Bluebonnets

I have another story. Another moment of God smacking me in the face.
(Kind of like the rock story, which is here.)

I've lived in Houston a full four months now.
A whole season. A season in which the temperature has changed!
(Much to my neighbors' chagrin actually.)
Its been a huge change, one that I haven't been able to ignore at all.
As much as Texas is still part of the same country and many things are the same, living in Texas has been a huge transition for me.
And I cannot tell you how many times I have questioned this decision.
While I have never once said to myself, I want to leave, I have asked myself a lot of questions along a similar vein: Why Texas? How can I live here? How am I going to get my snow fix? Why did I move away from all the people I know and love?

In the midst of all my questioning and wondering, my church offered this Advent preparation morning retreat called Cup of Wonder. The gist is that you go for two hours, there is a speaker, you pick a mystery bag with a mug in it and a reflection book, you spend an hour or so in silence reflecting on the mug that you received and the stuff in the book, and then people share, the group prays, and you're done! Sadly, I joined the group halfway through, but they were still graciously willing to let me pick a mug and a book and share with them at the end.

There were mugs with snowmen on them, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas shouting from the sides, hearts, birds, songs, maps, patterns, weird 80's plaid, and so on. Everyone had a mug that spoke to them in some way, reminding them of something in their lives that needed standing out, needed to be shared.

My mystery mug has bluebonnets on it.
AKA: The Texas State Flower

The reflection is quite obvious:
When you ask God to put you in the right place
and you prayerfully make a decision and follow through,
despite all the questions...
you really just have to trust that it is right.

God saw bluebonnets, and God saw that it was good.