by Darla Butterfield
Ah, 2020. Crazy, right? This year has not at all been like what any of us expected it to be. A year ago I was at my home in California, contemplating a move to Oregon that would greatly reduce my husband’s long commute to work and would be a step of faith into a town and a state that I really knew nothing about. As I researched Oregon and the Salem area, I was so excited to discover that there were school buses! I know this may not seem that exciting to most people, but as a mom of 4 young kids coming from a school district where there are no school buses, the thought of no longer dealing with hauling all of my kids through the drop off and pick up line craziness at school sounded amazing! I had no idea as I dreamed of what my new life in Oregon would look like that God had a different plan. There would be no school buses arriving for the 2020 school year, but instead God would greatly take me out of my comfort zone and call me to homeschool my kids. Yup, 2020 has not turned out like I thought in so many ways.
I’m currently sitting in my kitchen where the floors are ripped up after our dishwasher leaked. My husband broke his collarbone two weeks ago when he fell down a hill while out on a run. This is certainly not how I thought things would look like as we go into Thanksgiving and the holidays. Despite the way the year has turned out, there has been a consistent hope that I have clung to…Christ. He’s everything to me. Through the ups and downs, chaos in the news, shutdowns, broken bones and homeschooling, when my circumstances don’t look lovely at the moment, I’ve discovered the lovely in God that never changes or goes away. Sometimes it’s been that reassuring presence as I’ve prayed during a difficult day of homeschooling that God reminds me of the seeds that have been planted in my kids lives that will reap eternal rewards. It may be that extra bit of strength that God gave me to get through those final hours before bedtime when I’m so worn out I wonder how I’ll make it. God is faithful.
Our first Bible Study at Arise Women’s Ministry will be Looking for Lovely by Annie F. Downs. We’ll explore what it means to see the lovely in our God no matter our current circumstances. It’s more than just grasping for those positive moments in our day, but truly seeking after Christ and how He is at work in our lives. We’ll learn about Paul and Silas and how they were able to pray and sing praises to God while shackled in prison. Annie shares with us, “We don’t know what Paul and Silas were singing. We don’t know what they were saying in their prayers to God. What I love about this story is that they didn’t need to see lovely in their circumstances. They knew they could find lovely in their God.” I’m so thankful that we serve a God that gives us hope and peace, no matter what our circumstances may look like, even in 2020.
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