I Call it Providence

Perhaps it’s the accent, or the fact that I say ‘washroom’ instead of ‘restroom’, or that I pronounce the letter “z” zed, not zee, but I’m often asked where on earth I’m from.

I spent my first eighteen and a half years in Canada, went to Dordt College in Iowa, took jobs in Iowa and Germany, and then lived with my parents in Illinois to figure out my next move.

After a month or so of pondering, they decided to assist by asking questions:
“What about going back to your art center job in Iowa?”
“I’ve already done that-- I want something new.”
“Seattle? Denver? Minneapolis? Boston?”
“I don’t know. . .”
“Chicago?”
“Maybe. It’s kind of big.”
“Indianapolis? You’ve never been there before and it’s a beautiful city.”
“Hmm. Perhaps. I’ve always wondered what the Indy500 would be like.”

The curious thing, looking back over the last two and a half years I’ve lived in Indianapolis, is that I didn’t pick this city. When I revisit in my mind the ways things worked themselves out, it’s not me, a girl from Canada with an art degree picking a city. No, it’s much bigger than that. And it makes my eyes tear up when I think about it too much.

Perhaps it sounds self-centered to say that God was preparing the church of Redeemer for my arrival years before I ever stepped through its Delaware doors. But I think He was. I know that I serve a faithful God who loves me and knows me more than I ever will or ever be able to ever understand. So when I picked Indianapolis and when I found Redeemer, it really wasn’t me at all.

My heavenly Father knows me and my desires intimately and He knew that an urban church with gorgeous stained-glass windows and an art gallery and good coffee and folk music and all the things that I never could have imagined that He too would care about, would touch me and bless me and cause me to realize a bit more just how much He loves me and cares for me.

Fiddles and saws and washboards and red music stands?
An affordable downtown apartment with hardwood floors and crown molding?
Art openings and wine and ever-changing original art in my church?
Really, God?

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

O LORD, my Lord,
how much you love and care for me!