God on I-4

I commute. My home, my job, and my school are 52 miles apart from each other resulting in a 104 mile commute-5 days a week. I am not complaining, believe me. I love the drive time and how it gives me a great excuse to just sit back and enjoy an hour and a half of my life. I think all kinds of thoughts. I sings ALL kinds of songs. In fact, most of the foundations of my relationship were laid somewhere between mile markers 38 and 58 on I-4. (Anyone trying to work on your relationship should try commuting with your significant other since you are forced to gain good communication when you are stuck in a car doing 70;) This past week I was driving by myself and God started showing me some things that I wanted to write about...

The drastic weather here in Florida lately has notably effected the landscape. In other words, everything is brown right now. Much of the grass that runs alongside Interstate 4 is dry and dead and the trees stand bare like ominous skeletons cheering on the chaos of rush hour. Driving home a few days ago I noted how bleak everything looked. Then God showed me something. Now whether He organized these events for me to see or heightened my awareness to see them I do not know. All I know is as I looked at a tree void of leaves, I noticed how all that was left was the moss that hangs from the branches like droopy sackcloth. As I watched, a beautiful bird, perhaps an eagle (pardon my incompetent ornithology), swoop down and grasp all the moss that it could. The majestic creature soared alongside my car for a few moments until it reached a half-completed nest further down the road. It added the new addition to the work-in-progress and I smirked at how there was such purpose for something I thought was so uselessly ugly.
A few moments later I saw the fields of brown grass that are usually filled with grazing cows, void of any signs of life. Dead grass does no service to hungry cows. A few moments later I passed a row of trees that were dead on the top but had lower branches that were regaining their green vitality. I then saw cows with necks raised up, eating leaves from trees. Cows eating from trees!! Perhaps my child-like attitude towards life attributed more amazement than necessary, but I am still in awe over that sight.
How many times has this dumb cow looked at the grass of my life and fretted over the lack that I see? How many times have I stressed about how everything would work out? How many times have I neglected to see the purpose in moss and low-branches? This is a long passage, but please read it openly. Jesus said in Luke 12:
"Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself."
Jesus has a way of lovingly stopping us in our tracks doesn't he? According to Him, if we worry, it means we don't really know God. Ouch. We must be steeped in God-reality, seeing things the way He tells us to see them. Where others might see a dry and barren land, we must be the ones gazing upward for manna and looking to rocks for water. When others are looking at the mountains of economic and circumstantial impossibility, we must be the ones who look BEYOND the hills to where our help comes from. If you know your Father, you will trust Him. I need to get to know Him more...perhaps you do too.