The Grass is Green...

This week I literally noticed how green the grass is... and the trees and plants. Maybe it's because it's been non-stop raining lately. Wow! So much green everywhere! Green has never been one of my favourite colours, but I am growing in appreciation for the freshness and life it breathes! Anyway that's my random thought for the day, but it sort of relates to the end of this blog...I'll get there soon.

This week has been super busy, and exhausting, but so fun! It has gone so fast, but I feel like I've done a month's worth of planning and organising and teaching. On Tuesday I got told that I have a new role next year - GATs (gifted and talented) co-ordinator. eeek! so excited but nervous!

Today my cute class and I discovered something called 'energy beads' - they are these plastic beads that start white, but the UV rays from the sun react with the beads and they become brightly coloured (and go back to white when you are no longer in the sun)! Magical! My kids loved them! I made them get a 'white-bead' out of each container, which they thought was ridiculous (but they are used to me and the random things I make them do) & they threaded them onto a leather strap. Most murmured that they were probably 'glow-in'the' dark beads, but I gave nothing away & just sent them outside... and immediately heard shouts of "THEY'RE GLOW IN THE SUN!" So cute. We spent the whole morning discussing UV rays, testing whether they worked in water and glass and under mud (um...), how UV-protective my sunglasses are (not very) & whether sunscreen actually protects you from UV (it does). So interesting!

Ok we're getting closer to the grass connection...

Tonight my church started a '40 hours of Prayer' weekend. There are 10 prayer stations set up around the hall and you book in an hour to spend in there. I only got to 3 stations (even though I stayed well after my hour was up).

I started in the 'Tabernacle'. It was a tent with some candles and a wooden cross. It was amazing just to sit and contemplate the sacrifice of Jesus and the huge-ness of God! It's so easy to think of God in terms of what I can see and what I need. I think of God as the creator of our planet (which He is), of pretty sunsets, amazing animals and such, which is huge! But not even a blip on the radar of who God is! When I consider that our planet, of 7 billion other individuals (each with their own issues and relationships and dreams and such), could fit inside Jupiter 1000 times. My brain doesn't come close to fathoming this. But then Jupiter could fit inside our sun 1000 times. Our sun which is 93 000 000 miles away (I learnt this in the Why Does the Sun Shine Song). And our sun is just a middle sized star... in a galaxy  that is just one of numerous galaxies! anyway it made my head spin that the God who is so much bigger than all that loves us enough to send his own Son into the creation so save us! wow.

Anyway then I went to the painting station and painted the two verses that were swimming in my head:

Psalm 8:3-4 "When I consider your heavens, the moon & stars that you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

&

Hosea 11:8b "My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused." Hosea is such an interesting book! I love this picture of a God who can't give up on his people even though they have given up on him so often!

Lastly I went to 'post a letter to God' table. I really felt I needed to pray about the singleness of my beautiful friends & I, so I wrote God a letter about it. Being single and in your late 20s has such a stigma attached to it and I have spent many nights crying to God about this - the 'what's wrong with me?' , the 'it's not fair!', the 'where's my prince charming' etc.
Tonight I prayed differently, it was a bit of a culmination of the last few months of pondering and praying and learning and reading I've been doing.
I thanked God for this season. I prayed that God would continually remind us of his love, our worth in him, the ministries, relationships and opportunities that are unique to being single. That he would help us to not believe the lies satan (& the eharmony ads) tries to throw at us.
It's so easy to see the grass as being greener, to want what we don't have (random side-note: I was talking to 2 friends with one year olds the other day. Both were complaining about their kids were constantly mucking around with the phones and remote controls. One said "it's like whatever he's not allowed to touch is what he constantly trying to play with," the response of my other friend was so true: "isn't that we all do, even as adults? we're never happy with what we have, we're always want what we can't have!"), to cry when the girls that you used to lead at kids club get married, to not want to give the snuggling baby you kidnapped back...

But as I prayed I realised how important it is to notice how green your grass is. (Mine is super green right now! literally & metaphorically)