WONDERFUL

I think this is such a great word. It would be hard to imagine it being used to describe something that wasn't truly fabulous.

Which is providing that we are all talking from the same frame of reference. Otherwise, the word can lose its value in our thinking.

And asking what is wonderful by God's yardstick is even more challenging. For with the Lord wonderful almost always involves a path that is not always free or the things we figure are not terrific.

It can be challenging to always appreciate this reality. Being human our focus will naturally be on this life.

I don't think God is insensitive to the needs of this life. Just understand better than we do what truly makes for blessings and what hurts.

That can leave us less than thrilled if we are short sighted in our thinking. If we only cleave to the now and what we think will satisfy.

And there are times when God will not grant us what we think is best because in the long run it will be harmful. Only it may be rather hard for us to always accept this at the time.

We follow our desires and passions. That is normal. But not always the path that is beneficial.

Can we accept a journey with more valleys than mountains? Are we prepared to see each step one that is intended to teach?

I can't answer that for everyone. How could I? I only know how in my own life this has not been a journey I have understood.

I have seen so many who have ventured into places I did not feel I could travel. And from what I have seen there have been plenty of occasions when the confession of the person has not been laced with joy.

They have had their share of laments of the failures. And that hardly makes that choice very helpful.

As for me, well I'm sure I've missed out on some things in life that a different path might have offered. Would they have been wonderful?

Guess I'll never know for sure. Because I'm just now learning all that makes my real path wonderful.

That is enough for the moment and I rest in that reality.