A Glimmer of Hope in a Gift of Love

I thought I'd visit my prayer chapel story for a couple of days...some of you have said you're anxious to hear where it goes next!! This particular part is how my very first visit {which I'd so long fought and worried about} ended:

I stepped back into the world, leaving behind the quiet of the peaceful chapel.  As I made my way down the sidewalk, God again brought me back to the story of Naaman.  He reminded me that Naaman had been required to dip himself in the Jordan seven times in order to come out a cleansed man. 

And seven times is what I ask of you.  Please come here seven times.  Seven weeks.  Seven Tuesdays.  And know that when you leave this place, you will be cleansed. 

I thought of what had just transpired in the moments before – certainly more lessons than I expected to learn in such a short time.  And yet I felt as though my first cleansing had taken place.  I wasn’t fully healed yet, but the first layer of disease had been stripped away.  God had taken my repentant offering from my sin.  He had accepted into His rightful care what I had sinfully demanded as my own responsibility.  He had taken what held me back.  He had forgiven me for my poor choice. 

And while I knew I’d grieved His heart for holding onto that for so long, the love and mercy I’d felt as I released it was amazing.  No condemnation.  Just mercy and love.  This is cleansing.  This is restoration.

I took a deep breath, but before I could go another step, God had one more surprise.  I looked down at the sidewalk when I turned onto the main stretch of cement, and found that literally thousands of white petals were strewn across the path.  I don’t know what kind of trees line that walk, but what a beautiful blossom they hold in the late spring! 

A tiny giggle escaped me as I walked through the soft path of flowers.  It was as though God created an aisle for me…one like I hope to walk on my wedding day…an aisle toward a new future with the man He has chosen to be my husband. 

And I love that about God.  He knows the very things – tiny though they may be – that thrill my heart.  And He knew that one of those things that I love to do is to dream about my wedding day.  To imagine myself at my wedding, in my gown, surrounded by my friends, pledging my life and love to this man who will capture my heart.  And in His love, God let me savor a taste of that day to come by flooding a sidewalk with flower petals.  By giving me hope that the day will come.  That this cleansing is worth each visit to the chapel.

What a loving God!  That He would meet me after many months of disobedience – both in my running to the arms of false hope and in my running from His command.  That He would love me so gently.  That He would find me worth the cleansing. 

The only words I could find that night in my journal seemed so short in comparison with all He’d planned for me that day.  But they were from the heart:  Thank You.