This experience occurred on June 4, 2018. I wrote it down a few weeks later. I didn’t know it then, but this would be the foundation for many teachings that would come over the next few months.
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Sometimes being a step-parent is hard.
Sometimes it’s hard AND painful.
Step-parent pain was the place I found myself in on a Monday morning. When you have truly adopted a child in your heart, sometimes the reminders that they are not yours, and will never be, cause a deep ache.
I was taking my stepdaughter and her friend to target that morning after a sleepover, and I knew I needed to hear from Jesus. On the way back home, I took a detour to a natural area with ponds. I don’t remember if I went with a question, or just with a pain in my heart.
It was a beautiful day; the sky was clear and bright blue. I parked my Jeep and walked the crunchy gravel path to the closest pond. There was a slight breeze, which tousled the leaves of the trees, creating an intermittent rustling noise. Upon arriving at the water, I felt prompted to take my shoes off and walk around in the water.
Walking around in the water is not something I normally do if I’m not going swimming. Your feet get wet, then sand and dirt sticks to your feet and you have no way to wipe them off because there’s no towel. The worst part is you then you have to put your shows back on with sandy feet. It’s really not my thing.
But then there was the persistent tug: take your shoes off…walk in the water.
I thought to myself ‘why not’? If this is the Holy Spirit talking to me, I would like to be obedient. If it’s not, well, sandy shoes aren’t the worst thing to happen in life.
So, I slipped my Keens off, put down my purse and ventured out into the water. I walked back and forth a bit on the shore, noticing the way the shadows of the trees didn’t just sit on the surface of the water, the shadows went to the surface on which I was walking.
After a minute or two I walked out of the water, sat down, and looked up. No longer focusing on the shadows where my feet had been, I looked out across the pond and saw that the ripples created by my walking along the shore had reached the other side of the pond.
Then this realization hit me: when we walk with Jesus, we create ripples! Ripples that others can see!
Just as soon as the realization had crossed my mind, two fish in the middle of the pond came up to the surface and created ripples of their own. Without thinking, I jumped to my feet and started stomping wildly so that the ripples they made wouldn’t get to the shore on which I was sitting. It took a lot of stomping to diffuse the fish ripples.
The next realization came: when we stop walking with Jesus, ripples from other things or people are more likely to get to us and affect us. At that point, we have to work much harder in our walk to not be affected.
Seeing that the fish were active, I stayed in the water, walking in place. The ripples I created were consistent this time because I kept my feet moving. This time when the fish surfaced, the ripples they created were diffused farther away from the shore on which I was walking because I was continuously sending out ripples.
Then came the final realization: when we walk with Jesus consistently, things of the world don’t affect us as much, because being with Him creates ripples that are stronger than those of the world.
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