Boundaries in Pleasant Places

Good morning!  

This coming Tuesday, Spring will arrive in Australia. I’ve said this before, but this is the only country I know that has four distinct dates for the four seasons.  It’s quite rational, except that this morning, it was pretty chilly outside and didn’t feel like Spring was anywhere near!

Of course, I have to keep that in perspective. When I say “cold”, I mean that I had a wrap around my shoulders and decided to go back inside and put on stockings (nylons) because my legs were feeling it.  

This morning, Tony was getting ready to preach twice, plus a third online version thanks to Covid restrictions. As we drove to church, he asked me, “When you made that decision to go into full time ministry, and then made it a condition of our getting married, did you ever dream how that would play out today?”  

I thought about it for a minute and remembered a high school student in Tony’s class who announced that after graduation, he was off to Australia to start a new life! I wonder whatever happened to him?  For a Colorado girl whose biggest launch up until then was all the way over to Kansas to go to High School, Australia was synonymous to moving to the MOON!

And what did I know of Australia?  The only things we were taught in school was “Waltzing Matilda” in music class, pictures of unending nothing, sprinkled with kangaroos and kookaburras (who laughed).

How would I have been able to forecast that I’d one day be 70, traveling down the road with a healthy husband, snuggling against the light chill in the semi-tropical, coastal northeast corner of Australia called Queensland?  This of course was following a breakfast of toast and vegimite (brewer’s yeast spread) and looking forward to enjoying Sunday with lovely Christians who share the worldwide faith we uphold.  And don’t get me started about the kids and grandkids!

The Psalmist says it so well in 16:6, The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

                                      

There was no way when I was 16 years old I could have imagined that I would end up in such a beautiful place of my childhood wonder. I hadn’t even committed my life to His service, and yet God had it all worked out.

I don’t want to oversimplify things here and suggest that we have some kind of special “deal” with God whereby He guarantees a life free from all bad stuff. We have, after all, suffered devastating loss, with the death of our son, malignant melanomas, prostate cancer and a world of uncertainty. I’m waiting now for the results of a biopsy to see if I'll join the ranks of so many Australians who love the sun and get some nice plastic surgery on my face! This Covid thing has upset a truckload of plans we had for this year, and still threatens more doom and gloom before it’s finished.  I could easily take those words of the Psalmist and twist them into something like, “The boundaries lines keep changing … where’s my inheritance???” 

But I don’t do that because, regardless of what tomorrow brings, I know that God is there already, marking out the boundaries, preparing the way and making sure that His children are ready for whatever comes. It’s an inheritance we can all look forward to, and we can take heart, knowing that whether the lines fall in Kansas, Colorado or somewhere between Coolangatta or Murwillumba, by His grace, they will indeed be “pleasant places”. 

Next week I’ll share with you some interesting things we’re learning about our country here.  We’re hoping to take a little ‘trip’ into that barren area of Australia that I first heard about back in high school, out near Kakadu, Mataranka and a gorge named after someone called “Katherine".

Stay tuned!!  Marsha