SPOILER ALERT! This week is for adults only!
Happy Easter to those who celebrate! This year, I managed to find very specific things for our granddaughter’s Easter basket that I knew she would love. I wanted her to know that the Easter Bunny really sees her and knows what she likes, making her feel special and helping her to know he’s real.
We wrote her annual letter from the Easter Bunny and created successive clues that had to be placed in the right spot, in the right order, for the hunt to work. It’s a wee bit complex, but so fun! Confirmed with a test run, I set it up so that she is guided properly from one clue to the next, without missing anything I intended for her to find.
When we woke up and came out of our bedroom, she was waiting for us. She was a little sad and told us the Easter Bunny didn’t come this year. She had looked all over for the paper clues like last year, and didn’t find any. (GULP!)
Thank goodness the clues
were tucked away good enough the night before, and that the basket had yet to be placed to match the final clue. I gave her a hug and said maybe he knows she’s gotten smarter and hid them even harder? I distracted her in another room, so my husband could plant the letter and put the basket at the destination of the final clue.
More in a sec, but
I realized as I was telling a friend how we do the Easter Basket hunt that this is how I believe God operates for each of us.
By the way, if you say “universe” or some other label for God, or you are presently agnostic or atheist, change the verbiage for today to suit you. I was a God-hater for twenty years and can understand how what man does in
the name of God can ruin God’s name. I’m so grateful for the healing I have experienced over the years to restore my faith and am happy to share my journey with you. Email me anytime.
Anyway, I believe God has very specific, amazing things placed in and through our lives for us to find at just the right time and in the right order. These gifts will
speak clearly to our hearts and demonstrate that we are known individually, and that our desires matter.
Perhaps my grand-daughter didn’t see any clues because she wasn’t being rightly guided? She was going off her past experiences, but life often goes outside what we know and takes us to new places. She looked for anything she could find, without
seeking help (and waiting for Mama G and Poppy to wake up!). She wanted the clues to be obvious, like neon signs, but that’s not how an Easter basket hunt works, and usually not how God works either.
How often are we looking for something, but we're looking for the wrong things, or we’re not “seeing it” because it doesn’t look like what we thought we
were looking for? Before the “fourth clue” can be recognized, we have to be able to spot the first three.
If we're expectant of something but not seeing anything, it doesn't mean our gifts aren’t here. Maybe our eyes aren't ready to see what’s next yet? What a crazy confusing world it would be if we could see the gifts of a lifetime all at once,
without knowing the plan and timing of them?
If I had been shown the future gift of “art career” when I was in my twenties working in corporate sales, that wouldn’t have made any sense to me. The saying, “God
doesn’t give us more than we can handle” applies to vision also.
God’s timing is always perfect and our intended gifts are to be discovered in order. Who has a grandbaby before they have a spouse? Or the dream job offer before you identify what the dream is? All gifts come in purposeful succession.
There is serenity to be found in order—order as in chronological or numerical order, and also order as in organization and a step-by-step plan. Some things will remain hidden until we’re quiet and centered, open to see what we need to see, not necessarily what we want to see. We have to be still and know that perfect direction will come at just the right time.
When we take the time to ponder the clues given to us, wisdom guides us to the next thing, and the next. Times of stillness and reflection help us decipher the signs pointing us in the right direction. Clues, mysteries and riddles can be solved sooner when we're mindfully watching and listening with an open heart.
In the waiting and stillness, it’s fun to remember that our creator loves to delight us and is just as excited for us to find the waiting treasures as we are. What a delight-ful way to live. Have a beautiful week finding the next clue!
PS If it’s a stretch to believe
you’re really this cared for, I have a challenge for you especially. Read the meditation on March 15 in Finding the Gift, “Someone’s Got My Back.”
