GO LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!

When Steve and I lived in Nashville, we attended a small church plant in the Old Hickory area. Although I had been a Christian for many years, it was here, under the pastoral care of Larry Ferris and his wife Lisa, that the gospel was first given shoe leather.

Eighteen years later, I still think of Lisa asking me, on several occasions, "What are the practical implications of the gospel in this situation?" These two, whom I affectionately think of as my Mother and Father in the faith, were active, aggressive, and deliberate about translating what they believed into what they did, in every area of life.

Larry had a gift for making abstract concepts suddenly clear and relevant. This particular illustration still comes to my mind often, and always brings with it a thrill of excitement....

You remember how when you were a kid, and the evening weather forecast predicted snow? You hoped against all hope that it would snow all night and that school would be cancelled the next day. You went to bed anxious with anticipation. Your ears strained for the faintest sound that would indicate that he coveted snow had finally arrived.

You sneaked out of bed, peeped out the window...nothing.

Finally, exhausted and fearing that morning would bring only disappointment, you dozed fitfully off to sleep. You slept, and slept, and slept, until...

The next morning, Mom came into your room, same as she always did, to wake you up so that you could begin getting ready for school. Only this morning, as she shook you gently from your sleep, she did not say, "Wake up. Time to get ready for school." Mom simply whispered, "Go look out the window!"

"Go look out the window!" Those words triggered such a spasm of joy and delight!

Dear Reader, after a long and fitful night, God, in Christ, has whispered to us, "Go look out the window!"

(My time today is dedicated to working on a book proposal. However, I did not want to go another day without checking in here at the blog. I woke up to snow this morning, so it seemed appropriate to re-share this post from January 29, 2010. Have I really been at this blogging thing for seven years?!)