Regardless of How Things Look to Us...

 

When my daughter, Mindy, was about three, someone brought us a half dozen baby chicks in the bottom of a brown grocery sack.  I placed the sack on its side so my little girl could watch the chicks while I rigged a cardboard box with a lightbulb inserted for warmth.  

Suddenly Mindy shouted, "Mommy! The baby chicks are FLYING!"  

I had my back turned and was busy.  "Oh now honey, those chicks are much too small to fly yet."  

There was a pause, and then Mindy responded in measured tones, "Okay, but their wings are flapping and their feet are off the ground."  

I turned and was astounded to see that the baby chicks were indeed flying in short spurts within the confines of the paper sack.  

Sometimes we read the truths of the Bible and the encouragement God offers seems to negate the reality of our circumstances as we perceive them.  Other people may have taken advantage of us and then left us high and dry when we had need. People may have judged us based on their own perceptions of our behavior and never mind that they have no idea what we are going through. 

We cry out to the Lord, "I've been abandoned! Forsaken! No one cares about my needs! I am alone!"  

And the Lord tells us we are blessed and not cursed, and that we have not been abandoned or destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:9). 

We may take a good look around us and reply, as Mindy did, "OK, but the wings of these hurtful circumstances are flapping and their feet are off the ground..."   

To which the Lord replies, "Take your eyes off your circumstances and look at Me."  

Just as the paper sack contained those baby chicks in their first hopping attempts at flight, the Lord contains the circumstances that we first may at first perceive to be flying out of control. He doesn't let us go. He forgives the sins of words and actions we may have committed in an emotional response to our perceptions, and offers healing and help in return.  

God is at work in our circumstances, even the ones that are painful and frightening. He comforts us in suffering, and answers our cries for help. He does not abandon those called by His name. We are a people blessed by the Lord; blessed be His Name.  

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Blessed are those you choose

    and bring near to live in your courts!

We are filled with the good things of your house,

    of your holy temple.

Psalm 65:4 NIV