A Woodpecker's Surprise Visit--and When God Surprises Us, Too!

"Oh, look! A woodpecker!" Rose gasped this morning as she looked out our sliding glass door.

Her announcement interrupted the quiet studies of the three younger children who were doing their school work.

Sure enough, there was our friend, Mr. Woodpecker, probably the same one that I had seen a couple weeks ago on the trunk of the tree just outside my bedroom window.

On that day he was not alone! Mrs. Woodpecker was there with him!

Mr. Downy Woodpecker had just kept darting about up and down and around the tree trunk, as well as all about in the branches.

I was able to get several pictures of him. 

It was a lovely surprise!

A little like how it feels when the Lord suddenly pays you a surprise visit like He did this morning just before Carrie called for lunch, when I had come to sit down and read the emails.

There was one from Ed and Heather Durham (under HIM in Hungary and Slovakia) about an orphan named Anna who is a new girl at Bridge of Hope girls' transition home in Slovakia, the home where Carrie, Hannah, Jonathan and I had gone two springs ago to help put in a second bathroom, prep for painting the upstairs hall, work on another bedroom, and do other needed projects.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I read about this precious girl with my same name, and saw her picture, and read that she is attending church services, Bible studies, and youth services, and now she has asked to be baptized!  I thought how precious this unwanted girl is in God's sight. There is a home that wants her! There is a God that wants her!

And as I couldn't help laying my head down on my desk to thank God for this priceless piece of news and to pray for Anna and Natasha, the girls' home director, I felt like the Lord just suddenly came for a little visit.

Like that friendly woodpecker had suddenly appeared, God came gently out of nowhere.

All of a sudden, I thought of that wonderful trip to Slovakia about 19 months ago, and the work we'd done at the transition home, and how sick I was for days. But how much we had enjoyed our time there with Natasha and the girl who was living there at the time. 

And I remembered, too, the time probably 19 years ago in Ukraine, when Natasha, the girls' home director now, who was a college student then, was sitting in the kitchen of our log home with me, telling me sadly that she didn't think she had many talents, and didn't feel like she was worth anything.
And how I had explained several Scriptures to her about the value of us women in God's sight, even if we are just a homemaker and mother.
God loves to pay surprise visits to let us know we are worth something!
He gave me a surprise visit right there today, after reading that email.
He reminded me of the small part I had to play behind the scenes in this scenario, and how that small part, along with many others, was all part of His great big plan, for the lives of those in this transition home for orphans.
His surprise visit let me know my living was not in vain.
I had just come home Saturday evening after our daughter Carrie's violin recital, (she's the violinist in the center of the picture below) and after we got home, I sat in my seat in the van after Jonathan got out.

For a moment, I felt like a nobody who was not worthy of existing.
I guess it had something to do with how much of my early life included being involved in public music ministry and missions, and how little if any I am involved in music or what is typically thought of as "missions" or "ministry" anymore.
And I said something about this sense of worthlessness to Jonathan who came to open my door. 
There had been lots of somebodies there at the recital--teacher, students, accompanists, moderator, pastor of the church, photographers.
The next day there would be somebodies at church--pastor, mission director, Kids Club teacher, pianist, etc.
I was a nobody.
But I had made myself get out of the van. Resolutely I got a little food ready to eat.
I started washing dishes at the sink thinking, "Jesus, I'm washing these dishes for You."

In those acts, there had been a little bit of dying,
and a little bit of living.
Dying to being up front or being seen or heard, or even making a difference for somebody,
and being willing to just do an ordinary kitchen duty that wasn't very exciting.
Just God noticing.
But there was a little bit of living, too.
Doing the dishes for Jesus made it something beyond doing dishes.
It was doing this duty for Him.

I wasn't being a missionary or a spectacular person or a leader or a singer or musician or Sunday school teacher or someone up front,  just doing my common, ordinary housework at home with nobody to see except family, on purpose for Jesus.
By faith. No special surprise visit from God in those moments.
Just a resolute doing of my duty and being content with just that.

 

God's surprise visit let me know my dishwashing and cooking for my family and my interest in missions and unwanted girls was not in vain.  

Right now my three daughters are gone to town to play their instruments for an invalid.
It was their idea, not mine, though I had gotten them started last year. It is an incredible satisfaction to me to see my children choosing on their own to go use their newly gained musical skills for someone who can't get out and who is suffering.
No, I'm not somebody great or somebody up front.

But when God pays you a surprise visit, you know that you are valued!
You are worth something to Him!
And your living shall not be in vain!