Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Domino Effect

     
"As I was with Moses, so I will be with you;
I will never leave you or forsake you." 

Joshua 1:5b
     


          The concept was this. Your decisions affect other lives and you can have a positive effect, like the amazing domino creations we saw on a video from Domino Day 2008 or negative like a mistake that destroys what was being created. God means for us to do beautiful things and tell the generations to come of His works and provision. Again and again, He called the people of the Bible to tell of His works and goodness, to set up memorial stones and share the story of what He had done. 
     

         He calls us today to do the same thing. To live a life that compels others to learn about Him. He calls us to be one of the dominoes in the unfolding picture. After our pastor explained this to us, he called us to come get a domino as a reminder that God wants to work in and through us and that our decisions affect others. The main thing he wanted us to remember was the promise of Joshua 1:5 which says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”


        I had a time in the not-too-distant past where I felt God reminding me of that so I chose my domino with purpose. I wanted one with six dots and I found one that had one side that had six yellow dots. The other side was ten orange dots. I knew immediately what the 6 yellow dots meant but would come home to ponder the ten orange. 
When I claimed Joshua 1:5 as a promise from God I was with my mother who was terminally ill. I had brought a new CD over for her to listen to. She asked me to turn it up so I turned to the player to adjust the volume. When I turned back to face her, there was a beautiful rainbow of light above her head. In that moment I felt God tell me to claim a promise and I immediately thought of Joshua 1:5. There were tears in my eyes as I retrived my camera from the car and took a picture. 
     

Mom's rainbow of light
        She was blind most of her life and a Braille reader. In Braille code 6 dots (2 columns of 3 side-by-side) is called a full cell. Mom had told me that yellow is the color of light. Those six yellow dots mean that Jesus is the light of the world Who makes my joy complete (full). 


      Now about those orange dots. Orange is a combination of red and yellow. Red, the color of His shed blood and yellow being His light. The orange dots surrounded an empty space which represents how alone I sometimes feel. What He did and Who He is combining to surround my emptiness in a merciful embrace. But why ten dots? I remembered a story about the 12 spies who went to check out the Promised Land. Two said the land God was giving them was beautiful. Ten said there’s no way we can take it. There are giants. 

     Ten forgot God’s provision.


     There will always be those people who surround me to say, ‘There’s no way you can do it. You don’t deserve God’s love. He’d never use a loser like you.’ But God is there with me in the midst of the negativity. He leans in and whispers, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” That is all I need to hear. 


     Even if you hear ten negative comments a day; even if your rent is raised by more than ten percent; even if ten months out of the year your child struggles with school God is there. The truth spoken in Joshua 1:5 is still true. 

He will never leave you or forsake you.

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