God Works Upstream On Our Behalf by Sandy Kirby Quandt

Writers spend a lot of time waiting. We wait for manuscripts to come together just right after multiple critiques, edits, and more edits. We wait to hear back from agents, editors, and publishers. We wait on God’s perfect timing to open doors previously shut. Some of us may even need to wait following a manuscript’s rejection before tackling it again. I know I do.

The Israelites did a lot of waiting before they crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land. When they reached the river, they camped four days beside its banks. As Joshua went through the camp, he told the people to prepare. The Lord was about to do a great miracle. God would lead them across the river.

The people waited beside the water’s edge. What they saw was a river at flood stage, overflowing its banks, standing between them and the Promised Land. How would they cross it?

What they couldn’t see was God working upstream on their behalf. They didn’t know the moment the priests stepped into the water, the river would pile up as though blocked by a dam, and drain to the Dead Sea. The only thing the people knew was what they saw in front of them at that moment in time. They didn't know all they had to do was wait for the river to flow by. Once it did, they would walk across a dry riverbed to the Promised Land.

As writers, oftentimes we stand on the riverbank and wait while God works further upstream on our behalf. We wait for him to intervene, to hold back the river, and lead us safely across on dry land. When we can’t see God's hand working, we might wonder why he delays. We might doubt we heard him correctly. Is this the river he intends for us to cross? And if so, has he heard our cries for help? And if he heard our cries, is he going to step in and save us from the rising waters that block our way?

Although it may take longer than we would like, we can trust God is working on our behalf. What rivers are you waiting to cross while God works further upstream?

Sandy Kirby Quandt is a freelance writer and follower of Jesus with a passion for history and travel. Passions that often weave their way into her stories and articles. She writes numerous articles, devotions, and stories for adult and children publications both print and online including Christian Devotions and Inspire a Fire. Her devotions appear in two Worthy Publishing compilation books; So God Made a Dog and Let the Earth Rejoice. Sandy won several awards for writing including the 85th and 86th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Young Adult category, First Place in the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Children’s Literature 2016 Foundation Awards, First Place in the 2017 Foundation Awards in the Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Flash Fiction categories. Looking for words of encouragement or gluten-free recipes? Then check out her blog, Woven and Spun.
twitter.com/SandyKQuandt

Not the Right Time Yet by Sandy Kirby Quandt

Last May, as my husband and I drove north through Alabama to attend a writing conference, we looked for blossoming mimosa trees. We do this every time we drive on Interstate 85. We were disappointed and surprised to find fewer than usual trees with blooms.

On our return trip home the following week we spotted tree after beautiful tree full of blossoms. We tried to figure out what may have caused the lack blooms the week before. Not enough rain. Too much rain. Colder than normal winter. Warmer than normal winter. We're not horticulturists, so have no idea for the delayed blossoms. We settled for the fact it simply was not the right time for the trees to bloom yet.

Having spent the previous week with over three hundred writers, I couldn't help make the comparison between those mimosa trees and those of us who write.

We're all on different journeys. We don't achieve our goals, don't blossom, at the same time. Some of us bloom earlier. Some bloom later. Some of our dreams are achieved earlier. Some are achieved later. Some of us have a profusion of blossoms on our tree. Others don't have as many.

Even if our trees lack blossoms, that does not negate the beauty of our tree. No matter how successful or unsuccessful our lives may appear to others, or to ourselves, our lives continue to be beautiful when we offer them for our Creator God's purposes.

I've found when hopes or dreams are delayed, some people think they must know the exact reason for the delay. They theorize the reason for the delay is too much this. Not enough that. When honestly, in much the same way my husband and I theorized about the mimosa blooms, they don't have the slightest idea. And don't need one.

It's just not the right time yet.

The One who told the moon when to shine and the sun when to sleep, told the sea it could only come so far and no further, placed the stars in the heavens and the bars around Orion knows when our not the right time yet will turn into it's time now. The same way God told the blossoms on the mimosa trees that lines I-85 when it was time to bloom, he knows when it is time for our dreams to blossom.

As we wait for whatever dream we hold in our heart, perhaps we should remember the mimosas that bloom at God's appointed time and not one moment sooner.

Is there a dream you're waiting on to bloom?

Sandy Kirby Quandt is a freelance writer and follower of Jesus with a passion for history and travel. Passions that often weave their way into her stories and articles. She writes numerous articles, devotions, and stories for adult and children publications both print and online including Christian Devotions and Inspire a Fire. Her devotions appear in two Worthy Publishing compilation books; So God Made a Dog and Let the Earth Rejoice. Sandy won several awards for writing including the 85th and 86th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Young Adult category, First Place in the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Children’s Literature 2016 Foundation Awards, First Place in the 2017 Foundation Awards in the Young Adult, Middle Grade, and Flash Fiction categories. Looking for words of encouragement or gluten-free recipes? Then check out her blog, Woven and Spun.
twitter.com/SandyKQuandt