Samuel the prophet erected an alter, Ebenezer or Stone of Help, to memorialize the Philistine’s defeat by the Israelites. This became a place to look back, remember God’s mighty work, and find strength for the future. God was, is and always will be faithful. I Samuel 7:12
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Keith and I didn’t actually raise our second child, we just rode the wave hoping to manage speed and direction as best we could. Melissa exited the womb with a solid sense of her own autonomy. We informed her we had to provide life sustaining necessities, but food and air quality were at our discretion, so proceed with caution. As she ended her junior year of high school and her senior year began, she made it clear there were no plans to attend an in-state university. I should insert here, when she was twelve she grew angry with me and applied to a boarding school in Boston. Sometimes the wave is a tsunami! Anyway, she submitted applications, made college visits, and prayed for God’s direction. Unbeknownst to us, her wonderful high school counselor (Mr. Lannie McConnell) encouraged her to apply to an Arkansas college in order to secure various scholarships she would forfeit if deadlines passed. Miss Moxie pretended to ignore solid advice, but secretly contacted one of the most academically elite and financially demanding schools in Arkansas.
First semester, senior year ended and the second began. Friends were making acceptance announcements, but Melissa did not feel a clear call. March arrived with Keith and I growing impatient. Right before spring break, Melissa took off to Bethany, Oklahoma for a recruitment weekend at Southern Nazarene University. She felt her answer would come. On Sunday evening car tires crunched in the drive and I waited at the door for a big announcement. Instead, a teary eyed girl walked into my kitchen and laid her head on my shoulder. “Mom, I just don’t know what to do.” Holding her, I inhaled the scent of my precious child and reminded myself that she was God’s before she was mine. Then, I told her she had some junk mail. She loved keeping the college brochures that came, so I saved them all. She reached for a big manilla envelope, opened it and black and orange confetti rained down. Melissa looked up with a countenance of peace I will never forget. She grinned and said, “I think I’m going to Hendrix. I hear my answer!” Dad came in about that time and we all began flipping through the pages of scholarship offers, financial obligations, mission opportunities and black and orange confetti…….. In the presence of the Holy Spirit.
With confirmation and great excitement, Melissa embarked on four rigorous years of challenges, triumphs and a failure or two. Hendrix was her glass slipper, designed perfectly by her Creator. Soon she was off to graduate school. She studies theatrical costume design, the call she feels, but hears regularly her fate will be a position at Olive Garden. Sometimes, the load of a waiting future is heavy and she asks me, “Mom, did I do the right thing, did I make the right choice?” So, we return to that alter in the kitchen, our Ebenezer, and remember, God was faithful then, He is now and He will be tomorrow, just obey.
Build an Ebenezer or two (or a million). Return often and take someone with you. Tell them of your miracle and a faith that knows another and another is on the way.
Love,
Gretchen