Grace in the Wilderness

Now come the flowers & colors of late summer. My mind will just not process that it is that time of year already. This summer seemed to fly by in a blur of 'break the sound barrier' speed! I'm sure I didn't get all done that I planned to do, but it has been fun. 🌻

There are wildflowers galore everywhere you look.

& garden produce is finally coming in & once it does, there is a plethora of everything & all clamoring for attention at the same time! 🍅

This was our first garden produce of the season. Isn't it cute? It is a 'SunSugar' cherry tomato. These rarely make it to the house. It's usually a 'first come first serve' when it comes to these little jewels. It's like having dessert first, they are so yummy!

Our first regular hamburger tomato & the small cucumbers which will be made into dill pickles & canned next week, if we are able to wait that long!

Corn is another delicacy that rarely makes it to the freezing stage. (How do you like that hairdo!) We gobble it up almost as fast as it comes in! Ooooo, smothered in butter (remember, good butter is good for you!) lightly salted & you've got a meal in itself! Then with fresh garden tomatoes & cucumbers added with a little bit of crusty, warm, french bread, wow, a perfect summer dinner. & for dessert,

fresh peach chunks by themselves or sprinkled over vanilla ice cream. In the words of Dooley Barlowe from The Mitford series books by Jan Karon, 'Man!!!' Sometimes, one word will suffice. 🍑

Although it has been an extremely wet & pretty cool summer, especially this month of August, the grass is beginning to take on that parched, crisp look.

The summer days of Autumn are still, & quiet, perfect for eating lunch outside (Mmmm, a chicken salad sandwich & slice of, sweet, juicy watermelon & of course, a cold glass of iced tea.) & the skies are cerulean blue & I indulge in one of my favorite summer pastimes, cloud gazing.

I have a passion for clouds as you know, & cannot get enough of their beauty. Many times my husband & I have been out driving & I shout 'Stop'!! for a cloud picture. & other times I have lamented not bringing my camera. 

⛅🌤🌥

At night, we love to sit outside where our gazing turns to the stars &  searching for satellites & watch for falling stars & admire  different phases of the moon. 

Right in our own front yard...✨🌕✨

Some of our August blessings, which have been wonderful, & brings me to the reason for the title of this post.

In celebration of one of our grandson's sixteenth birthday, my daughter & son-in-law & my two grandsons came to do some ATV-ing in the Black Hills & my youngest daughter & I had planned to go too. I have been four-wheeling a few times & have always loved it. It is such a feeling of complete exhilirating freedom & I was really looking forward to it! Until.......my daughter told me we were going to a very remote place with many different trails in all directions, miles into the wilderness & no cell phone service which meant no GPS, only moss that grows on trees (you know, the legend that it grows on the north, or whatever, side of trees & then you know what direction you're going, ha!) or the direction of the setting sun, or, horror, because it would have to be night, just follow the north star. & my husband added that in that part of the Black Hills, the only so-called trails were straight up & down, rutted & rocky & DANGEROUS! At that point, my heart began to quail, & my legs had a curious rubbery sensation. Enter the ominous, foreboding "WHAT IF" monster! Many scenarios began to play across my very active imagination. WHAT IF we couldn't find our way back? WHAT IF we encountered a mountain lion? or a bear?? (I don't think there has been a bear in the Black Hills for decades, but the "WHAT IF" monster is not known for its' common sense or logic.) WHAT IF someone got bitten by a rattlesnake? WHAT IF one of us had an accident on an ATV? WHAT IF while chopping up the dead trees that lay in our path on the trail, we accidentally chopped ourself in the leg, WHAT IF we ran out of water? or worse, toilet paper?! The "WHAT IF" monster played on relentlessly, each scenario dredged up was worse than the previous one. But I HAD to go. I was the elder, the Grandmother & Mother. I would, if necessary be the one to lay down my life, should any of the above sequence of events played out. So, deciding to arm myself just in case, I began to plan for the trip. (Some would say over-planning.)

