Seeds and blooms

The Shepherd:
“It will take you some time to develop hinds’ feet and to climb to the High Places, and if I put the seed in your heart now it will be ready to bloom by the time you get there.”

Much-Afraid shrank back. “I am afraid,” she said.
     ~ HANNAH HURNARD, Hinds’ Feet on High Places

What seed is God planting in your heart now?
What seed has he planted months, years ago, that is ready to bloom?

Jeff asked me the night before our trip to El Salvador, “What are your top fears about this trip?”

I answered that # 1 was health. I feared one of us getting sick just three weeks before Morgan’s wedding. We had no time for such.

And # 2 was for Jenna. As the official trip photographer, she would be the one exposed with an expensive-looking camera, making her a target for crime, something we heard abounded in El Salvador.

So even as I read the Chief Shepherd in Hinds’ Feet on High Places inviting me to the High Places too, my family of Fearlings followed.

But what would it look like for me to turn my back on fear and follow the voice of Jesus instead?

Maybe this: sitting on a bus at 3 a.m. on the outskirts of a rainy San Salvador airport—with no turning back—for a week in Central America.

It was the blooming of seed he had planted earlier in my heart.
It was time.

But did my worries also bloom true?
No, thank God.

Instead, His gifts of grace abounded:

~ an abundance of bottled water for our team wherever we traveled (# 289)

~ packaged “safe” cookies and juice boxes every day for the kids and us workers at VBS (# 290)

~ a canopy for where we worked under equatorial sunshine, voluntarily set up by church members employed by the local municipality (# 291)

~ security guards at the public parks posted especially for our VBS crew (# 292)

~ daily showers at the hotel that weren’t always warm, but were always cleansing (# 293)

~ food (pupusas!) that was native to El Salvador, but that never bothered my stomach (# 294)
~ enough sleep each night to sustain me through the next day, even with late-night devos of power-packed but brief messages (thanks, David!) (# 295)

~ enough Spanish words each day to create meaningful friendships in the moment and to extend beyond the trip (thanks, Google Translate and Facebook!) (# 296)

~ superb planning and leadership by Hector Cortez for our group (# 297)

~ incredible support and love from our Christian family in El Refugio and Ciudad Real (# 298)

God doesn’t plant seed unnecessarily. 

Nurture the seed he’s planted and let it grow, even if weeds continue to grow alongside. Trust him with the results. He knows what he’s doing.

I’m glad he planted the seed in my heart to go to El Salvador,
even when I was afraid.

His seed is stronger than fear.
Let it bloom.

* * *

1000 gifts...the count continues

What seed is he planting and watering in your heart?
Where are you ready to bloom?

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