I asked for a TREE . . .

“Ask, and it will be given to you" . . . Matthew 7:7

This blogging on two blogs sounded easier than it really is!!  You see, it would be very easy if I could separate my life into tidy little boxes (kind of like men can do in their minds!) . . . then there could be "life BEFORE 11/5/11 and life AFTER 11/5/11".  However, though there is a "before" and an "after", my life is intertwined in the before and after . . . 

So . . . when I posted THIS post on my other blog back in July 2012, I had no idea how much I'd look back to it even now.  On that day, I posted about how I had left my job at the school, taken a new job at the hospital and then found out that the new job was no longer "mine" . . . the post was titled "... don't sweat it ..."  Little did I know a short 14 months later, I'd have to remind myself of that yet again.  That original job fell through, but then I was presented with another, better job which is now done.  I received the notice of my lay-off last Thursday (which ended up being my last day as it was the beginning of a 5 day weekend for me).  So, here I am, again jobless.  And trying not to sweat it!  (and if you read back to the July 2012 post, you will see that the events I referred to happened on the 5th of the month (Rickey died on the 5th of the month) AND my lay-off last week . . . yep, it happened on the 5th)

Yesterday as I ran errands, I found myself driving past the cemetery and thinking (as driving past there usually gets me to doing) and I was worrying myself a little bit about "what" the future held when all of a sudden I "heard" 

. . .

"You asked for a tree . . . I gave you a tree, didn't I?  Trust Me AGAIN, my dear child.  . . . 'Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?' (Matthew 6:26 & 26)"

Ah . . . yes, a tree.  I asked for a tree.  And HE gave me a tree.  The tree pictured below:

When I went to the cemetery on that cold day in November, I went alone, to pick out a place to bury Rickey.  It still seemed surreal, but I recall very clearly praying as I drove, "Lord, I hate the cemetery.  I hate the new part of the cemetery, it's all open, there are no trees, no nothing, it seems so cold and barren, if there could just be a tree, any tree, Rickey LOVED being in the woods so much, he NEEDS a tree"(actually I needed that tree, Rickey had far more splendor at that time than all the trees on earth combined!).  When I arrived at the cemetery, I looked for the sexton and saw him, standing waiting for me, at the base of a PINE TREE!  He told me that there was a spot, right by where my parents had purchased plots that was a little walk-way, but it really served no purpose.  If I thought it was o.k., he could make it into 2 burial plots.  "If it was o.k."?  He was standing at the base of a PINE TREE . . . the tree I prayed for.  Yes, of course it was o.k.  No, it wasn't o.k., I wasn't supposed to be here, telling him where he could bury my Rickey.  But, as not o.k. as it was, it was still God's clear answer to my prayer, and my unspoken petition that He remind me that He was still watching over us.

So, again, the "before" and the "after" come together in that reminder that if I ask, in HIS name, HE does listen.  If He cares about the birds in the air, He surely cares even more about us!  As I shared this story with my good friend Molly, she put even more perspective on it, as she stated, He not only gave you "a" tree, He gave you THE tree . . . the tree He died on to give us all hope for eternity.  Oh, what a beautiful parallel, what a confirmation that I don't have to "sweat it" that HE is in control, of my prayers for a job, and direction, and clarity in what He wants for our future!  So as Rick finishes up his last few days of school and we try to discern what HIS way for us is and not what OUR way is for us, we will remember, He gave me "a" tree and He gave us "THE" tree!  We have nothing to fear, "If God is for us, who can be against us"?  Romans 8:31  

So, as we look to the next few weeks and months as we make some BIG decisions about God's direction in our lives, we'd love for you to cover us in prayer!  We'll share things as we have clarity on these decisions, for now, nothing is certain except that God is in CONTROL and nothing that touches our lives surprises Him and that He does have a plan for our lives!

After all, He gave us a tree!