I did it! On Wednesday, we drove straight through to the Jefferson area in Northwest North Carolina.  We de-winterized the house, fixed the internet and are lookin’ at land.  It’s been a busy week!

Was I in pain?  Oh yes!  Was it worse than other trips?  Actually no it was no worse than before.  This is doable.  It started with a question.

In the past it has taken us up to seventeen hours to get here.  That was with little princes and later with my chronic pain.  Both kids and pain require lots of stops for movement.   I was looking at mapped estimated drive times showing about eleven hours.  I asked.  “Do you think we can drive straight through to the house in North Carolina?

My dear husband said “Let’s try it.  We can always stop for the night if we need too.”  He also offered to drive during the night.  It is nice having a ride-sharing driver in the family!

I pray when I am quiet.  When the drive was quiet I prayed about how excited I am about this trip and the future.  The big change is so close I can almost grasp it.  My prepper mind started hammering out details with God.  My spirit wants to explore.  I started asking God questions I have pushed off for years.  I also started writing the questions down along with the first thought that pops into my head.  Here’s my list so far:

• Where do we go in 2021?  Can I afford to live in the place that I love?  Will I have the cabin I dream of?  Trust Me.
• Where do I look for a property for our cabin?  You’ll know it when you see it.
• Where does God dwell? Is this related to “rejoice always” and where is God’s dwelling in the New Covenant?  In your heart.  Look it up. 
• What is God’s Joy? Can I bring God joy?  I discovered in my post Rejoice in His Presence that when I rejoice in God, He rejoices.  Is there more?
• I’m getting older; will I live to see the Reunited Trilogy published?  Can I be a prolific author?  This is fear.  Trust me.
• I’m not ready to quit.  I see a future.  I want to glorify God.  Will I have the time?  Like my question on joy I had no immediate thoughts.  Mysteries to solve?  Maybe…

I have another question?  Are the thoughts my thoughts or His?  I asked God for confirmation.  I don’t have the answers yet.

I have questioned for as long as I can remember.  It drives some family members to distraction.  Some of my cousins called me “The But Why Girl.”  I don’t do much without asking why and seeking answers.

Looking back I can see my Mom and Dad were also questioners.  My Dad would take things apart, figure out how they worked, and put them back together again.  Most of the time he put them back together with improvements.  He would show me how to do things with my hands.  I’m pretty sure my ability to learn with my hands came from him.

My Mom taught me to research.  If I asked a question, we looked it up together.  When I got older she would say, “Look it up.”  Then she asked me to tell her what I found out.  She gave me a love for God, reading, and research.  When I was younger, I thought, she was just making me do my own work.

As a young adult I learned more about her life in a severely alcoholic home and how she came to know God as a young wife.  Because of her upbringing she didn’t learn a lot in school and only knew one Christian, her maternal grandmother.

When she was a child, her grandmother prayed for her and gave her a peaceful place.  After her grandmother died there were no true believers to nurture faith in her soul.  No one to make sure she got the schooling she would need.

My mom is drawn to the Word of God.  The scriptures are what untangled her life.  They bring her peace in the face of adversity.  With my sister and me, she was able to learn.  I was shocked when she told me, that she looked up the answers with us because she didn’t know the answers.  She is a God taught person.  She sought the answers and He helped her find them.

As I write this, I ask God, “Are you frustrated with all my questions like friends and family were?  Or are you interested in my questions like my Mom?”  The thought that came was:  Look it up.

The classic answer is Matthew 7:7-8:  “⁷Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  ⁸For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

I also found John 14:13-14:  “¹³And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  ¹⁴If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Matthew 7 is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and John 14 is Jesus’ teaching at the last supper.  If you read on in Matthew, Jesus continues by describing if your child asks for bread will you give him a stone?  As a mom, my eyes go wide and I practically shout, “Of Course Not!”  I may give him whole sprouted grain when he wants squishy processed white bread but not a stone!  Just like a mom will not try to harm her child.  God will answer with what we need not necessarily what we want.

What does this tell me?  Yes, we are to ask questions and seek out his ways.  He does not get impatient with questions.  We are not imposing.  He knows us because he created us.  Remember what he told Jeremiah?  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. [Jeremiah 1:5]”

He knows us and wants us to seek Him out.  I’m going to continue my quest for the answers.  I have one answer to my questions:  Keep on asking, seeking and knocking!

God calls us to draw nearer to him.  Be blessed in your quest.

Milly

Note:  Scriptures are from the New American Bible Revised Edition.

P.S:  In my next post I plan to recap my mountain travels.  Adventures on mountain roads!