Jonah

When Bennett was born, we were given lots of great gifts, but one of our favorites is "The Jesus Storybook Bible"written by Sally Lloyd-Jones from Matt's sister &her husband. They picked it because each of the stories in the book talks about Jesus. The pictures are awesome and the stories generally keep Bennett's attention.

I was reading the story of Jonah (found in the Book of Jonah in the Bible) to Bennett the other day. For those who aren't familiar with Jonah's story, God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell the people there to turn from their wicked ways or they will be destroyed. The people of Nineveh were some of Jonah's greatest enemies and so he didn't want to go and give them a chance to repent. Instead he buys a ticket to Tarshish, which is the basically the opposite direction. While on the ship, a huge storm comes & long story short, Jonah has the sailors throw him into the sea to calm the storm since he knows the storm is his fault. A big fish swallows him up and three days later spits him out right where he started his journey. Jonah then obeys God &goes to Nineveh & the people repent, much to Jonah's dismay.

As I was reading Bennett the story from the Jesus Storybook, I found myself chuckling at the language the author used to tell Jonah's story.

"But of course, it wasn't a good plan at all. It was a silly plan. (Because you can run away from God, but he will always come and find you.) Jonah went ahead with his not-very-good plan. 'One ticket to NOT Nineveh, please!' he said and boarded a boat sailing in the very opposite direction of Nineveh."

About as quickly as I started laughing (one ticket to NOT Nineveh, please...haha!), I stopped. Oh, man. How often is that me? How often do I think, "ANYTHING but that, Lord."?

We have a lot of changes happening in our family right now. Changes that I am really excited for &that will be positive changes, but changes that even a year or so ago I would have run from kicking &screaming. It's funny how God can give you time in a "great fish" to change your mind about things. I remember thinking at one point in the past that we couldn't possibly leave our current church. It was home and family.

Tonight is our last night with our youth group & Sunday will be our last service with our current church. God has lead us to a position for Matt at another church not too far away. There are some awesome people and ministries waiting for us at our new church, but Grace (our current church) has been our home for the last 3 1/2 years. Much like Jonah was comfortable where he was, we are comfortable where we have been. Jonah had to leave his home and the comforts that came with it so that he could bless the people of Nineveh.

Now, there are obvious differences in our story versus Jonah's. I mean, the people at our new church are most definitely not our worst enemies. In fact, we're excited to be with some really good friends and make more new friends. We haven't been fighting the fact that God has lead us to this church, but He has definitely had to prepare our hearts for this change over time. Also, we will be overjoyed with any growth at our new church, unlike Jonah who was just a big grump (I'm taking a little creative licence here.) about the whole thing .

I do find it ironic, however, that our current town and the town that the new church is in are 2 of the 3 places that I always used to say I would never want to live. We have loved living where we live now. We have met some of our best friends here and will obviously continue those friendships. I'm anxious to see what God has in store for us on this new adventure. Obviously something awesome if He's taken so much time and care to prepare us for it.

I feel like this post is all over the place. Let me summarize for you...

1. "The Jesus Storybook Bible" is an awesome kids' Bible. If you have a little one, you should check it out!
2. Sometimes Jonah's story is fairly similar to my story.
3. God has been preparing our hearts for a big change.
4. Although we are very excited for the new things to come, we will miss our church family here and will cherish the 3 1/2 years that we've been able to spend with them here on earth.
5. I apparently like to ramble.

So, yeah. Check out Jonah's story if you haven't read it before & pray for us tonight if you think about it. I'm sure it will be a super emotional night saying "see you later" to the kids we love so dearly at Grace.