Life can be beautiful in God’s light … In the Garden

^“42 When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual.

⁴³ When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it.

⁴⁴ They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances.

⁴⁵ When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.

⁴⁶ It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions;

⁴⁷ and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies.

⁴⁸ They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’

⁴⁹ He replied, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’

⁵⁰ But they did not understand what he meant.” ^{Luke 2: 42-50 (New Jerusalem Bible)}

… and neither did I.

For the longest time I have pondered and wondered at this action that Jesus took. Yes, he would be expected to want to share with others who know much about God, His Father in Heaven.  But … why could he not have told his parents that he would be staying behind?  Why did he not care enough to let them know so that they would not be worried? How could he be so insensitive?  Was he being a typical teenager?  Could he have been simply beginning to express his teenage need or desire for independence? Yet, he was expected to be wiser and more considerate than this surely?

Of all the issues surrounding his disappearance, the worry he caused his parents concerned me the most… especially with the knowledge of how they had to run away in the night to a different country in order to save his life when he was born!

… so there has been this missing link in my understanding of this reading until today.   Eureka indeed.  The Holy Spirit of God spoke and I finally heard.

Luke – 2:49 “ … Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Jesus’ parents Mary and Joseph were worried.  Today I learned that the 3 days of searching for him were symbolic of the three days it would take for Jesus to rise from the dead many years later.  But more importantly for me, I finally understood that the entire episode culminating in the words in Luke 2: 49 as always was not just a lesson for his parents Mary and Joseph, but for us all.  It is a profound message and lesson.

 Mary and Joseph had no reason to be worried … because so long as Jesus was in His Father’s house he was safe.  Simple… Jesus was safe because he was in his Father’s house, in his Father’s hands, in his Father’s protective care .. in fact, not just while he was in the Temple. It was not yet his time. He knew it, he was confident about it, and he wanted his parents on earth to begin to be confident about it. Nothing would happen to him before the time laid out for him to suffer and die for the sake of mankind. Everything was in God’s hands… there was no need for them to worry. That was his message and lesson for them.

… and that was his message for us… so long as we are in God’s hands, walking in His light, doing His will and obeying Him, nothing will happen that is not allowed by God in God’s time.  Challenges will come (not may, but will), but by being close to God, and open to His counsel, guidance, wisdom and grace, every challenge will be understood and may even be an important lesson in the journey of life towards God’s heavenly kingdom.  Every challenge will be overcome and be easier to address than we ever thought possible.

It is truly that simple… so long as we too are in our Father’s (God’s) house we are safe.  The key is to obey God and do all we do according to His commandments and will… as Jesus was doing… sharing his understanding and knowledge with the well educated in the faith to their astonishment considering his tender age.. he was beginning to show the world who he was, and he was starting early enough to make it clear even to the skeptics that he was different… even as he taught his parents and us all, this profound message of the safety of being in His Father’s house:

That by being in God’s presence in our lives, the struggle, the pain, the challenges, will be easier to bear, easier to address until peace good health in mind, body, spirit and soul come back to us once again. By putting ourselves consciously in God’s hands we actually give Him room to take care of us and keep us safe. It is our choice… to try and do it ourselves and be consumed by worry about all manner of things… or to live in God’s presence and let His Holy Spirit guide us safely through it.

This is my missing link finally found.  Do you have a missing link?  Do you want to find it? Share it with us… send us a comment in the Garden.

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Life Can Be Beautiful in Gods Bright Light … in the Garden

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.

Reacting to the pain … in the Garden

The bear was walking through the woods in one of those places in the Garden where the people live in a fridge most of the time, and call ice from the sky ‘snow’. The bear did not know that some human beings had installed a foot trap somewhere along the route that he was using. Suddenly, the bear felt a sharp pain and found that he could not move one leg easily.  He panicked. Not knowing what had happened or how to help himself, the bear tore at the trap and eventually broke his foot free.

The pain was unbearable.  The poor bear ran for his life, believing that by running as fast as he could away from the place where he first felt the pain, he would be running away from the pain.  We all know what that meant… more pain, following him all the way, extensive blood loss … and a certain death if no one came to his rescue.

