Though the cherry trees don’t blossom, and the strawberries don’t ripen, though the apples are worm-eaten, and the wheat fields stunted, though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I’m singing joyful praise to God. I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. Counting on God’s rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I’m king of the mountain! 

Habakkuk 3:17-19 (The Message)

This has been my favorite scripture for a long time. I’m not sure when I first stumbled upon it and I’m not sure why it held favored status in the beginning. The original version I read (and fell in love with) talks about there being no asses in the barn. Having no barn to hold any animals (and having a slightly skewed sense of humor) I thought I could relate to this scripture because I had no asses in the barn either!

One of the great things about getting old is being able to look back on our lives—to see what worked and what didn’t. We are who we are because of the choices we’ve made and the experiences we’ve been through. Some of those choices were pretty oddball, but they were choices that we made. Did we weather the storms that these choices brought, or did we run from the results, trying to shift the blame to someone else?

If the choices led to good results, how did we handle the success? Did we give credit where credit was due—thanking those people whose advice we took, acknowledging the help from the fan club that kept us motivated to run the race to the end? Did we become puffed up with pride and try to take all the credit to ourselves?

It’s also in that retrospect that we can see places where miraculous events occurred, and we weren’t even aware of them. The car wreck that didn’t happen or the child heading straight to the penitentiary who took a sudden turn and became a pillar in the community. Those days when we were down to $10 and needed milk, bread, and eggs. Lo and behold, there was a sale on milk, bread, and eggs!

I have had days where most of my time was scheduled to a fare-thee-well with meetings and deadlines. Somehow there’s a snowstorm that cancels all the outside events and I end up spending the day at home on the phone. I’m not sure how but these days are more productive than if I had followed my schedule!

I have learned that God will never bring me to a place where he won’t also lead me through it. I have found myself in some pretty strange places, but I’ve never been alone. I have come to learn that it doesn’t matter what is in my barn or my fields. God is there and that’s enough. I may not run like a deer anymore, but I can sure praise God!

Becky Gillette has been a teacher, preacher, pension administrator and newspaper reporter. Taking an innovative approach to reading the Bible, she started in Revelation and is working her way to Genesis, finding at least one scripture from each chapter upon which to meditate. This column is based on those meditations, pointing out the relationship between these scriptures and the real world. One may reach her at jessiescorner08@gmail.com.