There are new things on the horizon, a convergence going on between sun and jet streams, and the thoughts and deep impressions of hope and a future from God into my weary heart.
It’s funny, for saying the sky can’t really make an audible sound, it’s crazy-amazing how loudly it speaks to me.
There’s this culminating message I’ve been hearing in my heart: you’re not at a stand-still in life. Nor is life the hamster wheel that it feels.
There is convergence and new things on the horizon for both me and you, and it’s time to step into the new thing!
I’ve been getting this message: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19 NIV)
God’s vibrant thoughts and hope breaks through again, in an unexpected moment. God’s thoughts that outnumber the grains of the sand (Psalm 139) are heading towards me at lightning speed: this time looking like clouds and sun. Hope is springing up.
But it takes some time and space for me to recognize it. Apparently, just like Isaiah pointed out, I realize that I need someone to ask me, “Do you not perceive it?”
So one day I was driving my kids to school (it was more than a year ago when I took this picture with my smart phone!) and I spent the rest of that day mulling over God’s thoughts that started to pour through my head. I started this blog entry then and I’m still learning and listening.
I’d seen this sort of sky before, but that day in particular, it struck me different yet again. It built on another group of grains-of-sand-thoughts that I had had a few months earlier, when I saw a similar yet simpler couple of jet streams crossing the sky.
God is writing a letter to me every day, adding new paragraphs and deeper thoughts, without actually using words. I began hearing the word convergence in my head, looking at this sky, criss-crossed with X’s, made by airplanes … soaring across the sky … doing what jets were made to do.
So I leaned in to find the place where this is actually found in my life.
I’m in the process of having that map written on my heart, bit by bit, daily by God.
And then, I begin to think of what I was made to do. My dreams of writing, singing, being creative. Creating space for heaven to invade earth and people to encounter a vibrant connection with God.
There were exactly 11 jet stream crosses in the sky that day.
And it’s interesting, that the number eleven in the bible often represents transition and change into a new season.
I’m thinking that for me and many others, this is a season where something new is on our horizon, convergence is occuring – God’s heart and deep plans breaking in suddenly to those places we are seeking to find God’s heart and plans for us.
An example of this: Deuteromy 11:11 talks about Israel crossing over into their Promised Land – the land that represented the end of slavery and a new lifestyle of peace and great inheritance from God! Just like their path was crossing over into new territory, my own life has been. Maybe yours too?
I have definitely come through a season of transition and changes. That’s a fact.
After homeschooling my kids for so many years, my youngest was finally off to ‘bricks and mortar school’ last year (now in grade 7).
I spent years preparing others for transition, but sort of forgot about myself.
Also, this is a season of convergence and new things on the horizon.
My eyes and ears are open wide – trying to spot it, at every juncture of my personal life. Leaning in to hear what God is saying.
Dr Lance Wallnau talks about personal convergence being simply being the place where all your God-given gifts, skills, abilities, and life purposes meets up, or converges, with life opportunities like work/ school / life roles.
Wow! This kind of living makes a huge impact on the lives around you it’s a game-changer
… and it helps you be a world changer!
[FREE! Read Lance’s life changing book/ PDF called The Convergence Code]
So, convergence and new things on your horizon … what does that look like? How do you find out, how do you ask?
Again it reminds me of the small boy Samuel in the ancient Temple, and the phrase that he learned in the night, when He heard God’s voice and didn’t know how to respond. “Speak Lord, Your servant is listening.”
It’s the same with me. Maybe you can relate. It has felt like night. And I think I’ve heard His voice, but I’m not sure. So I pause, and ask Him again to speak.
I’ve heard this lesson a few times now – “I’m doing a new thing … don’t you get it Jenn?” I let Him know that I’m listening. (He already knows that though.)
[That’s why He’s speaking to me with signs in the sky this time.]
I need to hear those words … “I am listening” … flowing out of my own heart. Somehow it helps me hear better.
So, what is He saying? He doesn’t mind telling me again.
I listen.
Eventually I let Him jostle the unbelief out of my heart, so that I can actually understand the impression that He has put on my heart.
I let His Love and Hope in. Let the fear slide out. Feel the intimidation retreat away. I stop disqualifying myself from the dream that God has placed in my heart.
All this from a jet stream? And sunshine?
Sure, you might think this picture is a stretch – but I choose to believe that God wants us to see and understand His love of communication with us, call it prayer if you like. He demonstrates the overlap and connection of His “thoughts towards us” and our responses, beautifully. Pretty much everywhere you look.
It’s like He’s connecting the dots in my life. Making sense of things that have puzzled me.
This takes time.
Word pictures from God, like a great find in a treasure hunt, shouting messages of hope to me from up above. God is intersecting my life in everything around me!
And I am awakening to the brilliant connection, yet again, that God is gloriously present in mundane moments.
Come to find out that those moments where I felt life was just a hamster-wheel existence, were actually just another part of that deep thread of Emmanuel, God-with-us moments!
“Christ became human flesh and lived among us. We saw His shining-greatness. This greatness is given only to a much-loved Son from His Father. He was full of loving-favor and truth.” (John 1:14, NLV)
“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.” (John 1:14, NLT)
Seems like Jesus made the plunge into mundane life on earth, just to be with us. And show us exactly Who the Father is, and what it looks like when He interacts in our daily.
The gospels are full of stories where Jesus did mundane daily things like walking, boating, sleeping, mountain climbing, praying, going to festivals, picking corn, teaching, enjoying historical buildings …. And everywhere He showed up ‘hamster wheel living’ took a supernatural turn into moments of encountering the Father’s heart.
My appetite’s whet for more convergence. More encounter.
Everywhere we look, God’s with us. Speaking. Whispering. Giving us signs in the sky.
Elizabeth Barret Browning, wrote in her poem Aurora Leigh: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, And daub their natural faces unaware.”
Yes! I want to be awake to His reality streaming into every moment of my life!
The convergence, new things on the horizon; I am growing into awareness of the ways God is pouring His heart out to you and me:
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard.
[Yet] their sound has gone out through all the earth,
and their utterances to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4 NASB)
And He’s using things like jets streams, clouds, and the blazing sun, filling up the sky. He’s getting my attention. And He is showing me that His glory is streaming towards me, and that the plans that He has for me are amazing. Tailor-made. Custom-fit. And that they will come to pass.
Which almost seems to defy logic and reason, because I am almost 46 years old. And I don’t feel my life has actually followed the exact blueprint that I had laid out so many years ago.
But that is exactly God’s point today.
He’s giving us clear pictures of how intent He is on connecting with us. Loving us. Leading us through life’s maze and choices.
He knows I’m made of dust, and that sometimes I need a little encouragement.
Or a big encouragement – like when God is using the sky as His canvas.
And like all great works of art He’s giving me His message.
On this great canvas, God has woven His beautiful sun that He created, and merged it with the jet streams. It’s like mixed media by a Great Artist.
And if I could do that kind of math:
I would find the equation of His thoughts outnumbering the grains of sand, and how many people exist on planet earth today, and I would come up with a number that none of us can grasp.
Then I realize how infinitely vast God is – and if He can keep track of all those conversations and thoughts and plans – I am in Good Hands with my life and dreams.
What is He saying to you today?
Could it be that for you too that this is a season of convergence, new things on the horizon to hear from God about and lean into a season of freedom and dreams fulfilled?
Ask Him to open your eyes to see, and your ears to hear, and your heart to understand – and then stand back and be amazed at what God is speaking into your heart today.
Copyright (c) 2019 Jennifer Bryant-Choong. All Rights Reserved.
