Carrie Cox’s Corner

Today my joy is full. I am thankful. All month long I have been looking back, but today I want to look forward.

“I like looking back on the old times,” Michael said.

“The view in front of us is pretty good today,” I said as I looked over at him and Nathan at the vista of the Mediterranean from a white washed village etched into the side of the mountain. The view showed the blue water and in the distance a barely visible shape of Africa blending in with the Horizon.

We were sitting in a little cafe outside on Mijas Pueblo, Spain sipping coke and laughing, listening to a live Spanish guitarist and having a great time.

Man, how amazing to be here! What a blessing and what opportunities the Lord has opened up. I could never have imaged all the awesome places I have been and wonderful people I have met.

Looking forward….what do I see…

Nothing.

I don’t know what is coming tomorrow. All I have is what is in front of me today. Right now it’s this screen, it’s these silly girls, it’s the cute little home we’ve made these past two weeks, it’s our laughter, the dirty laundry, the sound of the tiny foreign washer that we still don’t really know how to use. It’s making them listen to my stories, it’s answering their questions. It’s the smile on my face as I write about my time. Have these 14 kids driven me crazy. Oh yes…but have I loved it?

A thousand times yes.

Last night Nathan was preaching about how “Jesus Never Fails” and one of his points was that He never fails, even when we think He does sometimes.

He used the illustration of the complications of Claira’s birth, our hopes and dreams changing, but then later Hunter coming into our lives, and what a blessing he has been to our family and so many others-that probably would have never happened if we had our will and our way. God gave me a promise of a house filled with children, and it seemed impossible, but there have been so many young people in our lives. During his message last night he asked all the kids that came with us to stand. The large group stood to their feet. He said these kids are not our kids, but this week they are our kids. The sweet people of the church looked around and started clapping. We all could see so clearly an answer to prayer, a tangible fulfillment to a promise of God. A promise that God gave me in a dark and private time. Now He fulfilled in front of so many. What a blessing! How moved we were last night to see once again that Jesus Never Fails.

It was a precious service that I will never forget.

So today I look forward.

I look forward to getting some sleep. Every night has been so late here. I look forward to seeing Christmas Lights in Malaga tomorrow. I look forward to watching old home videos with Denise and Josh and spending sweet time with our family who we don’t get to see too often.

I look forward to going home. I look forward to picking up Eridessa again and having two girls in my home again.

I look forward to…nope, not to going back to school the day after we get back. That one will be a hard one, ha. Not looking forward to that!

I look forward to Christmas with my family in Tennessee, to seeing my brothers and their kids, and homemade yeast rolls (the only thing missing from our feast this evening).

There are several things that I’m looking forward to, but there is only one direction I want to look. Be Thou my vision O Lord of my heart. My favorite verse is Philippians 3:13:

“13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I want to look forward.