Landmarks whiz past. Road signs are a blur. Until we come upon a city sign in the middle-of- nowhere Nebraska. "Hmmm," my husband muses. "Omaha, isn't that where Craig Langemeier from Pine Cove is from?" How does he do that? It cracks me up everytime. We could be in Mosheim, Texas and he remembers the guy with the balding head from chemistry class his third year at Baylor. For some unknown reason, knowing where people are from is important to Duane.
Isn't that one of the first things we ask people at the church bar-be-que (that's Texan for picnic)? It's a hard question for me in a sense because I moved seven times before I was nine, and then at 13, we moved from upstate New York to Plano, Texas. And I never have embraced saying "ya'll." I have hung on to "you guys" even to the point of embarrassment! My high school band director accused me of being a "woman's libber" when I ran all over the practice field picking up pivot points that he told the "guys" to get. It really helps to know where you're from.
Jesus knew. John 13:3 says, "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. I think knowing from where we come gives us our identity. Are you Scottish? an Aggie? an orphan? And then I think knowing where we are going fuels us with purpose and power. What's my destination? I just put together that destination and destiny come from the same root word. wow. Maybe a better question is, what's your destiny?
Where do you come from? Have you ever wondered where you come from in God? For years I have known in my head that I'm a child of God, but I've never really experienced that. Until February of this year. In a hotel room I encountered God as my Father. Through one crazy little verse: Job 38:28-"does the rain have a father? who fathers the drops of dew?" I lost it. His glorious presence filled the room until all shreds of doubt were squeezed out of my heart. I guess I should explain that a year ago, I was challenged to ask God a question. "God, who do you want to be for me in this season of my life?," Graham Cooke posited. He offered others' answers like, shepherd, defender, bridegroom, or friend. Well, I heard "dew." Huh? "yes, dew."
My search through scriptures for verses on dew was quite refreshing and surprising. But the verse that revealed the biggest clue as to dew was Proverbs 19:12, "A king's rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass." Favor, what's that? What does it mean that I have God's favor? Jesus said that he came to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Lk. 4:18-19), so I ought to know what that means. In Hebrew, the word for favor is rasah and means, "to be pleased with, accept, take pleasure in, delight in, to like, love, be fond of, to be favorable to." Astounding. Because of Christ, God is especially fond of me. Graham Cooke adds that having God's favor means that He has an "intentional bias" towards us, His children. He wants me to live, and move, and have my being in His "unceasing magnificence" towards me!
In that stale hotel room, He magnificently whispered, "My little dewdrop, you are being born into a kingdom far, far away where joy reigns and love rules the land. " I now know that I know that I know, I am not of this world. I am from above. Where are you from?
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