A wave of nostalgia blindsided me as I took down the last of
my students’ artwork from the show. As I pulled out the last of the pushpins, I
realized that I wouldn’t be doing this again as I’m retiring this year. God had
blessed me so much with this career as an art teacher. I made wonderful friends
with some of my colleagues, had fun teaching, made a good salary, learned a lot
about art and teaching kids. As I thought about how I happened on this job, I
stood in awe of God’s amazing provision and timing.
One afternoon after returning from picking up my kids from
school, I listened to my answering machine and heard the rich. deep voice of a
man asking me to interview at a school called, The Circle of Courage. I figured
it was a private school, but I didn’t’ remember applying for the position of an
art teacher. The next day I discovered it turned out to be a public special
education school. They had seen my application on-line. Since I had my
undergraduate degree in both art and my masters in special education, I got the
job, which turned out to be a god-send.
Not only had God provided me with a job, he brought great
colleagues around me who became good friends. Yet that day of the art show
deinstallation, I wasn’t reflecting on that particular aspect of my job. I was
thinking about God’s faithfulness to me over the years. It brought on more
waves of nostalgia as I reflected on how deeply God had blessed us.
My husband and I started out poor, living in Vermont on a
shoestring budget. He ate a lot of bologna sandwiches and I cooked many
casseroles. Though I had a part time job teaching art, at that time Vermont
paid teachers less than forty of the other fifty states. As one realtor
proclaimed, we were church mouse poor.
When we moved back to New York with a beautiful new baby, we
lived with our mother in law for a while. Then we rented for a number of years
after that. I kept a tight grip on the money and pinched every penny. We
finally bought our first house, an 800 square foot former one room school house
divided into five tiny rooms: Kitchen and breakfast nook, two bedrooms, living
room and small bathroom. While crowded with three children, both my husband and
I have fond memories of the house and our time with the children.
As I drove home and entered our present home, I was very
thankful for our house of nearly thirty years, but nostalgic for the times our
children were younger and grew up here. While they never had a lot of material
things, I always tried to do as many free things as possible with them and
tried to raise them with large doses of love and Christian principles. While we
had our fair share of problems, challenges and crisis, God always saw us
through.
My husband and I just celebrated our forty first year of
marriage, and I saw the tremendous blessing of the Lord for persevering, being
faithful and staying married through thick and thin. Not only did we celebrate
our anniversary, but I celebrated my sixty-sixth birthday! Perhaps all of this
celebrating brought on my thankfulness and nostalgic waves, which began to
subside as I contemplated the wonderful life God has given me.
Throughout all of these years I have seen God open the heavens
and pour out a blessing—in my job, with friends, family, children, career,
ministry and church. Just the other day my two daughters, son-in-law and one-and-a-half-year-old
grandson went to a museum together for my birthday and out to dinner. It was a
wonderful time together! The week before I had a delicious dinner that my
daughter in law cooked for me, while we played with our other two
grandchildren. I say this not to boast of God's blessing , but to attest to HIs faithfulness.
These are just samples of how richly God has blessed me and my
family, not because we’re special, but because of his great love and
faithfulness. Jesus asks, “What man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will
give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will
he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who
ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).
God desires to bless, but we must follow His principles. They
are not a guarantee of material blessing, but of spiritual blessing. He desires
to give us what is good for us by his standard. One Bible version translates good
as God giving more of His Holy Spirit, which then intercedes and helps us to
have the power to obey God and His Word. As we obey godly principals of trusting
God with our money, our relationships, our emotions, our careers, our children
and family, He pours out the blessings. Sometimes they are material, but often
not. It took many years of sowing good seeds to reap a good return. Years of
heartache, loneliness, struggles with my husband, children, lack of career and
money brought me to my knees and a deeper relationship with God. Over the
years, I found that He is so merciful, loving and gracious and wants all of us
to live in His presence, which is the greatest blessing of all! Though I may
get nostalgic sometimes, I know these are the best of times because God is here
with me in the present. He’s just waiting for me to turn to Him and remember He
is a good, good Father.
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