Boomerang Blessing!

I think Australia is one of the coolest countries in the whole world!  No, I have never been, but I would love to go!  I remember studying Australia as a kid and I was fascinated by the outback, the animals, and the Aboriginal people.  I mean really, who doesn’t love a koala, right?  One very cool hunting tool the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia used was the boomerang.  This will tie into the Bible, I promise.

There is a verse that makes me think of a boomerang every time I read it.  This verse was always very special to me.  So much so that I had it on a little picture verse card the size of a business card stuck to the dash of my truck.

One day in the long years of my suffering, I got very angry about the disease.  I took a drive in my truck to blow off steam and think.  I saw the verse on my dash and as I read it, I got more and more angry until I finally yelled out at God, “Yeah right!”, as I ripped the verse card off my dash and threw it out the window.

This was during my time when I was wrestling God regarding Celiac Disease and the anguish I was living through.  Here is that verse:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

I really hope somebody picked up that verse card and it was a blessing to them.  Time went on and I continued to suffer Celiac and wrestle God over many things regarding my new life with a chronic illness auto-immune disorder.  A few months later, we took the kids to a cool shop called the Parker Country Market just down the street from our house.  It is a novelty shop with all kinds of different things for sale.  Artwork, little and big statues, wind chimes, fountains, jewelry, sports memorabilia, trinkets, knives, old school posters–you name it, they might have it!  They even have a really nice Christian section with Bibles and all kinds of cool stuff.  It’s one of those places you can spend two hours in and not even realize that much time has passed.

 

We walked through the store and my wife and kids headed in one direction, and I headed for the Christian section in the back.  I looked at the cool artwork with verses, and the wall crosses for a few minutes, but I didn’t see anything that I wanted to buy.  As I turned around to leave the section something caught my eye though.

I like earth tones and leather for aesthetics, so I noticed a leather check book cover with nice designs and stitching on it.  It even had Scripture engraved into the leather.  I walked closer to get a better look and that is when the boomerang blessing came back around and landed right on my heart!

Here is that checkbook cover with a very familiar verse on it:

It could have been any one of the many verses of the Bible, but it was that one!  I could practically here the swoosh of the boomerang as it came back around!  It is so awesome how God works!  Just when you think He has forgotten you and He doesn’t see you at all, He shows you that He is right by your side and He cares!

It hit me hard!  I had thrown out that verse card months ago and I was not even thinking about it anymore…and that was the problem.  What I had really done was thrown out God’s promise to me in my heart.  In that moment I understood that God was still with me, He loves me, and He was not going to let me forget that He still has good plans for me even in the midst of my worst suffering…and this time He made sure I couldn’t toss it out the window!  I grabbed it right away to buy it, and I quietly had a moment of awe as I thanked and worshiped God right there in that store.

I am still here today because of Jesus and His love and power inside of me!  I am here blogging to the world about Jesus with a future full of hope, and I am so honored and blessed to be a part of His work!  I came through my suffering with a deeper appreciation for life, and I know the Lord–who is The Almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords, I AM–most definitely knows the plans He has for me.  Plans to prosper me and not to harm me.  Plans to give me hope and a future!

He has those types of plans for all of His people!  Don’t toss God’s promises out the window.  Trust in Him today!  He might just surprise you with a “boomerang blessing!”

Grace and peace to you!