I saw a video on another blog today that was awesome...I tried to post it on my blog, but obviously I still have a lot to learn about stuff like that! It is one of my favorite songs by one of my all time favorite bands. (I'll try to post a link later.) It reminded me of just about the only thing I miss about Odessa, Texas. Almost exactly one mile from my house in Odessa was a track around the University of Texas at the Permian Basin. It really was a paved road that went around the perimeter of the campus but it was like being out in the middle of nowhere. I used to go there all the time to run...with my headphones on, singing praises like crazy and praying out loud. No one could see me or hear me...it was just me and the prairie dogs, jack rabbits, some different kinds of birds, and the burrowing owls...owls in West Texas that live in holes in the ground. They were a sign to me of God's faithfulness.
It all started when I was going through a particularly rough spot. I used to jog in my neighborhood and I always thought I heard owls whoing. (you know, "who, who") I heard them but I could never see them. I started asking God to let me just see an owl. Then, my friend told me that the sound was not owls but another kind of bird. I was disappointed and stopped looking for the owls. I am very much a creature of habit and will always do things the same way. I rarely make changes, but one day I ran my usual route in the opposite direction. Guess what I saw...an owl! Ok, it was one of those fake owls that people put out to scare smaller birds away, but it was an owl. I laughed and laughed all the way down the street...I got the answer to my prayer.
Pretty soon after that I started jogging around the above mentioned track. After a little while, I noticed that the burrowing owls moved in at UTPB. I always thought of them as a little thing between me and God...like the owls were there just for me. I miss that...that special place -- man, the conversations I had out there with God. Perhaps it's not the place I miss so much but the uniqueness of what it meant to me...I long to find that place again.
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it, and His hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Psalm 95:1-6
In humble adoration of the King,
Jeanette
1 comment:
It is hard to imagine missing anything about Odessa. You were right on about the prairie dogs and jack rabbits and you that is all that was out there on that track. I am praying for that special place for you also. A place where you can sing praise songs aloud and not have to worry who is watching. Of course, you can always sing them at home, but that place is far quiet and peaceful. So that is my prayer for you a place of personal solitude even if it is the middle of the metroplex.
love ya,
jd
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