Compass: check

First Aid Kit: check

Wrap for a possible sprained limb: check

Scissors: check

Swiss Army knife: check

Flashlight: check

Whistles for everyone (in case we got separated): check

Hatchet to chop our way through possible brush or trees: check

Peanut butter sandwiches: check

Rattlesnake bite suction kit: check

leather string to tie above rattlesnake bite: check

Bee sting suction kit: check

Bug repellent: check

Orange paracord to tie around trees so we could find our way back in the event we got lost: check

Toilet paper & disposal sack to put it in: check

Kitchen sink: I had to leave that behind as there was nowhere to put it. 

My daughter brought bandaids.

 The dividends from my Girl Scout days, however, were still paying off. I was definitely operating in the "Be prepared" mode.

We WOULD survive! & be better for it!! My modus operandi was in full force. However I was exhausted. Then, I finally did what I should have done in the first place. I prayed. Which I usually do anyway, but before I realized it, the "WHAT IF" monster had taken the reins & began to steer my thoughts & emotions away from peace, safety, truth, in other words, away from Jesus. & this is the scripture that He led me to. 

" & those who survived the sword found...

(these were the words He emphasized to me)

...grace in the wilderness." (Jeremiah 31:2)

Wow. I have always loved it when the Lord gives me such a personal word. That's where we were going. The wilderness. & He would give grace. For me.  Even when the lady who rented the ATV's gave us verbal directions on how to find our way sounded like an auctioneer & was completely lost on all of us, & the map she provided, which was marked, looked like a bunch of scratches & definitely in a foreign language, even when my grandson & daughter were on a busy stretch of two-lane highway on four-wheelers when neither of them had hardly any experience on them & vehicles were passing at an alarming speed & much too close, 

(my daughter could have reached out & touched a motor home that passed them! We had to travel on this highway more than five miles to get to the wilderness trail), even when it was just us, alone, where noone knew where we were, (& sometimes, neither did we!), I found grace in the wilderness. 

As He always does, the Lord began to expound on this scripture  the deeper revelations & how relevant it is to all of us. 

During our lifetimes, there have been & will be many  wildernesses to cross, to endure, to blaze the way for those coming after us.

The wilderness of suffocating loss.

The wilderness of devastating betrayal. 

The wilderness of the fog of confusion & bewilderment.

The wilderness of sudden responsibility for what  you are unprepared.

The wilderness of unexpected death or sickness.

The wilderness that takes your breath away & you have no idea how you will survive.

The wilderness that you know is before you, & there is no choice but to go through it.

That uncharted territory whose voice is garbled & terrifying. 

But wait...listen... listen...there is another Voice....:& He says, 

"Behold, (look! watch! see!) I will do a new thing (just for you, just for me), I will even make A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS..." (Isaiah 43:19)

The Lord goes before us, the ultimate 'trailblazer', to make the way in our wilderness. 

But so often, when I come to the edge of that wilderness, I want to dip in my toe, so to speak, or take just a step in to make sure it will hold my weight. or I get busy packing all of the accoutrements that I'm sure I will need for the trip, ( As much as I like the word accoutrements, it's just another word for 'stuff '.) you know, just in case of.....what? Your Guide in the dense forest, if you will let Him be, when it's difficult to see what lies even in the immediate ahead, is the Shepherd, Jesus Himself.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart...& He will direct your path."

(Proverbs 3:5 & 6)

He knows the way in. He knows the way through. He knows the way out. He's already charted the territory. & holding His hand through it all, can even turn it into an ADVENTURE. Whoa. Say goodbye to the "what if" monster.  

Jesus has already made the 'way in the wilderness' & even more has provided the 'accoutrement' of 'grace in the wilderness'.

Grace is the enabling power of God for our wilderness journey, to get through it victoriously, to conquer it. Grace is...Jesus. The voice that proclaims in the hideous darkness, "We can do this!' Blessed assurance.

"Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy & find grace to help in time of need."

(Hebrews 4:16)

Grace in the Wilderness

By the way, on our ATV adventure, of all of the things that were packed, only one thing was used. A bandaid.

Raintree Perk of the Day:

I have learned to know & love Jesus more in my many 'wilderness adventures'. (I can call them adventures now.) Thank You Jesus. 💖

"But grow in GRACE & in the knowledge of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ."

II Peter 3:18