woody woodpecker

"In Him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

God is the source of all our strength and knowledge. Without Him we can do nothing. With Him on our side, we can do everything. Why worry about life when God is there helping you.

May 2002 Colorado USA, I woke to the sound of a wood pecker just outside our cabin window, It was beautiful, crimson head, black back and white chest gracefully hanging on to the side of the tree pecking away. As I lay there in my bed captivated by this magical sight, God spoke to me in an almost audible voice and said "everything I make is beautiful". I agreed with him in my mind and got out of bed and continued on with my day.

I had been feeling unwell since arriving in America and had put it down to jet lag, when that should have worn off I decided it must be altitude sickness as we were up so high in the mountains, however too much time had passed for that to be a plausible scenario any longer.

Because I already had 5 children that required little effort to conceive I decided to take a home pregnancy test, to my absolute surprise It came up with a positive result. i was dumbfounded how could this be , here we were in a new country that we were to live in. I had packed up my home in Australia to live in Nashville for 2 years, what on earth was God thinking!!! Clearly he was out of his mind.

By now I am running around our little cabin shocked, panicked, bewildered, thinking what am I to do and God came to me again and said to me " everything I make is beautiful" .
As most women would do in a frenzied state , I quickly shoved that thought out of my head and began screaming for Mike. He was in the woods playing with the kids, he came running to the sound of my screams to the sight of me standing on the porch waving a pregnancy test like it was a hand grenade through the air.
"what what" Mike said to me looking very startled "look look " I replied while still screaming and waving the small white offending article. " who's is that" was my sharp husbands response.... "who do you think, mine, who else, do you think I got it from a bear in the woods".
At that point I calmed a little and we both sat there on the porch silent for a long moment. Do not be anxious about anything Philippians 4:6
My brain was racing, what will we do, we have no home, no money, no job, a road trip tour with Rebeca St James to do, three other band members and their families with us for the ride, aaahhhh. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Mathew 6:28

Then again God said "everything I make is beautiful" This time I heard and paid attention, I rememberd the woodpecker that I saw earlier that morning and I could hear God speaking to me gently in a still small voice that I could not hear over my out of control ranting.
So there we were , pregnant again, in one short morning going from devastation to joy and bliss only because I listened to that small voice of God telling me that my little baby was yet another brick in the wall of Gods plan for the Lane family, piece by piece he was creating our family.

Two months later God gave me a little test, I believe, to bring be back in line with his thinking. I was starting to get a little ahead of myself and getting very cranky about the future , well to be honest I was being a down right grump to everyone who would stay around long enough to listen to me. We were playing Sunday baseball with the Smallbone family, I even hit a couple of home runs. When we returned home I began to bleed, never with all of my pregnancies had I had such a thing, Mike took me straight to hospital, I was a mess, crying repenting telling God how sorry I was for thinking that maybe I only wanted 5 kids. I remember crying saying " please please God don't take my baby" God then said again " Everything I make is Beautiful". I knew then that we were home and hosed.. It was all going to be fine . Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Sometimes God throws us curve balls, sometimes it is just life throwing the ball, however no matter who is doing the ball throwing God is always there to walk you through it . You just need to sometimes change direction. Change is always a good thing if you have God with you for the change, he only wants you to grow.
God is the master potter if we only let him . He will mould our lives into far more than we ever dreamed was possible, then only that he can use us effectively is to shape us .
Isaiah 64: 8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Romans 9: 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

Today my precious Meg is 6 years old, I would not give her up for all the Tea in China. She completes our family, her smile, the way she loves people, the way she loves God, her sheer joyfulness, her incredible beauty, and those eyes oh those eyes.
Meg is my little woodpecker..