Ravens, Fur Coats and the Location of Your Heart

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 By Sarah Jeanne

To me, sushi and the ocean are two of the most rewarding things about living in San Francisco. And when coupled together, they make for a most blessed and harmonious time.One recent Saturday, I found myself parked alongside the ocean, listening to the waves crashing to and fro and indulging in a lovely, spicy California roll. To my surprise, a most interesting visitor kept popping up. A raven landed on the ground a mere 5 feet away from where I was parked. As he turned his head, I could swear he was looking directly at me. For several minutes, I observed him come and go and wondered if God was trying to show me something in this. I had come to the beach for reflection and rest, but I wasn’t praying or looking for a grand revelation to drop into my lap. I was simply enjoying two of my favorite things and trying to quell certain fleshly worries that were attempting to drive my Sabbath rest away. After the third visit from my winged ebony friend, I heard the Lord distinctly say, “Feed the raven.”

Now, I am not a stranger to off-the-wall prophetic actions. As someone who is in the midst of developing a stronger sense of her prophetic gift, it is not at all unusual for the Lord to tell me to do something outrageous. I looked over at my Trader Joe’s grocery bag and saw a loaf of my favorite bread, encrusted in sunflower seeds. Ignoring all of the negative connotations I have previously had about the meaning of the raven (the carrion eaters, the vulture-like natures, etc.), I grabbed a handful of seeds off the top of the bread and threw them onto the ground amongst hundreds of small pebbles. The raven took a moment, looked me square in the eye again, and began to pick up the seeds without any problem. Even among hundreds of stones of the same color, he was able to immediately pick out the seeds one by one.

How many times have unexpected delays put you in a tailspin, where you have to pull out all the stops to allow ‘Plan B’ to take over, just to figure things out? What if, instead of Plan B, we went the way of the raven and just allowed God to lead us to that right place, that right time?

Our company, Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks, has been in a position of serious delay concerning our funding for our latest project. There are over 30 of us on staff, many with families, who have been working in un-paid, volunteer positions for the
last few years. The term ‘labor of love’ is not altogether unfamiliar to us. Not so long ago, we had been promised a full $200 million in funding from a reputable German bank, only to have it delayed due to changes in their government’s laws. With bills mounting, it has been only logical for several of us to question if we should get outside work to help make ends meet. This question in particular has weighed heavy on my mind. As a single young lady who grew up in the Midwest, I have neither spouse nor family here in California to rely upon financially. It was this exact subject that I was battling in my mind this day. My desire to continue doing the Lord’s work has never been in question. I love serving God. Serving Him in the movie industry has been incredibly awesome. I love making films and production is work I was made for. So when the bills are mounting and you’re
really feeling the ’squeeze,’ and a second job only proves to be nothing more than a distraction from your divine calling, where exactly are you supposed to look for your next meal? Why does God put us in this quandary? The real question is: Do you want to trust God now or later?

Our pastor, Richard Gazowsky, told our Church the story of an extremely successful and wealthy friend of his in Europe. Through many hardships and unexpected business downfalls, he and his family were down to absolute zero. After sending the kids off to school with the last slices of bread, his wife, in desperation, went to her closet and brought down her favorite fur coat. It was beautiful, costly, and when sold, would feed them for at least the next 3 months. The man looked at his wife and said, “Do you want to trust God now or in three months from now?” Seeing the logic in this, his wife agreed. She wanted to see the Lord’s provision immediately, so she went to pray.

After some time in prayer, the Lord told her to put the fur coat on and go shovel the snow from the sidewalk. While she was shoveling, a limousine pulled up beside her. The window rolled down and the neighbor lady inside said, “I am so embarrassed,
but I have to stop and tell you something. The Lord told me to go buy you groceries, but I know you are the wealthiest family in the neighborhood so I feel a little silly. I have been driving around the block in order to get enough courage to stop and tell you this.” The wife rejoiced and gratefully accepted the groceries. That same neighbor continued to provide groceries to their family for exactly the next three months. God, in His faithfulness, has gone on to bless this family and restore everything that satan stole.

As I sat in my car by the ocean and watched my immediate surroundings, I noticed that the raven visited no other car, no other perch. But it was me he kept coming back to. It was too supernatural not to be real. And then these scriptures flooded my heart; Luke 12:24 (reading from the English Standard Version): “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” It dawned on me: this raven kept coming to me because through him, God wanted to show me how even the littlest things are planned out in His kingdom. I was predestined to be that raven’s source of food at that moment. He not only looked me in my eye, but also returned, several times, until I finally obeyed God’s Word to feed him. Jesus continues in verses 29-31: “And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”

Wow! How did this simple act of eating sushi and watching the tide roll in turn into a heavy spiritual lesson? I wasn’t even actively praying about my circumstances, just attempting to put them out of my mind. Yet, it was this action that gave the Lord a way to speak so clearly to me. As it says in Luke 12:30, “Your Father knows that you need them.” When I pushed my struggles aside, God was able to minister to me with a live-action, illustrated sermon. No matter what the ‘expected norm’ might be, when we follow the plan God has for our life, we cannot fail. Conventional wisdom might tell me that I live in one of the most expensive cities in America and it is crucial for me to have a steady and above average source of income. But conventional wisdom never instructed a wild bird to sit in front of me until I fed it. And if my God can do that, I am confident that He can (and will) put a roof over my head and our finished film in the theaters.

I think it’s said best in Luke 12:33-34: “…Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” To some, this contrast may be too great, but think of fur coats when you have no money; and a lingering promise of God’s provision when you are surrounded by blessings but still looking under the sofa cushions for lunch money.

There’s no denying that living comfortably, with plenty of money, is fun. But living by faith in the prophetic realm, well, there’s really nothing like it. It’s truly ‘out of this world.’ And for me, on that day of the raven, I found my treasure in a sushi roll, the crashing ocean waves, and San Francisco, where my heart will be forevermore.

Sarah Jeanne is unit production team leader for Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. She was one of the leaders in Italy for our 70mm film test shot, which was featured in the film “Audience of One”.

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