Did you ever have the feeling that someone magically had your back? I have often had this manifest in reality then to quickly make light of it and go on with my life. But sometimes the evidence is too clear and obvious to just gaff off.
A couple of days ago we got up at 5:30 to go for our walk before the summer heat set in. I am no good in hot weather. The sun wasn’t up yet just distant light radiating from the morning fog. The forecast called for light rain later in the day. We should be good. Then as we stepped onto the porch, suddenly the sky looked a little darker. We decided on rain gear just in case.
After we started off on our walk and we noticed the fog was lifting to reveal dark ominous looking clouds with wispy dark blue streaks beneath them. If we had been in Oklahoma we would have feared tornado for sure. But here in sweet Virginia just rain. It rains a lot here, more than I thought it rained in a rain forest of Brazil. But the sun always comes out after. So, I love it.
We made it to our turn-a-round spot still dry. We could hear intense rain showering the forest one step on the other side of our turn-a-round spot. We were literally on the edge of the storm. It was the strangest sensation. Coming through what I like to call the Williwah due to its constant cool wind near a running creek. But still no rain but we picked up our pace just in case.
Just then we saw a doe and her newborn fawn cross the road ahead of us. Luckily David had his phone on him and we were able to get some footage of the little darling. So new on the Earth so fragile. It’s mother scampered down the embankment, across the creek and disappeared from our view into the forest. The fawn stumbled on unsure skinny sticks of legs and finally made his way to the top of the embankment. He stopped to watch us as we approached. He was more curious than alarmed. He wondered which were more dangerous, us or the plunge down the bank of the creek which was a good 5 or so feet with a rushing creek at the bottom. As we got within 10 feet of him he found his bravery and awkwardly stepped down the embankment. He face planted, recovered and found himself at the edge of the water. He cried for him mother and realized that he had to go to her she wasn’t going to rescue him. He stepped into the rushing water and fell a couple of times. Luckily the current was not strong and he was able to make it across. He found a spot to hid in the root a of a tree. We left him so that his mother could come get him.
We had such a precious experience seeing a fawn so small. Yet now the clouds had gathered and the wind had picked up. We hurried our pace up the hill toward home. Then a low rumbling of thunder echoed across the mountains. “What?” Said David. “Did you see anything about a thunderstorm?” “No, did you?” “No” We better hurry. We don’t need to be on the road in a lighting storm.
As we made it home David began reminding me of how many times I have avoided getting wet. This is not a blessing he possesses. He often gets caught in the rain while trying to do something and it makes me giggle. Not nice of me but I can’t help it because it happens to him so often. He believes I have an angel that protects me from getting wet. This time was no exception.
By the time we topped the hill and came within view of our home the clouds had covered the tops of the surrounding mountains and now rain streaks grew dangerously close to our neighbors house and us. As we turned the bend in our driveway our trees were being whipped around violently.
The hay farmer behind our house was out cutting hay. Obviously, he didn’t get the thunderstorm warning either. We made inside and within seconds the heavens opened up with thunder, lighting and sheets of rain and wind.
“Now do you believe?” David said. I was beginning to.
The next day. David was working on my door lock to my BMW. He was frustrated because the part he ordered didn’t work so he ordered another from someone else. This one came with also the handle that he hadn’t ordered. He put it in and it didn’t work. So over breakfast we decided that I didn’t drive that car enough for all this trouble he would just put the original one back in and call it.
After breakfast, I went to do gardening work and he went to the garage to put the original lock back in but then the door wouldn’t open at all. He got stuck inside the car and could not open the door. Looking up the solution on line it said that you when this happens the lock must be destroyed. So, with the seat laid all the way back he had to lay upside down and still could not get the thing open. Looking online again someone said you must drill it out. Naturally, his drill was in the basement not the garage. So leaving out of the passenger side, he plodded back to the house passing me in the yard dead heading and weeding the iris beds.
I was oblivious to his frustration about his impossible task. I had my own “problems”. I had looked everywhere for my clippers. Apparently, David, had borrowed them from my gardening basket. I looked in all his normal places with no luck. I didn’t want to interrupt his work in the garage so I suffered using other less efficient tools. When I saw him coming around the bend I thought this would be a good time for him to give me a hint where they were.
When you can’t see where you are, what do you believe? Are you hopeless, determined, curious or excited?
“Hey, honey, have you seen my trimmers”
He looked at the sky and made an about face to get the clippers from the garage.
