Today – I can make an honest evaluation of the events of this week. Again I have watched how God has a plan for everything. I have also felt and personally witnessed that most everything is better when the rain stops. In fact we have to have the rain in order to see the growth come.

We have a pot full of dirt sitting beside our side deck. In the pot is huge bulb that my wife purchased from a green house. It was a small extravagance at the time.

When we returned home and she had the bulb planted – but nothing happened for a long time. It seemed that the extravagance of the purchase was a dud.

Then it rained and rained. In fact for a number of days it rained with a few weeks going by. Nothing came in the pot…only small weeds that had managed to keep their place in the soil.

This past week the soil was pushed aside and the little giant is beginning to show himself. He is now pointing skyward and has a brand new leaf. The bragging on the package says something about an elephant ear plant… with leaves about a meter in length…or more. Its warning was clear that it could reach up to almost two meters in height.

This little guys needed rain lots of it and then it needed hot sunshine…almost to the extreme. It needed two conditions that made the rest of us uncomfortable.

In yesterday’s posting I referred to the feeling of having a cloud above your head and it is about to rain. It tends to make you freeze and make choices that change your life.

Today….
This afternoon I am doing one of the last official functions at our church as a Senior Pastor by performing a Marriage Ceremony for a great young couple. I have come to know them as friends and respect them deeply.

The unique thing about their lives is the two different tragedies that they have risen from. In both their lives the circumstances were very stormy and life was rough. The crashing and bashing of their person was unfair. They were ordinary people that reacted and survived. As they described their stories individually it was enough to make you want to cry. How could anyone survive these huge obstacles?

They did survive and on the other side of the trouble they found each other. Today she will receive a man that loves her so very much when she says “I do”. He will receive a beautiful wife and two wonderful kids when he says “I do”.

On the other side of the rain there is life. This is a love story better than anything on television or in the movies. This is real.

The postscript to a week…
I have found again that God has a plan. One person wrote to me stating again a known fact – when God closes one door another will open. I have watched it happen again….and it is happening right now.

Can you hear the squeaky hinges as the door begins to open. I can.

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~

PS – I received a kind and caring letter from the “lady” that I met in the LPV carpenter shop(yesterday’s posting). I understand better now. She is good at what she does… There are also a number of issues about volunteering at LPV that have surfaced. In the heat of the moment I “explained some of the pain” of working there…if there would have been no heat… there may never have been an opportunity to suggest…

Something good will happen from it all. The rain has stopped…skies will clear….and there is a tomorrow…