While browsing at my favorite bead store, I went to check out a display of discounted charms. One silver charm — in the shape of a ferris wheel — caught my attention. I liked the design but silently questioned why I would ever buy it; rides, like ferris wheels, make me nauseous!
As I was looking at the charm, a thought came to mind: Life is an adventure. I sensed this message was heaven-sent yet had no idea what it meant. I soon left the store with a bag, the ferris wheel charm inside it!
The following weekend, my husband Pete and I met with our new friends, Tim and Jill, over coffee. During our conversation, Tim looked at me and said, "T., life is an adventure." The same message I had heard at the bead store. Tears sprang to my eyes as I sensed God at work again.
Months prior, Tim had told us about the documentary he was working on — a scientific investigation of the exodus out of Egypt, when God delivered His people from Pharaoh's hand. As a student of biblical archaeology in college and beyond, Pete found the film’s body of evidence fascinating.
From the start, Pete felt called to work on the film project, but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough money in Tim’s budget to hire him. Instead, Pete volunteered his time for any related projects. Tim soon gave him some underwater footage to research.
Later that year, Tim came to Pete with a job offer! But the offer was 50 percent lower than Pete’s then-current salary. Although we had no idea how we could ever make the lower salary work, we began praying: Was this God's will for Pete or not?
God can use anything to get our attention in order to accomplish His purposes. May He give us eyes to see and ears to recognize His nudges toward a God-ordained adventure.
Meanwhile, I began seeing pictures of ferris wheels (for example, on billboards for the Mall of America) and reading the words ferris wheel almost daily. After weeks of this theme, it occurred to me that perhaps the film project was what the message, Life is an adventure, and all of the ferris wheels were about. I shared that thought with Pete, and we eventually discerned that the film project was the adventure God was calling us to! So Pete accepted the job offer.
Following his decision, though, we were bombarded with doubts: How would we ever make the pay cut work?! Yet we resolved to walk by faith instead of sight — choosing to believe that God would provide for us no matter what.
And provide for us He did! In the coming months, there were weeks when we were told we might not get a paycheck, but in the end, God always provided.
When Pete and others were in Israel completing work on the film, before heading home, he and a colleague went adventuring. Driving by the Sea of Galilee, Pete suddenly shouted, “Stop the car!” He could hardly believe his eyes. There before him was ... a ferris wheel! At the Sea of Galilee?! God's gracious confirmation signs continued.
Who would have thought that a ferris wheel charm would play a role in a God-ordained adventure? Yet God can use anything to get our attention in order to accomplish His purposes. May He give us eyes to see and ears to recognize His nudges, as He did for me that day in the bead store years ago. The life-changing journey we were called to taught us to hold our own plans loosely, for God might interrupt our plans with His plans, which may be bigger than we could imagine!
