Ever wonder why, when God comes through on something we've been holding our breath about, He seems to act in the nick of time? It can't be a lack of planning on His part, though it may have been on ours. Still, I've been puzzling about it for some time. If He's going to do the deed, why not make it happen ahead of time, so we aren't biting fingernails about it.
The answer came in the form of our recent litter of kittens, and the memory of a Bible story I heard long ago.
My journey with God has led me through more than several dozen midnight hour rescues, and until this very week I'd been almost (no, not almost) irritated with God for not giving me more lead time on His spectacular provisions in my life.
I thought about the baby kittens, in fact, babies of all kinds. Their mother feeds them every few hours. She never gives them enough milk to last a whole week, or even a whole day, for if she did, they might run off too far away from her and hurt themselves. Similarly, in the Old Testament of the Bible, the Israelites were stranded without any natural supply of food and God sent them manna from heaven, supernatural food that rained down from the skies every morning, and it was just enough for one day. If they tried to save it and keep it over for the next day, it spoiled.
I'm convinced that whenever God is attempting to keep us close to Him, He stages these little crisis to keep us looking towards Him in faith and dependence. Otherwise, we'd run off with a year's supply of treasures and never look back. It's been well documented that we are wired like that. I should say that it's been well documented that I'm wired like that. The first sign of spring after winter and I'm outta here, like the nine ungrateful lepers. It may be the reason that Jesus said, "It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." He also taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," but don't we love to back the SUV up to Costco and not have to worry about it for a month? We try to hoard the manna in the spirit of the prodigal son demanding his inheritance all at once so he could get on with it.
Instead of a problem that God has with timing, its more likely a problem I have with trust. How about you?
The answer came in the form of our recent litter of kittens, and the memory of a Bible story I heard long ago.
My journey with God has led me through more than several dozen midnight hour rescues, and until this very week I'd been almost (no, not almost) irritated with God for not giving me more lead time on His spectacular provisions in my life.
I'm convinced that whenever God is attempting to keep us close to Him, He stages these little crisis to keep us looking towards Him in faith and dependence. Otherwise, we'd run off with a year's supply of treasures and never look back. It's been well documented that we are wired like that. I should say that it's been well documented that I'm wired like that. The first sign of spring after winter and I'm outta here, like the nine ungrateful lepers. It may be the reason that Jesus said, "It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." He also taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," but don't we love to back the SUV up to Costco and not have to worry about it for a month? We try to hoard the manna in the spirit of the prodigal son demanding his inheritance all at once so he could get on with it.
Instead of a problem that God has with timing, its more likely a problem I have with trust. How about you?
