Merry-Go-Round

Last Wednesday I was given the opportunity to take a moment and purposefully seek a moment/memory with God.  He gave me a new one.  I immediately envisioned myself on one of those old metal merry-go-rounds they used to have at the parks.  I was wearing yellow.  Jesus was there pushing me.  He was wearing blue. (For some reason this is significant.) At first I was afraid He was going to make it go fast.  But in this vision Jesus is face to face with me saying, "It's okay to go slow."  

When I was a kid we used to go to a park near my grandmother's house that had one of these contraptions.  All the cousins would jump on and one of the older kids would push us and jump on when they got it going as fast as they could.  I hated going fast.  I was that kid who would get scared and want them to slow down.  I wasn't very popular on the merry-go-round.  I inevitably ended up on the swings.

But on Wednesday, it was just me and Jesus.  And it was okay to go slow.  In fact, He confirmed that it was okay because that's the way He made me.  As I've let this evolve, He has revealed the many ways this is true in my life.  I love to fully experience things and places.  I am totally content to sit on a patio in Switzerland and take in every aspect of the view, the company, the smells and sights and sounds of that place when everyone else is itching to rush off to Italy.  (I never made it to Italy.  Twice.  But I dont' regret one second of my time on the porch in Switzerland!)  I am totally content to spend the whole day, sun up to sun down on the beach, again taking in the sights, sounds, smells and not rushing off to go shopping.  And I am totally content to sit by a river and pick up every single rock, study it, wet it and study it again.  This is how I can take a 40 minute walk in Port Meadow in Oxford and stretch it out to 7 hours.  I was made that way.  And it is so okay.  He said so.