Under the Canopy - Part I

Have you ever felt like you should be doing something else but can't seem to walk away from what you are doing?
Picture this: I'm sitting in my beautiful den watching a mindless reality show on television. I keep telling myself that there are SO many other more important things I could be doing, but I can't seem to turn off the TV and walk away. I can't even seem to get my butt off the little red couch! It had been a challenging Sunday morning and I think I was wasting my time away just so I didn't have to think about anything else. I was probably having my own little pity-party, to be honest. Anyway, I was watching this reality show about real Hollywood desperate housewives. One divorced mother of two was taking a vacation with her two teen kids to Mexico, and had invited another soon-to-be-divorced mother of two to join them at some resort in Mexico. One of their excursions while on this vacation was to the rain forest where they would hook themselves up to a zip-drive, above the rainforest tree line, and zoom down the cable to a landing station. From the zip line, they could see all above the tree line, and the beautiful rain forest below. It was called something like, Above/Over the Canopy ride. To me it didn't seem that exciting because all you could see was the tops of the full trees below (like this: http://www.fotosearch.com/tgi162/trb67003/), and the sky, but nothing underneath the green trees (thus the name: above/over the canopy ride). What's underneath the leaves and branches, I wonder? That's where all the action and life is!
It was then that the Lord gave me a visual for what it might look like "under the canopy". Green plants, warm temperatures, plant and animal life, fresh water, and protection from what may go on above the tree canopy - lightening, wind, and storms that rage Then the thought came - that's where we need to be! Under the Canopy of God's love and protection!
Isaiah 4:5 & 6 speaks of the Lord God being a canopy for His people Israel, covering the glorious land. "It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain." (NLT)
What if we created for our children at church a place where they felt safe and protected from the storms of life! What if we created an environment for them that kept them safe, while teaching them how to deal with the storms of life! So - an idea was birthed - all from watching a show on TV that served no purpose other than to take an average, middle-aged housewife from her den in Wichita, Kansas to the real lives of Hollywood Desperate Housewives!
Praise God! There is no wasting in God's economy. He took that moment of self-pity and seclusion in my front room and took me to a place that is real - under His canopy. HE IS my shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain. PTL!