ideas that simply hadn't occurred to him (in his, arguably, less than average intellect). Inigo's line is what movie watchers are yelling at the screen the whole movie.
For the past few years, I have had the privilege of working on Storytime for Preschool VBS at our church. This year, we are focusing on creation and the word "inconceivable" keeps echoing in my mind each time I learn something new (and yes, most of the time, I hear it in Vizzini's voice)! It has been such fun diving into all the beautiful ways God created each and every thing on this earth. His infinite wisdom, knowledge, and provision has taken on a whole new meaning to me!
Did you know....
Morpho butterflies, primarily found in Central and South America, can have a wingspan of about 8 inches. That's right, if one landed on a piece of paper, its wings would extend almost the full width.
Have you seen pictures of those super cute and brightly colored frogs in tropical climates!? Generally speaking, the more brightly colored one is, the more poisonous they are. Almost like warning lights to protect them from being eaten.
The deepest part of the ocean that has been explored is the Mariana Trench (located in the Pacific Ocean). It is a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall. While I'm not likely to attempt to climb Mount Everest, I can appreciate its magnitude. And to think it would be masked completely by the sea is, well, inconceivable.
There are rocks in both Pennsylvania and Montana that make a ringing sound when hit with a hammer?! The rocks around my house definitely do not make a sound even close to ringing. But Luke 19:40 tells us that stones will cry out so it doesn't seem that far fetched, right!?
If you have the privilege of visiting Hawaii, you will find Rainbow Eucalyptus trees (google them, trust me). The bark on these trees looks like it has been colored with crayons! Honestly, if I hadn't seen them in person, I wouldn't have believed the pictures.
Did you know that a blue whale, the largest animal created, survives on a diet of krill. A single krill is the size of a paperclip. Nope, not a typo; a paperclip. The largest animal ever created eats approximately 8,000 pounds of paperclips....ahem, krill a day. And God designed it so that there would be plenty of krill to sustain them, as well as countless other sea creatures.
See, these things seem inconceivable to me because I cannot fully wrap my human brain around everything being so wonderfully and perfectly created and designed. But that is the thing: God is inconceivable. So many things in this world seem impossible, but scripture says that nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 19:26). Learning these facts leaves me in awe and yet, I will never be able to fully understand the reasons God made each creation the way He did. From trees to flowers, from reptiles to mammals, from stars to the Mariana Trench. These are things that exist to reflect God's glory and point us back to Him.
I can't fully understand all that God does, but I can understand that being inconceivable is inherent in his character. Does that make it inconceivably conceivable? hmmm.... I'll let Inigo and Vizzini hash that argument out and I'll stand in awe of all that God did in creation and all that he continues to do daily through that creation to point my heart back to him!
I'll leave you with this fantastic video clip from Louis Giglio. Y'all. Really. This is worth the 8 minutes of your day. Whales and stars, y'all. Whales and stars. Inconceivable.
