The Arrow in the Sky!

After days of being deluged with gray skies and rain, I was ecstatic to awake to clear blue skies and fall-like temperatures!

My husband took a vacation day to celebrate with me. We donned our windbreakers and rode the Katy Trail noting the green canopies of trees, twenty turtles basking in the sun on logs by the trail, and birds doing what we wished we could do without offending anyone, sing!

Coming home, I could not resist the hammock in the back yard. I sat sideways so I could rock myself and look up at the sky which now was sporting various fluffs of small white clouds. With a cool breeze at my back, I was able to watch the clouds float by and felt like I did as a child. You know the times when you watched the clouds and saw pictures in them? I always struggled as a child to see any pictures at all. Now, reflecting on that, it was probably because I was so near sighted. I only saw white blurs. No one discovered how poor my eyesight was until I was in 7th grade!

But that is another story.

Today,thanks to contacts, I smiled as I saw lobsters, rabbits, and numerous shapes float by me. The shapes disappeared almost as quickly as they formed because of the strong winds today. Just as I was about to leave, one shape formed much like the one above yet it pointed down. In fact, it went horizontally then bent down pointing at one of my backyard neighbor's homes. There were no jets, by the way, making arrows in the sky either. This was a thick, directional arrow very much like the one in the picture.

A little prompting inside me told me to call that neighbor. Well, that just felt silly. Then, I thought, if a star could guide wise men to Jesus, perhaps a cloud-arrow was prompting me to call my neighbor.

This is not a neighbor I talk with regularly. In fact, I met her for the first time last summer. She came to my neighborhood prayer session. I had put a yard sign in the front of my house inviting any neighbors to come for bagels, coffee, and prayer. I met many women from my neighborhood who shared their stories and blessed my life. This neighbor was one of the women. She shared with us how she had retired to care for her husband who had developed suddenly a rare, painful brain disease. Her sacrifice and love were strong testimony to us seated around my kitchen table.
She could not attend our prayer sessions often because it was hard to leave her husband. Denying offers to help watch him while she took a break, she simply asked for prayer.

I realized seeing the cloud-arrow that I had not checked on her in a long time, not since after Christmas.

I called. She shared with me her husband had just passed away. We talked a little. Again, she turned down offers of help and asked for prayer. She was at peace knowing her husband was out of pain and in heaven. She missed him, of course.

I hung up the phone, puzzled. I knew that call was meant to happen, but why? What did it accomplish for her? For me? I was too late.

Then again, perhaps not. Now the arrow must point up, right? She needs my prayers. Our prayers.

Being a care giver day in and day out for a loved one takes its toll. Now her home is empty and her time...well, her new-found excess of time may become a conundrum.

So let's pray for Deanna. Lift her up for God's Holy Spirit to comfort and continue to show her God's love and plan for her life, even now without her husband.

... And no, I don't go looking for signs or arrows in the sky. -But this has taught me to listen to those promptings from God to act, to call, to check on others and get out of my own little world, my own obsessions with my own problems more often.

What about you? What promptings have you received lately from God? Here's hoping you are able to act on them...

For His Glory,
Gretchen