A Pink and Purple House

This last year has begun a new era in my walk with the Lord. He's been communicating with me in a new way. It took me a while to know what to make of it, but I'm getting used to the ways He paints pictures in my head to help me see where we're at or where we're going. It started with last January when I first started praying about going to Central Asia in the summer. I kept telling Him there were too many obstacles. That's when the picture in my head was a long race track with a bunch of hurdles labeled with all of the reasons I didn't think I could go. I was standing at the start line, and my friend was standing at the other end, with a large map of her country and her people behind her. As I began moving forward on the track, a large Hand would come down and literally hurl the hurdles out of my way. I never had to "jump" a single one. And, in so many ways that is exactly how that trip came about. In the Fall, when Pappy was diagnosed with cancer and so many other things in life felt so hard, the picture was of a long, dark tunnel. I could feel that we were moving forward, but there was no light just yet, and I knew that God was the conductor, in control, and we would eventually see daylight. Most recently, as I begin to move past that dark tunnel in my life, but still feel the effects of those difficult days, the picture in my head is of a concrete slab. Cold, dull, gray, lifeless, square, boring ... but a foundation, absolutely necessary for building anything that can last. When the Lord revealed this one to me, I laughed out loud and asked Him, "Hey God, remember when I was a little girl and we lived in the barrio in South Texas? Remember how I always wanted a pink and purple house like my friends down the street? Yeah, that was cool." I hope that whenever God gets ready to paint whatever it is He's building in my life, He makes it bright and colorful.