As I write this, I’m looking out at our front yard. Each week, new flowers bloom in places where we had no idea bulbs slept underground all winter. It’s so much fun to see the green stalks pop up, often in unexpected places. But even then, I don’t know what color the flowers will be; sometimes I don’t even know what kind of flower they are. It’s a continual feast of delightful surprises. We don’t know what’s been planted before. Maybe it was years ago that someone toiled to put the seeds in the ground and water them. I can imagine them envisioning what the yard would look like some day, carefully planning the colors. Hopefully they were able to see it. But they had to leave it to us, to the ones who came along behind them. Now we’ve been entrusted with the caretaking of our garden. And our community.

And so I wait. I wait for the flowers and I wait for God to show me, to show Steve and me together, exactly what it is that He has for us to do in our new town. What is our unique place and what can we do to reach our community? I find that, once again, I’m living out the universal truth of my book –  God will enable us to do whatever He calls us to do, wherever that will be. The stories in We Wait You began 20 years ago and now I’m living out new stories as I wait on God. Hopefully that well will never run dry. As we wait, Steve and I will continue to do what we know to do. We’ll live our lives in dependence and intimacy with our Maker, submitting our agenda to His each day.

As we wait on God to make the specifics clear, I’m sure we’ll be amazed by marks of His beauty and care that will pop up in surprising places, like the flowers in our garden. I started to write that we’ll find unexpected blessings as we follow Him, but I suppose the word “unexpected” is superfluous. I do expect blessings from the One who has lavished His abundant grace upon me. I just can’t predict in what form, or where, those blessings will be found. The fun part will be the discovery.