Consistent Care

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This afternoon while I was sweeping the kitchen, my cell phone buzzed. It was my son-in-law Adam, from Florida:

“Your package just arrived. Linni’s away at a meeting and both kids were crying. Perfect timing! Thank you!”

Adam is a spectacular father, wholeheartedly involved with Skylar and Micah, ever patient, always kind. I wasn’t surprised to hear he was in the trenches of parenthood today, managing two fussy children. What did surprise me was that the package I’d mailed mid-week had arrived with “perfect timing.”

After I filled that box in Michigan (an exchanged birthday gift for Micah and a Mickey Mouse for Skylar), and after I taped it up and wrote the address on it, it sat on my kitchen counter for three days. Every time I walked past it I thought, “Oh golly, I’ve just got to get to the post office.”

I find it fascinating that after three days of procrastination, the package arrived with “perfect timing.” And there’s no other explanation except that God did it. His plan was to lift Adam out of a stressful moment and bring pleasure to two little children.

How many other nifty gifts does God put together for us day in and day out, when we don’t know it’s him? These things rarely arrive in boxes, but they might as well be gift-wrapped because of the special care our heavenly Father puts into sending them.

As young children we all memorized 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your care on him, for he cares for you.” Even without the front half of that verse, the last half is true by itself. God just plain cares for us.

The verse before that one also vouches for his care: “Humble yourselves… under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” Being lifted up by God himself when we are down? That’s tender loving care for sure. Humbling ourselves first, which is what Adam was doing by caring for his children today, is the prerequisite. We can all find ways to humble ourselves on a daily basis, and being lifted by God is a powerful motivator.

The verse even before that one describes another gift of caring God wants to give us: “God… shows favor to the humble.” So in three consecutive verses, he promises three gifts. He cares for us (v. 7), lifts us up (v. 6) and shows favor to us (v. 5). On a discouraging day when children are crying or other tensions dominate, we should actively look around for God’s care, knowing it’s on the way. This goes for both small concerns and large crises.

I think of Nate in reference to these verses. When he was assigned to go through the agony of terminal cancer, he humbled himself to God’s will, accepting it with grace. God did those three things for Nate. He cared for him through six weeks of uncertainty and pain, then showed him tremendous favor by lifting him into paradise, the ultimate in promises kept.

Today Adam was caring for Skylar and Micah. Simultaneously God was caring for all three of them, and he delivered a care package, just to prove it.

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” (Naham 1:7)

A Shining Star

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While running errands today, I got off at the wrong expressway exit, then turned the opposite way of the store. And I forgot to buy what I went to get, because I’d left my list at home.

At the pharmacy drive-through, the girl behind the glass said, “$8.15.” I put $8.00 in the drawer with a dime and nickel, but she immediately slid it back out to me. “That was a penny,” she said. I took the penny and substituted a nickel, but the drawer came out again. “Either send me a dime or another nickel.”

Simple tasks have gotten complicated, but this is my new reality, and whining about it won’t help. Besides, I’m not the only one struggling to adjust. This week I met another widow whose husband passed away just before Nate. Without even a minute’s warning, her Phillip died at their breakfast table. Rhea is only 23 years old and gave birth to a daughter one month after her husband’s death.

But there’s more. Baby Sandra arrived with major health issues that include frequent races to the emergency room, yet her mommy, the new widow, smiles and talks of God’s lavish blessing over these last months. After hearing her story, I was speechless.  My organizational blips are a pitiful excuse for complaining. If I had to step into this young girl’s shoes, I’d crumble. Yet she’s a sparkling example of taking God at his word when he said, “I’ll provide for you.”

Rhea leans on the Lord every day with the full weight of her complicated situation and has unshakable confidence he’ll continue to meet her needs indefinitely. She and her husband served together in Kenya, establishing homes for orphans. And because little Sandra’s recent surgery was successful, the two of them will soon return there.

For most of us there’s a huge gap between shouldering the burdens we’ve been asked to carry and our willingness to seek God’s help. In that gap of complete helplessness, we try to help ourselves, a ludicrous approach to our problems.

But the greater problem is setting God aside and using him as a last-resort solution. Self-sufficiency, esteemed in our society, is always a bust next to the way God wants to do things. His offer is to co-shoulder our burdens and sometimes obliterate them completely. By trying to do things our way, we not only risk making a mess but forfeit the supernatural blessing and unexpected joy Rhea is now experiencing. We also throw away a golden opportunity to give God credit for the amazing things that happen to us and around us when we abandon ourselves to him.

I asked Rhea if she has clung to any specific Scripture passage during these challenging months since Phillip died. Her surprising answer came quickly:

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” (Philippians 2:14-15)

Rhea is shining brightly!

Holy Fingerprints

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Life offers no greater thrill than an eye-popping realization that Almighty God has bent into time and space and touched us. These moments outweigh the excitement of delivering a baby, of being reunited with loved ones, of buying something we’ve always wanted, of winning an award.

Of course there’s one critical prerequisite to experiencing these thrills: a personal relationship with God. But that’s an option anyone can choose, because God wants us all.

When you, reader, come to the end of this post having read about my God-touch today, you may think, “No big deal.” Please know I’ve prayed about this for you, asking God to show you more of himself. No matter how small his contact with us, because of who he is, it’s spectacular.

Here’s a helpful word picture. At Christmas time, my 73 year old cottage got new windows, and because its winter, they’ve not yet been washed. Toddler grandchildren, visiting at the time, decorated the glass with their pudgy handprints, and although my little relatives are gone, they’ve left evidence that they were here.

God’s touch on an ordinary day leaves a far more important imprint on my life. To be marked by his supernatural influence even once is to crave more of it and more of him.

So here’s today’s holy fingerprint. While flying home from FL last week, I read through a book of quotes by Mother Teresa. After absorbing her thoughts on life and ministry, I understood clearly how and why she lived as she did.

Her words: “Whoever the poorest of the poor are, they are Christ for us – Christ under the guise of human suffering. Jesus comes to us in the hungry, the naked, the lonely, the alcoholic, the drug addict, the prostitute, the street beggars. If we reject them, we reject Jesus.”

As our plane landed, Mother Teresa’s sacrificial life impacted me, and I felt badly about my lack of contact with the poor. Short of supporting a little girl in India who I’ve never met, I’ve done very little and hoped to change that. As we pulled up to the gate, I asked God to show me what he wanted me to do. Who were the poor he wanted me to know?

Then Monday morning I came face-to-face with three poor people at the family custody window in the county courthouse. Although I didn’t feel God’s finger on me then, today I felt it.

I had prayed, “Who, Lord?”

And he said, “Them.”

Maybe I’ll end up back at family court, hanging around the halls to see what happens. Maybe God will make other arrangements as I continue to pray for those three, but he “marked” me this morning by letting me know I don’t have to hunt for ways to help the poor. He’s going to show me.

It was a small, gentle touch in which he made me aware of the link between my prayer request and his specific answer. And because it was done by Almighty God, I am in awe.

“Part your heavens, Lord, and come down.” (Psalm 144:5a)