The story was in a book I read at a library as a child, and even though I cannot even faintly recall the rest of the story, the bear’s reaction to pain has remained with me, leading me to ask myself whether in fact I may at times be doing exactly the same.

How many times have I encountered a challenge and chosen to run away … leave the job … break the relationship … maybe even leave town? How many times have I found a project really tough and decided it was not worth it to continue? .. maybe not the projects… with projects I know I am like a dog to a bone, and won’t let go until is all finished and finished successfully… maybe I should be thanking God for that 🙂

But… going back to my storybook, even if the damage to the bear’s leg was not so great as to cause death through blood loss, the infection to the wound would certainly kill him in due course.  Yes, if the trappers had found the bear in the trap, they may also have killed him.  Yet, maybe the trap was not for him?

So I ask myself now… when we experience pain and run from it all the while blaming others around us, blaming fate or blaming God; are we not then doing the same thing?  Do we then not also face certain death … of zest for life… of our purpose in life … of our spirits? Can anyone live at all with a broken spirit?  Or will they just exist, half here and half on the way out of life.

Should the bear survive the experience, he should certainly learn from it and not walk around the same area any more, or at least be more observant and careful when walking about in the woods.  But maybe roaring for help may have brought others (even helpful humans) to his aid. 

So maybe, seeking help to overcome the challenge rather than running away from it … maybe getting others involved in the challenge will bring us to a place of healing that allows the experience to strengthen us, rather than break us … to a place of success, rather than failure … to a place of faith and hope rather than fear?

Running away? … in the Garden

It is your choice to make.  Are you experiencing pain?  What are you doing about it? Have you cried out to God for help?  Then what else are you doing about it? From my experience, God answers through your prayer and your positive action to try and overcome the challenge. You are certainly not likely to hear His voice from above saying: ‘Go ye now and do …’

How are you going to react to the pain in your life today?

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Copyright © 2012, Ophelia Swai. All Rights Reserved.

Like an Ostrich … in the Garden

It was another busy day, and I was on my way to a campsite where I had to restore communications in a hurry.  The way to the campsite was filled with wildlife as usual, but one member of the bird species was particularly fascinating as always.  As I drove along the winding dirt road, I saw an Ostrich about 200m ahead of me to my right.  

Driving onward at a dutiful 40km per hour (yes….40…), the road wound towards the Ostrich briefly and then away.  I was nowhere near where the Ostrich was, and would not in any way get anywhere near it. But only I knew that.  Only I, had the knowledge and vision to see that the road would turn away from the Ostrich completely and we would never meet.

But to the Ostrich, the vehicle signified a source of danger that was greater than it could understand … so it ran.  It ran faster than life itself straight towards the vehicle but at an angle such that it would have crossed the road ahead of me … had I been stationery … and would hopefully get away to safety… even though it was already safe.

Running like an Ostrich … in the Garden

However, I was not stationery and try as it might, the Ostrich was never going to get ahead of the vehicle if I kept driving since the road was winding away from the Ostrich as well.  I stopped, thinking how foolish this bird was to think that the best way to overcome a challenge was to cut across it’s path at top speed without understanding that challenge in the least bit.

Yet, how many times do we do that very same thing in our lives?

“Eeek! Not me!”, You might be thinking.

Hmmm… how about that conflict with the one(s) we love that we try to overcome by getting the upper hand in the conflict… instead of stopping to understand the source of the problem and then addressing it calmly… and end up exacerbating the problem… or even creating one where there was none…

…and that competitor whom we try to beat by reducing our prices without first understanding the real reason why our customers are moving to the competitor instead of staying with us…

… and that teenager or staff member we reprimand without first understanding what drove them to make the mistake in the first place…maybe it was not even a mistake, but the right thing to do under the circumstances…. maybe? Maybe there was no problem after all?

Hmmm… maybe a little prayer to God will help… to ask that He open our eyes to see the road more clearly, and to grant us His wisdom and guidance to address the challenges we face correctly.

Yes, I am sure it is better to walk with God in the Garden… than to run like an Ostrich every time I hear something come along that looks like a problem… straight into the… or a … problem.

Do pray with me for God’s wisdom, and …

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.