Once again, it’s time to hear from our sister in Jerusalem about what she is witnessing there as a believer in Yeshua. Put your prayer shawls on and pray for Israel and Sister J. Now here she is …
Blessings from quiet Jerusalem on a beautiful shabat in springtime. May The Lord Yeshua be blessed and glorified and may you be blessed and edified. Together may we be encouraged deeper, deeper into Him.
A couple of weeks ago, as my husband and I were out for our Shabat walk in the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, we had to laugh with joy at the wonder of the spring carpet of nearly microscopic flowers. This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen them, nor is it the first place. The first time I saw them was back in 1975 in California in the large horse pasture in front of our so-called cabin. I was so knew in knowing Him, but His tender voice called me to join Him outside for a walk.
As we walked that very early spring morning, I felt Him tell me to look down. So I did. I could barely discern the tiny white flowers. I got down on my knees to look, and there before me was a literal carpet of these itty bitty white flowers stretching as far as my eye could see. When I stood up, it all looked green again, but now I was aware of the flowers so that my eyes could pick them out. I worshipped Him for His beauty.
Later that evening, around sunset, He seemed to call me outside again and repeat the walk, so I went. Again I felt Him tell me to look down. As I did this time I saw a different carpet, for the evening, there were tiny diamonds of purple in the grass. They looked the same and they were just as abundant, but as different as, well, sunrise and sunset. As I worshipped Him for such beauty and thought about how billions of flowers are hidden from human eyes, blooming in remote corners of the earth for a day or an hour or even a minute, I felt that I heard His Voice speaking to me. He said, “You are on your path and someday you will meet The Artist Who created all of this.”
I’m sorry that I can’t capture for you the true wonder of the moment, but such a shiver of anticipation and longing went through me. I recall that day whenever I see again the tiny hidden joyful wonders.
This past Monday I stood outside of work waiting for someone. I looked up. My mouth dropped open and my heart leapt for flying over my head were the migrating storks coming from Africa. Now, if you haven’t seen them, these storks are BIG. They darkened the sky as they flew over. I’ve had the great privilege of living near and often seeing great flights of the California Condor, bald eagles in huge number, the migration of the trumpeter swans, snow geese, and others, but you can only see them when you look up.
I called to a young woman passing by, telling her excitedly, “Look, look up,” but she had her iPhone stuck in her ears and couldn’t hear me. She missed it.
And that got me praying and thinking as I stood there waiting, about how we have to have eyes to see and ears to hear or we miss it in the Spirit as well as the flesh. I thought, “There He is when I look down, and there He is when I look up.” I began to meditate on His ABSOLUTE FAITHFULNESS when I look at WHO is behind it all. All around me are His Fingerprints and my faith received the boost that I had been praying for. But OF COURSE He already is in the future, which my brain knows, but perhaps it is only me who finds themselves of little faith.
Israel is one of the world’s centers for bird watching, by the way. Situated in the fertile crescent, at the corner of Africa, Europe and the Orient, the bird migrations are wonderful. The country has cultivated areas to make it both safe and inviting to God’s creatures as they carry out their mysterious pattern. There is just so much of His character illustrated in the creatures, but I guess, in all creation and particularly in man, all are created in His Image.
Now, THAT is the lesson that I have found so hard to learn.
When I left NYC in my late teens, early twenties, it was because I never LIKED people, and NYC was FULL of them. Noisy, demanding PEOPLE. They didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand them and that was that. I am pretty sure that I told you that very shortly after I was saved, while living in the same house with the horse pasture I mentioned above, a difficult thing had happened. I went running up the mountain behind my house and pressed into Him until I was worshipping Him and enjoying the stillness of the trees and the beauty that seemed to worship all around me. I said to Him, “Oh it is so wonderful. I will just stay in the woods and worship You with all of nature.”
He answered me with a sad tinge in His Voice, calling me by name, “I did not die for the trees.”
And I knew that He was not going to allow me to live in remote areas forever and it scared me. However in His mercy, He allowed me so many years of learning in those hot houses that He has, undisturbed by noise and the demands of hustle and bustle.
In this new apartment I am finding that I have to finally face this battle with my flesh once and for all.
I think that is why that above faith lesson was so critical for me just now. My CONFESSION can be right on and I DO believe what I confess, but my EMOTIONS have been in utter rebellion. I grump to The Lord that I want the leeks and garlic of Egypt . It gives me the shivers just to think of it that way.
I ride the noisy uncomfortable train, the bus, work in a high demand noisy doctor’s office, ride the noisy bus and train again and then come home. And at home, there is MORE noise and people shouting in front of my apartment and yet you are telling me to PRAY for them and, even worse, to LOVE them and I DON’T.
Oh I can love and pray for people in nice small portions, bouquets’ of people, but ALL OF THESE? HELP!
And He is. Slowly slowly I am going out on to our “merepesset” (balcony) and praying for all of the people below me. I WANT to love them as He loves them and see each one as an individual. I WANT to care about their eternity. And I WANT to pray for them in earnest and with His passion. He IS faithful.
So, those are my observations for today. ..and some confessions. God bless and keep you close to Him for His glory and the furtherance of His kingdom.
Lovingly,
your sis in Jerusalem J
