Emmanuel
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Psalm 114
1. When Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 2. Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. 3. The sea looked and fled, Jordan turned back. 4. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. 5. What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? 6. O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? 7. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8. who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
Don’t you sometimes find yourself wishing God would act in your life the way he did in “biblical” times? Haven’t you had days when you wish the “sea” you have to cross would flee so your passage could be easy and safe? Life is not easy. Even when we do everything we think we ought to do. Even when we try so very hard to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation not of our own making, but one from which we must extricate ourselves. And change can be scary. Even for an adventurous sort like myself!
As I walked with my buddy this morning, I made a pretty strong affirmation that I realized I forget sometimes: God stoops down from heaven to act in our lives every single day -- with intention and with purpose. I don’t doubt it for one single minute and no one will ever convince me that it’s not so. I have had too many “coincidences” that were unquestionably God reaching his hand to me to hold me up. Too many times I have called out to him, and he has sent an answer - through an unlikely messenger, through a seemingly “chance” meeting or conversation. Sometimes it come to me as I sit in quiet solitude. But I am not alone on this earth. And neither are you. Emmanuel -- God with us -- really is!
Just open up your bible and you will find countless ways that the God of human history has been intimately involved in that history. And he is still. Every so often, I get an uplifting e-mail from friends -- one about “have you ever had ____ happen? That’s God.” And it probably is. God-incidences abound. We just need to watch and listen for them. We need to be open to them. When life throws you for a loop, when you are broadsided by the actions of others, when ill-intent and sin seem to be all around you--don’t despair! God loves you too much to allow you to go through it alone. Oh, he may allow you to go through it -- in fact he probably will -- remember yesterday’s devotion on the refiner’s fire? But you won’t be alone. He’ll be there as all the dross is scraped off the silver.
He’s making you into a masterpiece. That takes years of work and toil and planning and preparation. But I think about Jesus and what he had to go through for me. I think about his mother and how her heart was surely broken as the events of Good Friday unfolded. I think of all those who loved Jesus and had followed him, and had found hope in his words. They must have felt as if it had all been a lie. They must have felt very betrayed by God. But Easter Morning promised them otherwise -- just as it is a promise for us today. God is in the world. He walks among us, and lives within us. And we don’t ever need to fear that he will leave us alone. He loves us too much and longs for us to be in heaven with him.
My prayer today is that you go to God for your heart’s desire. And that you remain open to his answer, which always ends with, “I love you.”
Mary
