Faithfulness ~ A Reoccurring Theme. . .The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
It was a surreal experience, not a everyday occurrence in my life, but one so strong that I will tell it for years to come. Standing there on the asphalt looking over the grassy hill with playground equipment and towering shade trees, it was as if He made the sun shine just for us, just for Grace Park's 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt for the City of Spring Hill. Although the crowd before me was massive and the speakers were blaring some random song like "The Chicken Dance", I didn't hear a thing. It was just one more fulfillment of 1 Thes. 5:24. I vaguely remember Jason and our Director of Missions on either side of me talking about the incredibleness of what we were witnessing, but it was as if I was watching from far away. And, for just a moment, a brief moment in the middle of 5 hours that I actually remember stopping to take it all in. Quickly, I was brought back to reality with a need to pull bags of overflowing recycled eggs! And, just as soon as the day had begun it was over. There we were at Sonic eating my homemade birthday cake with our fingers. (Thanks, Glenda, for remembering me on that day).
And, here we are again. This time we're three days and about 6 hours away from Grace Park's 3rd Annual Easter Egg Hunt for the city of Spring Hill! My lists of to dos are literally several pages long (and, why I'm writing this at 1 morning when I should be checking items off my list I do not know). I just cannot help but tell the story! As Mandy has been posting with our prayer requests recently, we have needed and have felt your prayers. (Even as little as 24 hours ago many of our church family were awake most of the night with a heavy prayer burden that the Lord is continuing to answer.) Last year the hunt of over 20,000 eggs stuffed with prizes, candy, and gift cards along with multiple prizes including 3 bikes, 1,000 bottles of water, need I go on. . .only cost our church around $100. To get the bigness of God, you have to remember that our church averages 100 in our Sunday worship gatherings.
The brief (and I mean very brief) overview of this year's hunt looks some like 23,000 eggs stuffed with everything from candy to balloons to free ice cream cones to $5 gift cards for Outback, multiple big prizes including 3 bikes and many gift cards, three inflatable bounce houses, one inflatable slide, another 1,000 bottles of water, 10 gallons of Starbucks, several carnival games with prizes, an Easter bunny, and about 50 volunteers (so far) at a cost of about $500. That has 1 Thes. 5:24 written all over it! It's all about His faithfulness. And, I don't mean to solely focus on the physical earthly aspects of it all.
Once again, He walks with me hour by hour and literally says "Trust me, I've got this under control." When I start counting eggs, He says "remember the story of David - there's no need to number the men". When I'm tempted to check the 5 day forecast, He says "remember the rain that encircled the neighborhood party and the sun that shone down on you the entire evening?" When I start
panicking that people won't come, He says "Do you think I would have provided all of this to leave you standing in the park with a small crowd? Who's name is on the line here anyway?" And, when I worry that the meaning of Easter will be lost in the midst of eggs, He says, "Come, read my Word, sit with me today."
So, Lord, here I am celebrating your faithfulness once again! And, here I am trusting and thanking you that the sun will shine on Saturday, the creek bed will be dry, the balloons will soar, the kids will jump safely in the bounce houses, families will smile, cars will get parked without to much backup, the eggs will say "Jesus love you, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you" each time a child picks one up, and that even more miraculous parts of this story are still being written. Until then. . .1
Thes. 5:24!
(Thanks, Mandy, for getting this blog going for us!)
