Blue Prints

Yesterday I read about a widow who fell asleep one night and dreamed she was in the spirit world, and in the dream her husband who had died many years before had taken her by the hand and showed her the home he had been preparing for her.  She felt such joy but when she awakened still earthbound, she was inconsolable and as her tears fell heavily she could just whimper “Why did I have to come back!”  She wondered what it was that she still needed to do on earth to be able to be with him again and live in that new home.

Then, last night I came upon a journal entry Dale made many years ago about what it meant to him to plan and build the home near the mountain that we had built together.  How it truly felt like home to him even with all of the burdens that came along with the building process. He ended by saying that home could only be a place that we shared together.

And then today, just now…when I decided to organize some files in an overcrowded file drawer. I ran my finger across a file label on a faded green hanging file that read “Blueprints”.  Inside were the blueprints to that very home Dale was writing about, the one that we built with blood sweat and tears. I didn’t know the plans still existed. I spread them out on the table, like I had done so many times before during the building process nearly thirty years ago.  Home.

Is Dale standing looking at a blueprint now for a heavenly home?

And is there a life blueprint that I should be looking at for the time I have left on earth?  Is there some big project that I need to be working on?  But then….I am all too aware that I can’t…simply can’t do anything that would even register on the scale as being “big” as there seems to be too many human burdens that make my offerings seem…well, so very small. Oh dear, what’s the plan?

I find a quote by Jeffrey Holland:

All (but a prophetic few) must go about God’s work in very quiet, very unspectacular ways. And as you labor to know him, and to know that he knows you; as you invest your time—and your convenience—in quiet, unassuming service, you will indeed find that ‘he shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up’ (Matthew 4:6). It may not come quickly. It probably won’t come quickly, but there is purpose in the time it takes. Cherish your spiritual burdens because God will converse with you through them and will use you to do his work if you carry them well.”

And....that's a good plan.  I refold the blueprint for the house, tuck it away in the file and I'll go on contented now with my plan for today.