God Provides

Yes, we must work proactively, doing our part to resolve the challenge of life.  But God can be counted on to do His part to resolve the challenge of life.  Translated:  God provides.

The part God plays varies from scenario to scenario.  But God provides.  I mean go figure, Jesus notes in Matthew 6.  If God provides for the birds of the air, surely God will provide and feed you.  “Are you not much more valuable than they?”  (Matthew 6:26).

Its interesting the word feed in Matthew 6 means literally to fatten (James 5:5).   And so yes, God provides for us in varied ways, but never in minimal ways.  In fact, over time (God's time), God provides for us in a major, expanding, enlightening fashion.

Once a seven year old girl, was walking the three blocks from her school to her home.  It was a familiar route, in a very safe neighborhood, so her Mom had nothing to fear. But just then a huge thunderstorm formed on the horizon.  So the little girl’s mother rushed out to retrieve her daughter; surely the little girl was petrified!

But as her mom approached – her daughter wasn’t scared at all.  I mean as the storm approached, and the lightening flashed, the little girl just stopped – looked up – and smiled as broadly as she possibly could!  In fact she did it repeatedly, each time the lightening lit up the sky.  Approaching her, the mom was confused:  why are you stopping, smiling and looking up at the sky?  “Oh mommy, can’t you see?”  God’s been taking my picture all the way home!”

So too for us:  God’s been taking our picture all the way through our stormy, difficult days.  God’s been near to us, providing for us.

      

Frankly I find that hard to believe on many stormy days.  I mean the darkness is so dark, and the storm so intense, it’s hard to see the lightening.  The Old Testament character Job is the classic example of such struggle.  Why in Job 1, Job loses everything: wealth, children, physical health.  And so, not surprising, Job struggles to see God’s provision.  But then in Job 37 Elihu, one of Job’s friends, points to God’s provision:  “Listen to the roar of [God’s] voice…He unleashes his lightening beneath the whole heaven….He thunders with his majestic voice…He holds nothing back…He does great things -- beyond our understanding…”  (Job 37:2-5).

There’s the key: God does great things beyond our understanding.    Translated:  we won’t always comprehend God’s provision.  But God’s provision, God’s lightening is always there.  We simply need to look harder, the darker the day.

In C.S. Lewis’ classic, The Screwtape Letters, one of the senior demons warns a younger demon: “Our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human… [feels that] every trace of [God has] vanished [even asking] why he has been forsaken – [yet] still obeys.”  - C.S. Lewis.

Still obey.  Still look for the lightening, no matter how dark the day!