(or blown in this case)
I’m always amazed at what God can teach me when I’m in a forest or on a lake or by the ocean.
But God’s power to speak sometimes catches me by surprise.
As I write this I’m in a hotel room on the 25th floor of a hotel in Chicago. It is hot. The wind is blowing. The horizon is concrete and steel from all points of view.
Yet when I draw the curtain back I’m astonished to see a large spider right in front of me. Spiders often travel on air currents – but even this spider must have gotten more than she bargained for because there can’t be much spider food up here. I don’t even see many pigeons fly by my window. Last night we had a nasty thunderstorm rumble through town, but the spider survived all the window rattling wind gusts. I’m not sure how this spider has survived. But the same air currents that brought her up to my window must also bring a supply of food.
I don’t know if spiders have any sort of thought process but if I were blown somewhere desolate I might question my creator and His wisdom for my life plan. [To check my desolation theory, I went to the 48th floor and looked out a number of windows and didn’t see any spiders up there at all.]
In fact, I have had times in my life when I felt like that spider blown into places I didn’t want to be. Maybe that has happened to you. Maybe you said “What did I do to deserve this?”
One of the things I’ve concluded as I’ve looked at my life is that God’s grace is not just for the next life. Yes, heaven will be good and I want to be among the millions who finally have the perfect ability to worship but the real and present advantage for being a believer is help living life now. I cherish God’s ability to sustain me in this life. God is not just the creator of eternity. He is the divine creator of the present.
I met a woman the other day who lost a decade of her life because a governmental taxing agency made a math error on her husband’s business taxes. They took her savings, home and future wages. This went on for a decade before some one admitted the auditor had slipped a decimal point or two. I asked her if she was bitter. The question surprised her. She explained that because she felt she must be doing what God wanted bitterness was not an option. She called it Calvinism. I called it God’s love. Her life was a wonderful story of life sustained, just like my spider friend. Desolation happened but God’s grace prevailed.
As I write this the spider is, again mending her web, packaging the little bugs that were blown up her during the night. She could move, but why? God is taking care of her just fine.
Where has God blown you?
In Christ,
Phil
