A Leaf from My Heavenly Father - Warrior Mom Wisdom - Week of December 27

A LEAF FROM MY HEAVENLY FATHER

^{Mk 4:35} That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”

^{Mk 4:36} Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 

^{Mk 4:37} A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 

^{Mk 4:38} Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

^{Mk 4:39} He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

^{Mk 4:40} He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

^{Mk 4:41} They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

I have a short story about how the wind obeyed God right in front of my eyes. I was on walk with my son when he was 10-months-old. I was pushing him in his stroller. We had just been told he was profoundly deaf. Sadly, I pushed the stroller with tears strolling down my cheeks. I was glad Jacob could not see me. Now, that I knew he could not hear sound, I was terrified that the only thing he would figuratively hear from my eyes and face was a loud deafening sorrow.

I asked God to give me strength. I asked God to give Jacob joy beyond measure and to give him his heart’s desires. Just then, Jacob began pointing to a leaf floating down upon a gentle breeze. He wanted the leaf. It was a big, gorgeous leaf. I rushed over to get it for him, and I knelt down and smiled real big at him. I tried to over accentuate my happy face for him. Jacob was so happy that he clapped and waved the leaf around in the air.

As I returned to my position of pushing the stroller, I was struck with the heaviness of deafness again. I felt like I just performed an academy award “happy” performance for my son when I handed him the leaf, but now I was sad again. Then, like a child, I decided to ask my Heavenly Father for a leaf. I felt kind of silly, but I did it anyway. I felt like a desperate child who needed any semblance of hope and encouragement so I said, “Dad, can I have a leaf too?”

I pushed the stroller a few steps feeling like I had seriously lost my mind. If the news of deafness in the first few hours of the news was causing me to ask for a leaf floating on the wind from God to me, what other crazy thing would I be asking for soon? I thought I should get a grip. I asked God to keep me sane. I couldn’t help my son if I couldn’t even help myself. I had to stay sane.

Just then, a leaf, ever so slightly floated down in front of my face! I’m not kidding! At first I thought it was a shadow or a bird or a big spider coming down from an overgrown branch. But then, I realized it was a leaf. I was not imagining things.  So, I held out my right hand, and it landed in it! This time when I smiled real big, I wasn’t putting on an act.

When we are so sad that we feel we’ve lost our mind, He can cause the wind to send a leaf to your right hand. But, you don’t need my experience of being on a walk with your son who was just diagnosed as being profoundly deaf to have an experience with God. Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for you today. Have faith my friend. Nothing is impossible for God. Nothing!

Is there a gentle breeze in your area? Is there a strong wind? Is the air flat? Whatever the physical air is doing around you, know this: God is like a wind within you, encouraging you to ask Him to help you fly above your circumstances today. Jesus is interceding for you as we speak!

^{Ro 8:34} Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 

^{Ro 8:35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 

^{Ro 8:36} As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

^{Ro 8:37} No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

^{Ro 8:38} For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 

^{Ro 8:39} neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Kristina Seymour loves to encourage and equip women through the Word and through community. She is the author of The Warrior Mom Handbook, The Warrior Mom Leadership Manual, and The Warrior Wife Handbook; they are available at Amazon.com. Kristina's Bible studies are for women who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. She has learned that women can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about Kristina, please visit her recently founded Share & Company Publishing House  http://seymourkristina.wix.com/shareandcopublishingto. God loves to share His story of love and grace through us all, and Kristina believes that everyone has a story to tell.