That's Just Like God

I told you back on the 15th, when I introduced my new SSMT verse, that I had a story about this one. It was too long to put with the verse, so I saved it for today...and you'll soon see why.

A week ago Monday, right at the end of the work day, I spent a couple of minutes talking to my friend and fellow writer, Llita. (She is also a contributing blogger at The Intentional Journey.) We caught up on our current writing agendas, and as we ended our conversation, she wished me a good evening and said "I hope God knocks your socks off tonight."

It made me smile. I always hope for that too.

I spent the evening doing chores around the house, and I also took a pretty good chunk of time to work on my current writing project. It's a Bible study and that particular night, I needed to spend some time researching in the book of Hosea.

So I hunkered down in the office and pulled out all my study Bibles to read the notes on the chapters of focus. One of the Bibles I pulled out also had some notes I'd written in there a few years ago, and I thought I might want to revisit what I'd learned back then, so I set that Bible aside to look at later in the evening.

I finished all my chores and worked out (that's code for I was sweating like a pig) and then I crawled in bed with my journal and that old study Bible, so I could copy over the notes.

The verses were Hosea 2:14-15, which are the verses I'm memorizing this half of the month. And over in the margin, I'd written "4/22/07 - vv. 14-20 - prior to my first spiritual retreat."

And it hit me.

4.22

Last year, on 4.22, Isaac called to tell me God had called him into a wilderness. That was the beginning of the end of our relationship, and a story you so patiently read months ago. I had no recollection that three years before that very day, God led me to those verses. And here's what I'd written in my Bible next to the verses I'm now memorizing:

Therefore I am now going to allure her; God cares enough to do this!
I will lead her into the desert Follow Him!
and speak tenderly to her. Listen to Him!
There I will give her back her vineyards, Be prepared to receive.
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. Be prepared for change.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth, Be prepared for joy.
as in the days she came up out of Egypt. Be prepared for deliverance.

And sitting there, sweating from the workout, I shook my head in pure amazement.

Just short of one year after the 4.22 in which God allured me into a desert to speak tenderly to me, I could see how He had done all the very things He spoke over my heart back in 2007.

He has cared for me so very very sweetly. I followed Him (kicking and screaming at times, but I followed!) and listened. Learned to hear, actually. I received so many beautiful lessons in that time. I am certainly a very different person today than I was that day. Stronger, a little more mellow (I promise!), and probably other things I can't see. I learned joy - even when I was far from happy. And I believe deliverance is happening even now, though I can't quite see how it's unfolding.

But the best part of all is this. As I sat in bed and marveled at this Bekahland epiphany, something caught my eye:

It's my socks. On the floor.

You should know that I am NOT the kind of girl who throws her socks on the floor. I put them in the laundry bag where they should go. But I had them on when I got into bed, and my feet were hot from working out, and I was too lazy to get back up, so I just tossed them.

And that's when I remembered Llita's words.

That's just like God.

He indeed knocked my socks off.