There is a girl in the winery kitchen where I spend my working days. She likes to call me (with a half concealed smirk) her work acquaintance when I proudly call her my friend. She’s only 25 years old, she is funny and quirky in the most perfect and delightful sort of way. Every day, for several years, she adds to my work load questions that I must ponder and answer for… questions like, “What would work better as a mop, a Komondor (moppish-furred dog–look it up!) or one of those really furry cats?” As she looks at me, pressing the water out of her mop, I answer, “It would have to be a dog. A cat would tear you up if you tried to dip her in water.” (Easy-peasy, young friend!)
Some of her first questions from several years ago (they are hard to forget) were of the survival nature. “If you had to survive solely on either peanut butter or butter, which would you choose?” “If you could dress in only plastic or onion paper, which would you choose?” Sometimes the questions were tougher, “If you had to choose between shoes made of bread, or shoes made of glass, which would you choose? (both options are terrible)
“UM, can I take out the trash now? I need some extra training for this. I can’t make these kinds of life decisions!”) 🙂
Some days the questions took a different turn. “If I gave you $1000, would you drink the dishwater that has accumulated in the sink before the disposal is turned on?” She would add many zeros to test my resolve when I said that God had provided all that I needed, that no amount of money would be worth that to me. (We must be content with what we have, I assert. This is biblical. You can keep your swampy water, ma’am!) 😉
On Saturdays she began bringing a speaker to play the kind of music that she doesn’t listen to in her spare time only because she knows I like it. I am excited every time. I say, “Now there will be dancing!” She says, “No dancing!” (I can’t actually dance) I say, “Then there will be random jumping.” She says, “You’re crazy!” She often lightens the work load for me, she anticipates how to help, how to try to carry more of the burden of tasks if she can while she gives herself no credit for all she does. I do the same for her. She still jokingly avoids the term of endearment that I like so much (my friend), but she is a true friend none the less. She proves this to me every day.
Jesus proved something with His actions. My father used to say that God didn’t have to speak to him. He had already shown him what he needed to know– proving His love on the cross. But what of our love of God, I ask myself? What about mine?
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 7:21
If you love me, keep my commandments. John:14:1
And I’ve been pondering the plight of Abraham, tested to surrender the great promise back to God, to surrender his beloved son to sacrifice. I’m struck that he didn’t wait, mulling over the magnitude of this command, the difficulty, the loss, but got up the very next day to obey. Genesis 22:2. And how is my obedience? He trusted God much more than me.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” e and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. James 2:23-24
And I consider, ” How is my friendship with God?” He is quite faithful to me, but when my faith is tested, how do I do? My life finds a way of uncovering the raw edges around here– the slipping handhold to my resolve and I struggle to overcome.
But when the right time came, God sent his Son [into the world]. Galatians 5:6
I look at the navy clock on the shelf, the one I carried in my car last year snapping photos before mountains and lakes, set in a tangle of honeysuckle along the road, and beneath the vines in the vineyards. I was compelled to do it, not entirely knowing why. It seemed important to visualize that there is a time and a season for everything. And now I see more that timing is important to obedience to God and that He has a perfect time for everything.
The right move in the wrong time can be devasting and wrong, and the life aligned with the timing of God is an obedience that can’t be neglected, I exhort myself. At times I have lagged behind Him in unbelief and fear, struggling to trust His will and His way when it is time to move and to act. Or in more recent days, my heart carries me, rushing ahead of His time, finding myself awkward and out of step, needing some help to step back, to come in line to the obedience and integrity of the right time… to the “one step at at time”.
Her actions (my dear work acquaintance) told me she was my friend. My actions must tell that I am a friend of God, that I love Him in complete obedience and trust. I need Him to help me, imperfect as I am. And I’m reminded of how we need one another to exhort and admonish when we fall. And when corrections come, it is a painfully beautiful thing. We are being treated as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.
And while my fingers are still resting on these keys, a text sound alerts me to my phone. A scripture from a friend has come at just the right time.
“The Eternal is right in all his ways, he is kind in all his acts. The eternal stays close to those who call on Him, to those who pray sincerely. All of you who revere Him, he will satifsfy your desires. Psalms 145:17-19
And I will add, “He will do it in just the right time.” We need only obey Him and be His friend.
Hinterhaus Journal 