Endlessly inventive

God is endlessly inventive. Each morning when we wake, the world seems born new and fresh.  I'm a light-sensitive sleeper, so when the sun comes up, I'm awake if I can't pull the covers over my head fast enough.

The Morning Glory cloud on the Gulf coast of northern Queensland

Some awakenings feel like, "What! Morning already!?" while others are, "Oh, can't wait to see what the day will bring!" Sometimes the clouds hang low, and I wonder what the day can possibly bring. I love the days when sunlight, reflecting off the forest to caress me awake.

It can be unsettling when God's creativity moves us outside our ideas of who we are and what we should be doing.

• Sometimes he nudges us with an opportunity that is such a great fit that we happily embrace it. 
• We may feel discontent where we are, unsettled when what once made us thrive is no longer appealing.
• Once in a while, someone else opens our eyes to the next season, "Look, that job/house/friend would suit you so well!" or "I think you've gone as far as you can where you are. Why don't you look elsewhere?" 
• Other times, God pushes or carries us up steep mountain slopes, kicking, screaming, wailing that we are no longer in the valley below. Or gasping with joy at the new vistas that come into view.

Change, inevitable and ongoing, is rarely our preference. Sure, we like a little variety and a few options.

A few of us are adventurers who love to capture, examine, and embrace new things, new work, new friendships, or new family members (including children, in-laws, or long-lost relatives). We thrive by moving wholeheartedly into the unexplored or repurposing the normative into the unusual.

But most of us want the security and safety of doing what we we're good at, with people we know, in the time and place we have chosen. We often forget that we weren't that happy to arrive where we are, and that the past seemed challenging and scary. The future may feel just as comfortable and secure to us, once we understand it better.

God seems to have little respect for our wishes, though sometimes our stubborn refusal to let go and move on creates havoc for others and us. Since God knows how life interlocks, he chooses best. We can only celebrate the inventiveness with which life's challenges and comforts come our way.

What are you celebrating today?

Read more:
*Then Jacob said to Joseph, "I never thought I would see your face again, but now God has let me see your children, too!" Genesis 48:11 NIV

*The wise are glad to be instructed, but babbling fools fall flat on their faces. People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall. Proverbs 10:8–9 NLT

*Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we cast out that demon?"

"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." Matthew 17:19–20 NLT