I’m confident this post is for at least one of you…. but first a little background, so bear with me.
When Ruby was first home her sweet noggin had very little hair. In her fragile state and after having many x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and five brain surgeries, I wondered if her hair would ever grow. Months passed and large parts of her head were still completely without hair.
I began to pray that those precious spots would sprout beautiful hair. And boy-oh-boy did the Lord ever answer my prayers – she has spectacular long, tightly woven curls all over her head! Every spot that was once bald, is completely covered with thick, gorgeous curls.
People who are close enough to see her hair actually comment on her glorious curls. Some have questioned if I curl her hair like that. Ha! Nope, the Lord did it all. In fact if I pull her thick curls out, they actually stretch to about 8 inches!
So back to the story…..the other day I saw what I thought was a snag on my shirt. My knit shirt was relatively new and I thought, “Weird. I hadn’t seen that snag before. How in the world did that even happen?” I slowly lifted the shirt to look closer. I gently moved the snag. It was then that I realized that it was actually one of Ruby’s long curly hairs woven in and out and through the fibers of my shirt in that one little spot. It was a beautiful little mess.
I paused. How in the world did one of her hairs get woven so intricately into my shirt? Personally, I had to seriously stare at it. It had clearly and literally become completely woven into the fibers in this little spot on my shirt. Up, down, into the fibers in a most astounding way. I couldn’t see either end of that one strand of Ruby’s hair. It truly looked absolutely impossible that her curly little strand of hair could become intricately woven into my shirt like it was. To this moment, I’m still dumbfounded.
And while pausing to look closely at this unexplainable way Ruby’s hair was perfectly woven into my shirt in a tiny little messy-snaggy-looking spot the Lord instantly and gently whispered:
“The crisis, as horrible, devastating and traumatizing as it was, I was there. I saw every single minute element from the beginning. I was there from the second it began, through every unimaginable twist and turn, and as terrifying as it was, I was still there. There was not one second that I wasn’t there. For you, it was a debilitating mess, but for Me, My hand was present, working in the entire crisis every single second – even when your hope was wavering.
So what was His whisper about? Well, this past summer we walked through a family crisis. To be honest, I have never used the word “crisis” before in regards to any situation in our family. And even though, ONLY by God’s grace, the crisis has passed, the “aftershocks” are continually on Dw’s and my mind. Our family will never be the same. So His whisper about Ruby’s hair strand reminded me of all He had done to bring us through, and the word picture along with His words brought me tremendous comfort and peace. I cannot ever look at her curls again without being reminded of God’s magnificent power and astounding faithfulness.
After hearing that whisper from Him, I felt instantly that He wanted me to share it here. Gulp! “Because someone else needs to hear this.”
To be honest, it’s out of my comfort zone to even mention that we had a “crisis” because I am unable to talk about it at all. Only a handful of our very closest friends interceded, held our arms up and walked with us through it. Being out of my comfort zone to share that we had a crisis, yet knowing His whisper, I asked the Lord that IF He really wanted me to share the word, I would need Him to weave another of Ruby’s curls again through something so I could take a picture for the post since I had already tugged her beautiful curl out of my shirt. (I had never seen it before that first time.) I guess you could call it my “Gideon’s fleece” (Judges 6:36-40).
Within a day or two, there it was again! Ruby’s tee-shirt had one curly strand of her beautiful curls woven completely through the little spot of fibers in her shirt. It was kind of hard to take a close-up, but you get the idea.
In obedience to my best friend, Jesus, I am compelled to share. And I am sure someone out there needs to hear this:
Your situation is devastating, yet the Lord is carrying you. He sees it all. From beginning to the end, He is working. There is not one millisecond in time that His eyes have been, are, or will be off your crisis. He knows all the excruciating twists and turns and He is walking in them all, no matter what it looks like. He is aware of every detail. He has been, is, and will be 100% trustworthy. Worship Him.
Get your worship on. The Lord used His word, the prayers of close friends and worship to carry us through the crisis. This one played continually:
And while proofing this post, my dear prayer-warrior-friend, who walked through the crisis with us, calling to pray late at night when I would be sobbing my eyes out, just sent me this. The timing was only the Lord. I texted her back and told her I was working on a post right now regarding our crisis. Wow, wow, wow. Only God.
Thank you for this. I’ve just sent 23rd Psalm to 2 friends who needed that encouragement today.
Blessings Gail 🇦🇺
Praise the Lord, Gail, for His continual work. May your friends find hope, comfort and peace in the truths of God’s word.
Your faith and bravery is an inspiration to me! Thank you for posting this! Blessings to you. 🙂
Thank you Christine. I’m not really brave, just being obedient. And from the response it definitely ministered to many. Praise the name of the Lord!
I have noticed your posts but I haven’t had the time to read until today. This year has been a year. Places I know though “not right” in the Christian world and I will be judged for my decisions but that I need to do to be healthy for myself and my children (1 bio and currently 2 long term foster). I have spent this day thinking about what I’m going to believe God for in 2023 and I read this post. So many things have been so difficult that in 2 weeks I lost half my hair due to stress. I can feel the stress building again, not totally sure why but acknowledging that I need to believe I am walking the way I have been called and recognizing where I need to put my belief in Him to lead and guide me to health and spiritual growth. Thank you for the song and the Psalm. I will be printing it and adding it to my kitchen cupboards of quotes.
Nicole, I am grateful you stopped by. I pray that you can find your peace in Christ alone. He loves you so very much. Dig into His word and let it minister to you. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.