Day 6 ~ Walking With God ~ I Smile With Him

Tuesday. It’s one of my favorite days.


The alarm goes off at 4:30am. I steal away into the dark morning, first of several hot cups in hand. I greet five girlfriends at the local ice cream / coffee shop. We opt for coffee rather than ice cream. With French Vanilla please and thank you. And we will take oodles of that conversation you advertise. We only have an hour before they are off to work or back home to gather their chicks and get them off to school.


It’s their thirst for the Living Word that draws them to sacrifice sleep, to leave the warm comfort of home in the dark. I smile with God.


Jesus [John 6:35] is to the Believer as ice cream is to the pallet. As music is to the ears. As a sunset is to the eyes.

Jesus is delicious. Amen.

And the fact that I get the honor of serving the Gift, of praying for them, over them and their families, feeding them the Bread of Life ~ it lays me low. I’m completely humbled by the joy of that precious hour. Often I feel astonished that they keep coming back. But delighted because I know it’s not for me. It’s because of the power of the Living Word to guide and heal and Set. Us. Free.


After they leave, I flip open my laptop – for free internet. [If you live in the ‘sticks’ and have a dish on your roof, you understand…does anyone else have to “purchase tokens” five days before the billing cycle ends?]


Many locals gather at Ellie’s every Tuesday morning, though not as early as our group. Most of them, I’m guessing, are over 70. As I work on my laptop, they walk past and most of them say “Good morning!” and ask what I’m doing, or sometimes I’ll hear a tale of days gone by. Several of them comment on my lengthy time on the computer.  Because they “never found any need for it.” I smile with God


Sometimes I pause and listen to their light-hearted banter in the background. I smile with God, and get back to work.


Lately I find myself thinking of the process of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [okay, I’ll just say it . . . aging] I really never gave it a thought before that day I realized I was. Aging I mean. I guess I was in denial or too busy to notice. Seriously. And then from my parked Jeep, I watched an old man walk across the street one day, his feet heavy, slow, small-labored steps gaining him just a few feet, but I noticed that he had accepted it. He seemed at peace with his pace.


Lord Jesus, help me be content with whatever you allow in my life!


That day I realized that the road ahead was . . . something I’d need to reconcile with and perhaps at some point, take more slowly.


So I pay attention now. [I’d be ashamed, if not for grace, that I didn’t much before.] They have become more precious to me because of my time at Ellie’s. I love their respect, their humor, and their attention.


But even so, when I look at my own reflection , the changes don’t illicit the same fond feelings. But I do feel God smile, and I find comfort in that. He will be with me through it all. Whatever is ahead.


His grace is sufficient, 2 Corinthians 12:9

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His power is made perfect in weakness.


He’s smiling at me just as I would with my children if they were feeling resistant to change.

Do you Friend? 
Do you smile with God?


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