When we consider the promises God makes to us, I wonder how often we see them in their “everydayness” as well as their eternal significance? Does “For I know the plans I have for you…” strike us from a perspective of seeing everyday circumstances woven together for His glory? The past five months of my family’s life has shown us that God’s promises are not only to be seen and clung to for the larger trajectory of our life or major life events, but for the everyday circumstances as well. Since June, my husband has lost a job he loved, exhausted every avenue to find work only to accept a role that teaches all of us in new and wonderful ways, in a completely new field through a set of circumstances no one but God could have orchestrated. We had just moved into a home we thought would be ours for fifty years only to sell it and move to a new city—closer to many family and friends and a move we thought we would never be able to make from previous job obligations. Throughout these life changes, there have been countless small ways we have seen the Lord’s provision and tender care: a distant acquaintance letting us know we had been on her heart and didn’t know why but prayed for us nonetheless, friends showing up to our house to stock the pantry with groceries, children full of laughter lifting our spirits.
In all of this, we see too how our long wait for an adoption referral from Congo has been in the Lord’s perfect timing: had the process been completed months ago like we had hoped, these last five months would have been overwhelming, to say the least. In all of this, the Lord shows that He is a God of detail as well as of the big picture. Not always does he promise us material and financial security, a home and location we love, and children who are low-maintenance! But what I have learned a little more through the many ways he has orchestrated our life’s direction is how to trust. I found myself often tempted to trust in the resolution of circumstance more than in the Person of Christ. I found myself clinging to hope of an easy way out of our difficulty more than enjoying the presence of Christ for the sake of learning and loving him more. And he continues to show us—as our hearts and minds listen and study—that it is the condition of our heart he is after. How are we responding to challenge? Where do we go to find comfort, hope, security, and peace? What causes us to rest easily—the worldly or the eternal?
In whatever way you may be trusting, struggling, or in an uneventful season of life, it is my prayer for you that you can tune your heart to understand in new ways the Lord’s provision, communion with him, reliance on his good and perfect eternal plan, that even reveals itself in small and everyday ways.
