By Melody Vanosdol
God is always faithful. I’m still working on it.
My 80-year-old mom had been itching to go somewhere. We tried two summers ago, but she fell ill. Very ill. She spent most of a year recovering. I wasn’t about to hesitate taking her somewhere over fall break. I wanted to go to Michigan to increase my chances of seeing the Aurora Borealis (a.k.a. the Northern Lights). She was up for it.
The night before we left, the Aurora had been pretty fantastic at those northern latitudes. The morning we left, there was absolutely no chance of seeing the Aurora for days. I was disappointed, but I thought we’d see a few lake towns, and I’d take her to Weidman to see where her favorite show of all time, The Incredible Dr. Pol, was filmed and get her picture in front of their sign.
But God… He loves to lavish gifts on his children. We got the pictures in front of the sign, but as we were leaving, God nudged me to turn left instead of turning out onto the road. Mom yelled, “It’s Tater!”
Tater is Dr. Pol’s black, three-legged cat. So we got out of the car to pet Tater. Silly? Well, sometimes God is just slowing you down. Then Dr. Pol’s son, Charles, arrived. Mom said his name, and he greeted her. He stood for a picture with her while she told him how much their show had meant to her while she was recovering. He told us to wait.
Within two minutes, Dr. Pol was walking out to greet my mother. He’s an incredibly humble and godly man. It turns out that God has used their show to help many people through hard times. He gives ALL the credit to God. They were humble, God loving, beautiful people and took the time to make my mom’s day. She wept with pure joy. (How often do we get to learn that the people we admire are truly godly people?)
But God… He wasn’t done lavishing by any means. That morning at breakfast, out of habit, I checked the Aurora apps on my phone. Overnight there had been an intense solar flare and a coronal mass ejection was headed toward earth with exceptional speed. It normally takes three days to arrive. This would take slightly less than two. So we left Weidman headed for the upper peninsula.
The following afternoon, we rolled into Paradise, Michigan (appropriately named) and pulled into the hotel where I was planning to stay. It was closed. I won’t lie. I was a bit nervous. Paradise is tiny, in the middle of nowhere, and I had my dog with us. When I got in the car, mom asked me what was wrong. I told her, “God said, ‘Not here. Keep going.'”
As we stood in the lobby at Curley’s Motel, it was my turn to cry. God had led us to a quaint, clean motel on Lake Superior on the only night I could be there for one of the biggest Aurora shows in the last fifty years.
That night a very large chunk of North America got to see the Northern Lights. But God had placed me on the beach, on Lake Superior, in the middle of nowhere directly under the coronal mass ejection. The Northern Lights were all around me and above me. They were shooting straight at me. They weren’t off in the distance. I was completely surrounded by them. I could feel them. I literally danced on the beach with God. It was amazing. I’ve never had a more worshipful experience in my life. It went on for hours.
The more I trust Him, the bigger my blessings get. The more time I spend with Him, the more I trust Him. The more time I spend in His Word, the closer I get to truly understanding His love. The closer I get to understanding His love, the more awestruck I am, and the more I want to spend time with Him.
I will never forget the night I danced with God.
God is always faithful. I’m still working on it.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalms 19:1 NIV).
“He gives us everything to enjoy. Tell those who are rich in this age not to be arrogant and not to place their confidence in anything as uncertain as riches. Instead, let them place their confidence in God, who lavishly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17 ESV),
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16 NIV).
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV).
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).
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