The Amazement of an Appalachian Cinderella

       I only saw one glorious pink lady slipper in my first 50 years and I still remember the spot down Hemlock Lane where it was, so you can imagine my delight a few years ago when we discovered a woodland patch of about 100!  I felt like an Appalachian Cinderella looking at all those extraordinary slippers. Except it wasn’t a fairytale—it was God giving us unexpected blessings, once again in abundance.
     The older I get the more I say “It’s amazing how....” Things that fill me wonder are: My grandma Olga Balli Harris walking three miles each way to teach school-- when she was pregnant! And how God organized a beautiful and unexpected love story between two of my good friends, and He strengthens the faith of a cousin who is fighting cancer. I recall my dad using water to demonstrate how a coal miner’s carbide headlamp could be lighted! (Calcium Carbide generates acetylene gas when reacting with water, which is still amazing no matter how old you are.)
    Remember the old-time Continuous Cloth Roll Towel Machines that used to be in every school or gas station bathroom? I was telling my kids about them and with each detail their eyes widened in amazement.  The contraption involved about 100 feet of actual cloth fed through a little slot. Most of us assumed the 4 feet visible loop was recycled through instead of replaced periodically with a new clean one. You had to avoid the brown stains and the middle part of the dangling loop which was always wet. We didn’t question the possibility of mildew accumulating up inside the metal germ box, and we didn’t know what to do with the inevitable 8 foot loop that occurred when the roller gears broke, but I’m pretty sure some kids swung on it.  At the end of the day, it probably boosted our immune systems…and was probably more planet friendly than using paper towels.  Good or bad, it was still amazing.
          Things can also be amazing that are not at all wonderful but are merely surprising:  I’m amazed I met a person recently that is in their 30’s and has never heard any semblance of the Gospel or good news of salvation through Jesus. I’m amazed that people throw litter out their car windows.  And just this week I was astounded by a headline telling how a drunk man accidentally became part of a search party and was hours into the hunt before he realized the man they were looking for was actually himself! 
     Scriptures hold many truly amazing moments.  Imagine the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea:  “You should have seen it!  Great walls of water were on each side of us and the ground beneath our feet was dry! And the crowd assembled watching Elijah prove Yahweh was the one true God:  “First the old man taunted the prophets of baal, and said they might want to chant louder as perhaps their god was sleeping!  Then he poured precious water on the altar –in a drought nevertheless! But then it got even more spectacular—he prayed to his God and fire fell from Heaven and decimated the drenched altar and sacrifice!  And then rain came.  It was incredible!”
    Scripture records Jesus feeling amazement two times.  Imagine the God of the universe being amazed!  One time was in Matthew 8:5-13 telling about the faith of the Centurion and the other time in Mark 6:1-6 describing the lack of faith of the people living in Nazareth. Our faith and our lack of faith amaze Him.
     Luke 18:8 poses the question, “…when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on earth?”  Midnight is coming but it’s not a fairytale, and this Appalachian Cinderella has to wonder if Jesus will be amazed at our faith? Or will He be amazed that we are still stumbling around like the drunk man looking for ourselves? 
 

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