I love it that God has a plan for my life, and only reveals one day at a time, in the correct sequence. In yesterday’s post, I tried to articulate the loss of a sense of place that has resulted from the destruction of so many massive, old, beautiful trees in our yard, neighborhood, and city.  Last night in a women’s Bible study, video teacher Jennifer Rothschild taught a class from her study entitled Missing Pieces: Real Hope when Life Doesn’t Make Sense.  She talked about having “holes” in our “faith blankets”: circumstances so hard that we may question or doubt the goodness of God. Jennifer, a gifted songwriter and singer, as well as Bible scholar and teacher, lost her sight when she was 15. That was a BIG opportunity to find a hole in her faith blanket, but she chose to use her gifts to glorify God anyway, and is still doing that, 30 years later.

I was reminded last night that I have friends who have lost their husbands, homes, marriages, sobriety, dreams of a partner or children, and parts of their bodies in order to survive cancer. Yesterday afternoon I thought I needed to give myself permission to grieve the loss of a significant part of my visual context, represented by the fallen trees.  Last night I was reminded that the grieving for any material thing needs to be intentionally experienced in the context of my spiritual worldview. Trees are beneficial in many ways, and for an extremely visual person like I am, my surroundings and ambient light impact my productivity and enjoyment of my space.  But I needed a good reminder that THIS world is not my permanent home, God both gives and takes away for our ultimate good, and I need to be getting on with life–and grieving for the maple trees– intentionally prioritizing eternal values. Thank you, Jennifer Rothschild!