Friday, March 07, 2014

52 Author Dates ~ Week 10

Visit A Fortune Teller

What do you do when you don't dabble in fortune telling? Ever. 

You reinvent your author challenge. That's what. 

This week, I visited with friends who've given over so much more than any fortune teller could. They've not only cheered my writing adventures, but prayed over them. 

Keith and Marg are dear friends, and our former pastor and his wife. I've talked all-things-books with Marg for years and we share a lot of favourite authors. This week, I popped in to catch up with them both. 

Marg's Lilly-of-the-Valley

Unlike fortune tellers, they didn't try to lure me into what may lurk around the corner. I wouldn't want to know, either. 

Imagine being given a glimpse into your tomorrow. That's what this week's writing challenge is meant to evoke. Would you, or your characters, heed a warning? Avoid wrong steps? Or ignore the fortune teller's plea and wade into misery? 

Instead, Marg and Keith first steered talk to our shared past. We unpacked the months since we'd last spoken and celebrated Marg's clean bill of health after cancer treatment. We delighted in what we have to look forward to in 2014, and marvelled at God's perfect timing which none of us could have imagined... even with a crystal ball. 

Marg's bearded iris

As well as our love of fiction, Marg and I share an affection for
pink, white and blue gardens. Hers is sitting pretty, even at this tail end of summer. Mine... not so. (See last Friday's post) 

But in Marg's generous style, she sent me home with a handful of bulbs from her own well tended plants. Iris and Lilly-of-the-Valley, now planted with care in the sorry empty beds at Crabapple House. 

And I couldn't be happier.

In the spring, when Keith and Marg prepare to move to the US and into the next chapter of their lives, I'll be admiring Marg's my new blooms... and remembering the giver.  

I can imagine what they might look like...  but do I really know what my future looks like? 

Hardly. God likes to blow my mind with amazing answers to prayer, shaped only as He could. I can only work to reach the desires of my heart, but my future is as unknown as yours. 

But I do have a promise, buried in my garden until time reveals its true potential.

In my mind's eye, I see a corner of my garden where Lilly-of-the-Valley will brush against soft pink irises and blend with my blue hydrangeas. Where the memory of a happy afternoon will transport me to early autumn 2014 and the afternoon good friends shared God's provision and direction for their lives.

Where talk of the future and all it's lessons were surrendered to God. 

And no fortune teller could match the prayers of kindred spirits and the revelation of God himself. 

Blessings for a wonderful weekend, 
May He be your good fortune,