COME WALK WITH ME - PART 2

By Linda Woodward


……. I pass a house where a mother is screaming at her child so loud that you can hear it outside, even though the windows are closed. I lift them to God, knowing the damage that can be done, and I pray protection for one of God’s children. I walk on.

My steps slow as my mind fills with painful images. I consciously release the pain to God. I visualize it floating heavenward like a balloon. God uses the balloon to remind me of a dream I had recently about two perfectly clear, sparkling balloons floating together in the glistening sun. Their strings were so long there seemed to be no end ------yet they weren't tangled -- they were forever intertwined.

I could actually feel the joy of the two souls they represented. Deep, deep joy and peace returned to my spirit - a smile returned to my heart.

I walk on. A bottlebrush tree sways in the only breeze and I stop to watch it dance in the wind. The sky has turned a beautiful pink as the sun gets ready to set over the horizon. Its beauty takes my breath away. I have a hard time looking away, but know if I walk like this I will no doubt walk into yet another tree.

The only way to not do that is to just stop and watch the colors melt downward. I thank God for the beauty of the sunset and for it’s meaning in my life. Every day He sends a new sunset -- everyday it is a little bit different -- but every day it reminds me that He saves the best for last, right? I smile at that too. Just like you just did.

I walk a little while longer realizing I am almost back to where I started, slowing down to admire some sidewalk chalk drawings. I see a piece of chalk left nearby and proceed to add my own art to the canvas.

Coming around the corner to where I started, a sprinkler catches my eye. The sun is low in the sky and it creates a rainbow in the water spray. It makes me smile. I decide it is really hot out and what the heck, I run thru the rainbow. I think of God’s promise. I run back and forth several times until I am literally dripping wet.

I am almost back to where I started when I feel someone breeze past me. A woman, who is about 20 years older than I, power walks past me with such speed that I get goose bumps from the wind she creates. She passes me with a whoosh-----she had passed me earlier in my walk and now she passes me with a whoosh for the second time.

Sigh.....................that woman is a serious walker. She is a serious walker, yes indeed.

I ring my doorbell and my daughter opens the door and looks at me, soaking wet, holding a feather and a flower and anything else I may have come upon, and she just shakes her head. Yes, her mom is a serious walker. She is a serious walker, yes indeed.

On earth, getting from A to Z is what we call life. Humans speed through their days, and their lives, collecting valuables along the way. By human terms my walk is a mess. I get from A to Z as well, collecting "valuables" as well, but certainly with not much to physically show for it.

I would not win the human race because along the way God gives me many things to do. Things to see. Things to feel. Things to touch. Things to discover.

Maybe the serious walker isn’t the one who gets from A to Z with some title: the fastest, the strongest, the richest, or the most powerful. Maybe the serious walker is the one that wanders holding God’s hand and stops along the way to listen, to see, to feel, to touch, to search, to dream.

Maybe it’s not about getting from A to Z---- it’s about what you do along the way--- and who you do it with.

That, makes all the difference. Come walk with me, walk with me and God.

The sky is orange and purple and pink...................grab a hand. The best is yet to be.

"This is my Father's world, He shines in all that's fair, in the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere