Seeing is Believing...

My oldest sister is a teacher for the visually impaired. She’s told me many stories of how blind children learn to compensate with all their other senses. If I had to choose only one sense to help me learn, it would be sight. For me, seeing is believing.

One day last year, I was on the Narrows Bridge on a foggy day. I lived on a Peninsula, and the only way to get across Puget Sound to the city was to cross the suspension bridge. Some days the fog would roll in and I couldn’t see the end of the bridge or the land on the other side. I had to TRUST that it was there, and keep on driving. I thought this was a good example of what faith is like.

As I drove across the bridge I sort of held my breath, gripped the steering wheel, and tried to look straight ahead rather than looking beside or behind me. This was especially true on windy days.

We can't always SEE evidence, yet we KNOW God is working in our lives.

At the moment, my daughter and I are in the middle of a “bridge” and it feels windy AND foggy. We have left our safe "harbor" and are on our way to a year that will be filled with new people and new experiences. We are trying to look forward and not be distracted by memories and disappointments. I’ve been gripping my devotional tightly and holding my breath a lot.

School hasn’t started so we haven’t had opportunities to make friends in our new town. Today was get your schedule, books and locker day and all we could think about was how fun it was with friends last year. Today was so different… We had to PAY A LOT for books; there weren’t any friends to compare schedules with, and then the “kicker”. They ran out of lockers and asked if she could share with a friend. “Well,” I said, “that would be very unlikely since we were brand new in town and didn’t HAVE any friends yet!” I think the secretary heard the Mama Lion in my voice coming through loud and clear.

To top off the FOGGY feeling, my daughter has learned first-hand that sports in this town are a bit more competitive than at her old school, and she was cut from the team she had assumed she would make. I suppose we should never assume, but just always do our best. The one thing we CAN cling to is Hebrew 13:5, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." God is right here with us.

He did, after all, provide Jesus as our bridge into a relationship with Him.

Our summer is winding down, and the days have been filled with sunshine. Despite the sun, our hearts are feeling stormy. We are thankful for each other and wise, encouraging friends who are cheering us on. We are both going to keep moving forward, and hopefully in just a few weeks we’ll make it to the other “side” and be able to breathe.

Trying to Trust,
xo Jane