Your Window
LAST WEEK
I shared with you the view from out “My Window.”
AND I ASKED YOU TO
look again out your own window. To think about what you see? And to ask, “do the choices you have made and the ones you have yet to make really matter? Is who you are in this powerful new season of life still important to God? To others?”
And the best part?
YOU INVITED ME
to look with you … to see what you are seeing through “Your Window.”
Nancy E — Washington writes: “Do I matter? I looked out my window this morning and saw the sunbeams lighting the holly tree with its red berries, and the green fir needles turned golden with the light. And I called my only surviving first cousin in Illinois, who is mourning the recent death of her husband and is lonely. And in our conversation, we laughed and she felt joy. And so did I. Precious God sightings.”
Ozzie T — from Texas shares the sadness he sees through his window … and the hope. He writes, “I believe there was a Reason why I found the message from a friend, which compelled me to write to you during this time.” I agree with you, Ozzie. We all need new friends in Life’sThird Age don’t we? Ozzie is 82. I am 83. And I like your name. A different ‘Ozzie’ gave me a job and taught me how to set type the old-fashioned way in his downtown Seattle printshop while I was working my way through Bible College. I was 19, in my first year of marriage. ‘Ozzie’ loved Jesus and became more than a boss to me. He saw potential in me. He was my friend.
LaJuana — Missouri says: “Thanks for this post, Ward. My bro and I have both been ‘looking out our window’ to see what God has for us in the months ahead. When one has that call of ministry on his/her life, it never diminishes. It just finds new doors to walk through! Blessings to you in 2021, sir.”
Mark and Melinda — Washington DC write, “It makes me wonder how many of us in our pandemic world (going days without even getting in a car), are now more actively dreaming about an eventual post-COVID life, returning to ‘normal,’ and maybe making it mean more with our ‘do’ of life. When the ‘do’ of our pre-COVID life is taken away (for the most part), one realizes how much of that ‘do’ in our lives didn't matter as much as we thought it did. Time will tell I suppose, if the regrouping on the 'do' is more meaning-filled than before.”
Lori — Oregon writes, “I too look forward to what our Lord has in store!”
Sharon D — California writes, “My same thoughts have passed down this road. The view that I see when I get up and into a chair that helps me get dressed, l look out a sliding glass door and see birds and all the new plants striving to live. Not the beautiful trees l was used to now blackened by fire (Tom and Sharon lost their home in one of California’s devastating fires). How can I help you today Lord? Stay in touch HE says. Here we are waiting for His guidance and wisdom.”
“Aye Matey that IS the question” — says Roberta — Washington.
Betty M — South Carolina, writes, “That is such a question I have been thinking about a lot. I keep praying that He will direct my path and lead me to the next adventure in 2021. I am staying very close in His Word … and wishing you all the best for the New Year. It just has to be better!”
Betty S — Indiana writes, “Thank you for this post … funny, I was just silently questioning God about the same thing this morning as I awoke to being 87, retired, and no goals in mind … wondering if I was ‘done’ doing God’s work or if there was something else. I never gave it a thought that I would grow to be this age as my mother died when she was 49, my dad at 61. Both my brothers who were older than I stepped into Heaven many years ago. And my husband was there to greet them as he stepped into Heaven in 1999 … so why am I still here? Waiting ‘impatiently’ for God’s leading as I can’t imagine that His Plan for me is over when I am still here. Patience is NOT my virtue so there MUST be more … anxiously awaiting what’s around the curve …?”
Martha A — Washington says, “Well, Pastor Ward, I can respond to one of your questions with a resounding YES....who you are and what you are doing in this stage of life definitely matters to others and most definitely to me. You are able to articulate the thoughts, questions, fears, concerns that I, for one, face. Sometimes I haven’t even named these until I read your blog and can say, Yes! That is how I feel, that is what concerns me. Yay! I’m not alone in this.”
Jodi D — Washington, says encouragingly, “Your perspective always refreshes and refines mine. Your words and thoughts … bear a heavy weight of hope and truth. Thank you so much for continuing to use the gift God has given you to touch lives for Him. May your window view in 2021 bring peace and delight!”
TO THESE AND OTHERS
who this week have shared the view from “Your Window” with me, my deepest thanks. It has been humbling and enriching to see through “Your Windows,” to look out on life together with you. To see what you see and feel what you feel … the light and the darkness, the joy and the pain. Maybe this is what “loving your neighbor as yourself”[1] is really about.
Thank you for your encouraging words, some shared here, others so personal I keep them close in my heart.
IF YOU’VE NOT DONE SO RECENTLY let me invite you again to look out your window. If you have someone with which to share the view, all the better. It’s not too late. In fact, it’s just the right time. What is it you see? Who is God in your life right now? Do the choices you have made and the ones you have yet to make really matter? Is who you are in this powerful new season of life still important to God? To others? If the answer for you is “Yes!” then who shall you be and what shall you do with the years that remain?
Happy New Year.
May the Lord bless and keep you close in 2021.
[1] Mark 12:30-31