Packing for the Unknown

To pack a home while memories come tumbling out is exhausting.

Chaos in rooms and chaos of emotions trip my steps.  

Fumbling thoughts disturb attempted order and halt the organizing.  And, so, I stumble.  

My knees get sore as I fall over and over while trying to walk in my own strength.  But on my knees, I am stable and the right perspective of heart comes while kneeling. God knocks me there when I walk in my own strength trying to remove the tumbling, fumbling, and stumbling.  And while I am there, I pray.

Father, how do I do this?  

And He reminds me of Abraham's Sarah.

Circumstances brought chaos into the life of Sarah in what could be described as a mid-life crises. About the age of 65, which was about half her life, her husband told her to pack as he shared the words the Lord spoke to him:

Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father's house,

To the land which I will show you;

Genesis 12:1

She packed, left her homeland, and did not know a destination.  But she followed her husband who was following God.  (A blessing!)

I understand better, now, why she was listed as one of two females in the "Hall of Faith" (Hebrews 11.)  It is heart wrenching to leave your home and not know a destination.  This woman, who was already disgraced among women by being barren, was being removed from her country, relatives, and home.  No blessing, no security, except hope in her God.  

Sarah trusted and packed.  

And God blessed her.

Father, make me like Sarah.  As I pack in the midst of our circumstances, cover me like You did her!  I pray for a gentle and quiet spirit and to do what is right without being frightened like You wrote in 1 Peter 3:3-6:

And let not your adornment be merely external . . .

but let it be the hidden person of the heart,

with the imperishable quality

of a gentle and quiet spirit,

which is precious in the sight of God.

For in this way in former times

the holy women also, who hoped in God,

used to adorn themselves, . . .

Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord,

and you have become her children

if you do what is right

without being frightened by any fear.

Whenever the Lord says pack for something unknown, I'm thinking the most important things we pack are the "knee pads of His Word."  

Love always,

Angie

P.S.  And it's a thoughtful gift when a friend packs the "knee pads" for you!!  

Now may the God of hope

fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

that you may abound in hope

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13