I took it that he rolled his eyes. When he got back with the clippers, I had an attitude thinking that I had upset him somehow. He was short with me due to his frustration.
I took it out on the weeds and ripped out some dead vines intertwined in a tree. Then when I was all done went into the shed to get the rake. In my foul mood I let the door slam behind me. Then in the dark I hit my head on something. Got the rake and then realized that the door slamming had latched me inside. I banged on the door violently in frustration and finally the twist latch pushed over and freed me.
On the way back to the iris bed I passed by the butterfly garden, I stopped to pick a few weeds and dead head some flowers. In my bad mood I didn’t pay attention where I sat and had sat right down on top of a swarm of ants. Suddenly I had ant all in my pants.
The farmer was finishing up the haying that the storm had halted the day before so I had no choice but to run inside to free myself from my pants full of ants. I threw them in the washer and ran to the shower. I escaped with just 3 or 4 bites on my, guess where.
Although this was a funny scene, while in Oklahoma I had been bit by a fire ant and ended up with hives from head to toe and had to get an emergency adrenaline shot. So, ants are not something I normally take lightly.
After the gardening was done and all the drama finished, I sat down to read Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff. Something I really needed at that moment.
The whole chapter was about how negative mindset can cause more negative things to happen. She gave an example of a different scenario but the exact same types of consequences that I had just experienced.
Wow, all this happened so that I would really understand that chapter. The timing on this could not be a coincidence.
All done with my reading, my attitude adjusted and my sense of humor restored I decided to take David a cup of water. No doubt he would be thirsty by now.
As I entered, cup in hand, I was greeted with a smile and a “Your just in time. Watch this.”
He explained how the old one got stuck and he had to destroy the whole handle and everything to get it out. So, he put the first lock that hadn’t worked before back in and the second he ordered that didn’t work had come with a handle. He put the handle in with the first lock he had ordered and the whole thing worked.
He couldn’t explain why it worked, but in the end, he needed both things for it to work. “Now do you believe?” I still wasn’t sure what he was trying to show me.
The center fountain of the maze was incredibly hard to find. I remembered to take a moment of appreciation for our efforts that lead to our victory!
Then third day, I read in another book I am reading called Treasures that Last by Michael Youseff about how the Greek word for the Holy Spirit is Parakletos. This is what the Greek Soldiers called their fighting companion. The guy who had their back. It literally means the one called to fight at your side. This is what the Holy Spirit is. Not just a comforter. He is a warrior that fights at our side. He has our backs.
I didn’t know what David was trying to get me to understand fully until I read that. The being on the edge of the rain storm, the newborn fawn, the violent storm being held back until we arrived home safely, the illustration of my own negative reactions causing more negative events, two broken parts coming together to miraculously function perfectly. The whole maze of the last three days illustrated to me that even though we walk around blind corners the Holy Spirit, our Parakletos, has our back. In the big things but also the small things.
The broken pieces that is our humanity function perfectly together when we are believers in Jesus Christ and now we understand that even in the little trivial activities of our daily lives we have a Parakletos! Our partner, protector and soldier who has our backs even when we can’t see it and don’t want to know it. When we are lost in the maze and cant find our way out. He is still there stopping the rain, giving lessons that bring understanding and having our back. I am so glad I have these lessons to remind me that I am only human and so is my husband. This teaches me patience for myself and others.
The world wants us to believe that we are alone, unhappy and abandoned in hopeless maze of darkness. I read an article the other day someone recommended to me about how Americans used to be fifteen in the list of happiest countries and now we are twenty-three. The article continued to say that those people are happiest are those with a strong social and familial network. These are things that Americans rarely have. Either due to distances, politics, change in religion, lifestyle or another number of reasons. We as American rarely have a large cohesive group to belong to. This, however, has always been the case with Americans. After all we are a nation of immigrants and at some point our ancestors were separated from their clan, tribe, family. Still, they found joy and happiness. We are founded on the pursuit of happiness.
This is one more thing that lets me know that my Parakletos has my back. Even though the world may try to tell me I am isolated and ignored. I know that I am not, I have support and love from my Parakletos and he will battle out with me back to back. This is the truth, the joy, and the love I know. My prayer is that you do or will know it to. You are not alone. If you believe in Jesus Christ then you have your Parakletos at your side always. I am so grateful that I am human so I get to fail and fail and grow and love and believe.
