Showing up with a secret message

Ever feel like God isn't listening?  Or like asking for something that sounds awfully close to impossible is just a waste of time?  Ever feel like giving up on trusting God to come through?  Like what you asked for or needed wasn't realistic anyway?  Like maybe amazing things happened in the Bible, but not for you?

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Over here in Washington state, snow is a rare and beautiful thing (well, beautiful to most of us).  Maybe it's the Alaskan in me (where I was born) or maybe it's just the kid in me, but I am a big fan of the snow.  Every winter my family and I enter and endure the season with high hopes that it will snow at least once.  I'm always down for having the snow around and urging it to stay as long as possible.  Winter sports are among our favorites - skiing, snowboarding, sledding - and we will do these activities in any kinds of conditions as long as there is snow of some degree on the ground.

But I didn't even bother hoping for snow this year.

Back in November I looked ahead at the weather.  It wasn't promising, so I decided early on to not waste time hoping for snow.  Like many years in the past, my hopes would be high only to come crashing down when I was finally willing to admit that spring had really arrived.  

I don't think I released my hopefulness as entirely as I intended to, though.  January tends to be our coldest, stormiest month.  If it doesn't snow by the end of January, we're pretty well sunk in that department.  January of 2019 passed by with strange mixes of temperatures and even a disappointing lack of rain.  I resigned myself to the early onset of spring with a tinge of disappointment.

Then the first week of February brought with it wild and suspicious predictions for snow.  (That is, "wild" for where I live.)  Being the proficient pessimist that I am, I responded to these reports with "well, that's not really gonna happen."  After all, I had to stay true to my commitment to not get my hopes up.

Driving through snow actually does look like flying through space...

The first and then second day of the snow storm dates came and went.  We did get snow, but it amounted to less than an inch.  

Me: typical Washington report.  People are freaking out over a snowflake on the road.  So much for that "storm."  The pessimist in me was 100% active, voicing probabilities of rain starting any day now and washing away our faint dream.  I inwardly glared at myself for beginning to hope for a measurable snowfall when it started sticking to the ground.  I wasn't going to do that this year!

BAM. (Or, rather, the silent, white snowfall version of "bam.")  Two days later I was out sledding with neighbors in the deepest snow that has ever surrounded my own home.  I've seen snow like that on mountain passes and ski resorts, but it was quite a new marvel to have almost 2 feet of snow in Washington at my own house.  

That's when the message came through.  God used the snow to tell me that He wants to surprise me with His best when I least expect it.

God seems to work on a totally different timeline than I do.  For a person who revels in being on top of things and ahead of schedule, I can get pretty easily frustrated with God's "last minute" answers.  I say, "God, I really need You to come through, like, a week ago."  Or I begin to settle for something a little less because maybe my request was too big anyway.

This time...well, this time I have to agree that God's secret message to me was very timely.  I needed Him to tell me that He's going to give me His best.  I needed to be reminded that, though my deadline may have passed, He's going to show up on schedule according to His sovereignty with exactly what I need.  I needed to remember that, whatever waiting I go through for provision in housing, finances, or other decisions, is not going to end in "return to sender."  It's going to come to a climax with the best surprise God can think of.

Whatever you may be praying for or waiting on, keep hanging in there.  He's listening to you and caring for you just like He did for our Biblical heroes.  Keep trusting because He's going to show up with a marvelously fitting answer.

A week later, the rain is still valiantly attempting to wash away the snow with very slow progress.  (I have to say that having no expectations for snow sure makes it a whole lot more fun when it does show up.)  I was definitely ok with being home-bound for 6 days, stomping around in snow up to my knees.  And I'm always ok with God sending me secret messages in unique forms, too.