Hope and Provision

Some days it feels like we're on cruise control. We've got the top down and the sun is shining. Life is good. The radio is playing our favorite song and everything in the world is right.

Then there are days like today. An April morning when the birds should be chirping, and the flowers budding, but everything is covered in a silent sheet of snow. My head hurts, I'm exhausted, the car is in the shop (literally), I'm grumpy about everything, and the bad news seems to keep pouring down. People all around us are struggling and hurting. I keep hearing of sick babies, or babies who never get a chance at life, and it makes me hug mine a little tighter. There is a heaviness in the air. Nothing seems fair. Nothing seems just. Something in the world just isn't right.

But there is hope. Hope that in a few days or weeks, the snow and cold will be gone and the sun will shine on our pale faces and we'll be dripping in warmth. Just like there is hope for the world.

It's amazing how throughout our 7 1/2 years of marriage, God has continually shown us that he will provide for us. Today, Brad's car unexpectedly ended up needed a repair. I had this nagging feeling we needed to take it in right away. The shop called with the estimate which was considerable higher than we expected because there was a lot more wrong than we knew. Basically, the front brakes on the car needed to be completely rebuilt. Want to hear something amazing, that keeps happening to us so often we've come to expect it? I checked our bank account today and found our state return had been deposited for $642. When Brad walked out of the auto shop, I asked him what the total came to after tax and all. $642. God is cool like that.

I heard a blurb on the radio yesterday by an artist who was sharing the thoughts behind a song he had written. It stemmed from a mother he had met who had lost her child at a very young age. It got me thinking, especially with Easter coming up this weekend. I'll never understand why these kind of things happen or why a lot of bad things happen. But I do understand that it's part of a plan bigger than me and bigger than you. And bigger than this day that just isn't going right. And bigger than the economic problems in the world. And bigger than the injustice and corruption we experience in humanity. Maybe we have to experience bad days like today to experience God working in our lives because when we're riding with the top down belting out the words to that favorite song, we just might miss it. If our car hadn't needed work today, we would have missed out on that reminder that God provides. Why do bad things happen? They happen because this world is not our home. It's not supposed to be a comfortable place. It's not supposed to be a place we love. We're supposed to be longing for something better. We're supposed to want something more than this life. And there is something better. And there is something more. And it's Jesus.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ~ Romans 15:3