Christmas in April

One of the beautiful things about Jesus, is that He is so generous to bring about the desires of our hearts. He just loves to bless His children!

 

 

Before David and I met, and after we got married, God gave David a vision for the beauty of agriculture and it's ability to bring about a community-mindset and lifestyle. We asked God to lead us into this sort of Christian community, but in His wisdom, our Father brought us to a place that we needed even more. He moved us to Fort Collins and revealed to us the glory of the Church through the community that we were a part of there.

 

Oh, how we needed to learn the lessons that we learned in our church body! It is so easy to value community for community's sake, rather than for the sake of the Lord and His Kingdom. If God had answered our prayers in the way that we had desired early in our marriage, we would have missed out on an understanding of what it means to build His Church within a community of unconditional love. What a tragedy that would have been!

 

 

When, however, we heard God's call to plant a church in Kansas City, God began to resurrect the desires that we had lain aside so long ago. We had originally thought that we would be moving to the suburbs, but through a series of miraculous events, God moved us right into the heart of the city. He was answering the cry of our hearts to live among the poor of this world, AND He was answering  our prayers, from so many years ago, in which plants and gardening and agriculture enhanced and brought life to community. 

 

Two Saturdays ago, we had our first spring work-day in the community garden that our church family stewards (and which many people, long before us, have worked hard to bring about). The garden is just a couple of blocks from our house, and I walk through it almost every day. It is a one of a series of rays of beautiful light in this broken neighborhood.

 

Being among the people of this community (working, talking and laughing) was pure joy for my sweet hubby. David has waited many years for a moment like this. In His words, it was like Christmas in April!

 

 

Isn't our God so very kind?! I am truly in awe of His goodness. He is a generous Father and His heart is always for us. Sometimes the desires that He gives to us must lay dormant for a time, but we can trust that these desires are never forgotten by our Lord. He will bring them about in His time.

 

 

And when he does...oh Jesus, what joy!