Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

Had I known on March 30th what the next weeks would bring, I probably would have waited to begin Reflections from the Mountaintop rather than having such a big gap between posts. With all six children home over Easter break, my husband's recent back injury, some family things, paperwork, and some sleep deprived nights, I was more than a little distracted.

Keep your lamps filled...be ready!


In my last post, I alluded to the fact that after moving to this mountaintop property and the blizzard that followed, we learned quickly that it is necessary to prepare...even though in September of 2001 or so, I received a message. It was simple...PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE.

According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "prepare" means "to make ready beforehand for some purpose, use, or activity; to put in a proper state of mind; to work out the details of; to put together; to put into written form; to get ready.

To bake a cake, you must first prepare the pan. A meal can't be eaten without someone first preparing the food. Preparing for a move means perhaps selling one property, purchasing another, and packing. A bride prepares for her wedding...flowers, photographer, gown, and so on. When waiting for the impending birth of a baby, there is the preparation of the nursery and all the things that are needed...crib, rocker, clothing, and much more. As I know full well, preparing for the adoption of children requires LOTS of paperwork. Preparations for winter include making sure we have enough wood in, split and stacked, so that we have adequate heat over the cold winter months. In preparation for spring, leaves from the oak trees that fell over the winter need to be raked, branches and twigs that lay in the yard need to be picked up before mowing. Before a garden can be planted, there is the preparation of the soil and the purchase and planting of seeds or plants.

While it seems there are some things that a person just can't realistically prepare for...the breakdown of a furnace or vehicle, a tragic accident, the loss of a loved one, even flight delays caused by events such as the volcano eruption in Iceland which stranded thousands of travelers, including my sister who hopes to finally be back in the U.S. today, most everything does require preparation, getting ready, being ready.

I had a very interesting conversation last night with my 10-year-old daughter who was saved at the age of 3 years. In many respects, she is wise beyond her years. Her questions centered around the Second Coming of Jesus...questions like do we shed our physical bodies before rising up into the skies towards heaven, do we die first (if we are among the living) before going to heaven, what about the people who have already died and are buried, do just our spirits rise? I couldn't give her exact answers because I really don't know, but in a vision prior to the adoption of our youngest child, I saw us as a family floating upwards. Our bodies were intact and we were fully clothed. I don't know if that is the answer or not, but I do know where my family and I will spend eternity...in Heaven. We each have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

"A voice of one who cries: Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [clear away the obstacles]; make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God!" Isaiah 40:3 (Amplified)

It has been said that you should never look back. In order to go forward, however, I must first go back.

My husband, our two daughters, and I lived in a three-story duplex in a nice section of the city. Our daughters were in their late teens when God started leading us to the nations to add to our family. After journeys of faith to China, Thailand, and Vietnam (we did not know at that time there would be a second trip to Vietnam), we were now a family of seven.

When our first-born were launched, we started feeling a tugging to move out of the city to a place where our young children could have a place to run and play. A very small city lot hardly fit the bill. So, in January of that year we put our house on the market.

I lost track of the number of showings we had, but our real estate agent said it was about 100!

By December the house still hadn't sold and we planned to take it off the market. Our agent called to ask if we would agree to do one more showing, and we gave our okay.

Christmas week we had a signed contract! The clincher was that our buyers wanted to be in by the end of January.

We began a frantic search for a new home in a limited market of the winter months. Nothing we found was suitable - we saw houses with obvious water damage, ones on busy roads...something we wanted to avoid with a deaf child and our beloved pets.

In my online searches, I kept coming across a property in the country about 40 miles from our city home. I continue to cross it off our list because it was just too far away from our family, friends, and our church.

God, however, must have had another plan. We agree to see that country property. The drive seemed long, but once inside, the house seemed perfect, almost tailor made for us.

After qualifying for the property (something which both surprised and amazed us) and overcoming the hurdles our buyers were having with their financing, we finally settled in early February of that year, just a week before being hit with a major blizzard. We were homebound in our year-round mountaintop retreat, which we call Acorn Acres (yes, we do have lots of oak trees), for three days. We learned quickly about being prepared - being snowed in was a reality - and it was important to stock up.

This brings me to reflections from the mountaintop.