Do you ever feel like your life has just been flipped over like a snow globe?  When it’s set back again, things are very different, and it feels like nothing is where it should be.  Everything is scattered and changing faster than you can keep up with.  I feel like this right now as everthing around me is different and changing so fast!  We are in the process of moving, and what’s ahead feels crazy and uncertain.  Not bad…just very different.  But like a snow globe, I know things will eventually settle into place and “normal” will begin again. We’re just not there yet.

While trying to reassure my kiddos that change is not a bad thing…I am watching them say goodbye to their friends, school, teachers, and the “world” they are so familiar and comfortable with.  I am encouraging them to try and embrace “the new” that is ahead…but they are new at this.  God loves adventure and He wants us to trust Him on this one!  There have been MANY tears on their parts, and on mine.   As a Christian, I know what to do.  As a mom, I’m struggling.

One thing I do believe, however, is that God has us right where He wants us, and I know that means that what’s ahead is going to be good.  In June we found out that our landlord wants to sell the house we’ve been in and rather than be homeless…my parents are welcoming us in to theirs for this season.  Words can’t say how blessed we are.  I am starting a part time job in the mornings so I can be home for my kids when they get home from school.  Things are swirling…different.  Not bad…just not the same.  I know this storm we’ve been in will come to an end and there will be a quiet, settling…a peace.  My husband will land an amazing job…the one that God has chosen for him and there won’t be any more job searching and interviews to have to go through. There will be a knowing that God saved the day!

Monday morning, I was asleep on my right side, and I was awakened to a kiss on my left shoulder.  It startled me as it actually woke me up, and I thought, “Awww…how sweet my hubby is to wake me with a kiss…but I’m tired and was waking me up the right thing to do?”  🙂  and as I rolled over to smile at him, I was shocked to see he was still asleep and on his side facing the opposite direction.  He had NOT kissed my shoulder at all!  What in the world?!  Who kissed my shoulder then?  I thought for a brief second that maybe it was God…but I dismissed that idea quickly because, why on earth would God wake me up to kiss me on the shoulder?  I did not think about it again.  I feel bad about this…and you will see why.

The next day was filled with new school registration paperwork, my new job interview, packing boxes and just lots of stress.  Plus, I was sore as I had pulled a muscle in my neck/back and could not turn my head without pain.  Ugh!!!  No doubt it was stress!  It was just one more thing to deal with!  I was driving home on Highway 4 when I began to “talk” with God.  Okay it was more like fussing and whining!!  I wasn’t too happy with Him.  All right, all right… I was MAD at Him!  There.  I said it.  I was mad at where He had us and what we were having to go through in this long season of hardship. I was having to watch my kids struggle with this move and everything just felt so out of my control!!  I was tired of packing boxes, tired of trying to make my kids feel secure, tired of not knowing, tired of saying goodbye to my friends, tired of all the stress…and tired of this awful NECK PAIN!  I suddenly said out loud, “God…I HAVE TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE WITH ME IN ALL OF THIS!  I have to know 100% that you are with me…beyond a shadow of a doubt!!!”

I promise you I am not making up what happened next.

INSTANTLY I remembered that kiss.  That shoulder kiss from Monday morning.  I don’t know why but I did.  And in the next INSTANT, while I was driving, I saw an orange construction sign to my left that said, “Left Shoulder Closed Ahead”.  Left shoulder?  Did that just say left shoulder?  What shoulder was I kissed on again?  MY LEFT!!! Wait…what is happening here?  Did God really kiss me?  And just as quickly as that kiss and that road sign came to my attention…it suddenly all made sense.

God knew.  He knew that the Tami in this car at this moment was going to need some reassurance.  She was going to be mad at Him and He knew it was coming.  So what did He decide to do?  He decided to wake her up with a kiss on the left shoulder the morning before…just for this exact moment.  He knew that road sign was going to be there.  He knew what I’d be saying.  You can’t tell me that wasn’t Him.  The love I felt in the car after that was amazing!

I can’t explain why we have to go through struggles in life.  BUT because of a simple kiss on my left shoulder, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt…with 100% certainty that He will be there in the storm.

He’s with us…and I know we’re going to be okay. 🙂