Have you ever felt a pull so deep and strong on your soul you know something’s missing, yet you have no idea what has a hold on your heartstrings…
What’s missing?
What’s this feeling?
Where’s this coming from?
It’s brewing, stirring, simmering – just like a stew. Thickening, getting richer, pulling me in, like the aroma wafting from the kitchen on the first cool day of fall when a pot of chili or stew is on the stove, bubbling away.
Pulling me into the rich fragrance, tugging me in for a closer look, me lifting the lid, breathing in deeply – and then spooning a tiny taste of that savory feast onto the tip of my tongue. And it satisfies. Oh, how it satisfies the yearning.
Yet there’s no taste available for what’s pulling at my soul.
Ever felt an odd tug on your heart strings?
Yea, me too. Today.
We’re in North Louisiana for our college homecoming – not something we normally attend – yet my husband’s fraternity is reuniting over the weekend and reminiscing over 40 years of memories for many.
A yearning to return to simpler times, the land of tall pines, majestic oaks and towering pecan trees where people still sit on their boat docks and back decks to visit…that’s pulling hard on my heart strings today.
Finding calm on the bayou…
Feet up
Chair slightly tilted back
Dappled sunlight streaming down
Breeze brushing by with an occasional gusty thrust
Oh, grab the papers!
And settle back in
Secure
Serene
Seduced
By the beauty of the bayou
Finding calm…
In the cypress trees
with the knotty knees
that line the banks of the bayou
Spanish moss gracefully drapes from the boughs
and brushes the surface of the water
breaking the stillness briefly…
Oh, to sit at His feet
Feel His heart beat
Oh, by the way, the verses I was led to today are Deuteronomy 4:38-40 and Deuteronomy 5:33…return to the land I’m giving you. What are You stirring in me, Lord?
And I sigh.
Yes, God is nigh.
I see Him
His beauty
His majesty
Peace settles in. His peace.
“Sit with Me,” I hear.
“Yes, Father,” I whisper.
I’m finding calm at the bayou today…
Unless a snake slithers by or a gator growls!
Like this one did recently. Then I’d be grabbing the sky, look high, saying “Grab my hand to gather me in, Lord! They are scary critters.”
Why are they here? What’s their purpose, I wonder. Yet no wayward wanderers break the surface of the bayou, thank God.
Hummmm…
“What’s below, God?” I ask.
“You know…So sit with Me and BE,” He invites.
Wanna join me?