I apologize once again for my silence. About 3 weeks ago I was sitting on my recliner and leaned forward to pick up something and POP----my hip came out of the socket. This is one of the most painful experiences on earth. I had to go to the hospital via ambulance. I needed emergency surgery but due to a few situations, had to wait for several days before it could be done. After the surgery,once I was stable,I was transferred to the Inpatient Rehab unit of the hospital. Interspersed throughout all these events, the blessings of God were often displayed and activated by the loving, kind hands of people. God blessed me time and again in small ways, like bringing me cups of coffee from the nurses's office long before the meal tray arrived with it's burnt, lukewarm offerings. Things like people on the staff, from the housekeepers, to the meal servers and the nurses remembering me from my days of working at that hospital more than a decade ago...or from prior hospital stays, blessed me.
I came away feeling so loved by God. Throughout the hardship and the pain....there were threads of love, comfort, and joy woven all through the experience. I left the hospital into the panicked waters of fear of COVID-19---the purchasing of water and toilet paper creating shortages and feeding fear. Yes, staff wore masks most of the time and wiped every item they or the patients touched with bleach and constantly washed hands. But there was no panic or fear---even on the rehab unit which housed the most serious of the high risk patient population for this virus. I know that these hospital worker came to work understanding and accepting the risk of infection and because that is one of the facts of being a healthcare worker, they came and did their jobs. I extend to them my thanks.
The following paragraphs are the rough workings of a post I started weeks ago....and decided to publish just in case you are interested.It feels relevant to me having just come from the situation I just described and having received blessing upon blessing from God.
-------------------------
I am just today reading a passage in the book of Acts chapter 17, verses 24 and 25.
"He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can't serve his needs--for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. [Act 17:24-25 NLT]
Paul was in Athens when these lines were penned by Luke. Athenians worshiped everything on heaven and earth it seemed. I'm not going to tear this passage apart and feed it to you mouthfuls at a time. The Holy Spirit can do that. I was just struck by two statements in particular :
"human hands cannot serve his needs---for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything and he satisfies every need."
1) God has no needs. Regardless of our belief as to how we may help him along by our service or our wisdom--that is pure, mistaken pride speaking. God does NOT NEED YOU to achieve his great purposes. Even when Israel sinned through her idolatry and God was furious with the sinful , traitorous hearts of his people. -- So furious that he was about to throw out hundreds of years of history with his plans for a promised land to Abraham and his progeny and destroy them all in the wilderness and make Moses the father of the Promised Land...and make him into a great nation. God was NOT stumped or stymied or helpless in the face of Israel's sin. He did not need them at all in order to possess the land and make them a great nation. He will simply make another way. God does not need your advice or even your obedience --YOU are the one who needs that. And although it breaks his heart to be rejected, eternity marches on. God's love within the Trinity, was complete and joyful. Think of eternities past where God did not have a people yet to be lined up with the brilliant loving plan of the Lord. He was completely satisfied and replete with the joy of unadulterated love that exists between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And now we come to :
2) God shares with us clods of clay, the wonder of life and breath --he gives us Life and not only that but for every one of us he has heard our cries and has given us what we think we need at the time --often later to find it was the Giver, not the gift, that we really needed. But he humors us and he blesses us and out of his replete supply of blessings and gifts he puts into each of our lives so many blessings that it would be impossible to capture each one of ours in a single day with our attention and gratitude.
I find great comfort and joy in the God of Repletion-"from Whom all blessings flow." No need is too hard for him to make into a reality And in times of duress and we need something as simple as a warm blanket...there too he grants our needs.
I came away feeling so loved by God. Throughout the hardship and the pain....there were threads of love, comfort, and joy woven all through the experience. I left the hospital into the panicked waters of fear of COVID-19---the purchasing of water and toilet paper creating shortages and feeding fear. Yes, staff wore masks most of the time and wiped every item they or the patients touched with bleach and constantly washed hands. But there was no panic or fear---even on the rehab unit which housed the most serious of the high risk patient population for this virus. I know that these hospital worker came to work understanding and accepting the risk of infection and because that is one of the facts of being a healthcare worker, they came and did their jobs. I extend to them my thanks.
The following paragraphs are the rough workings of a post I started weeks ago....and decided to publish just in case you are interested.It feels relevant to me having just come from the situation I just described and having received blessing upon blessing from God.
-------------------------
I am just today reading a passage in the book of Acts chapter 17, verses 24 and 25.
"He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can't serve his needs--for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. [Act 17:24-25 NLT]
Paul was in Athens when these lines were penned by Luke. Athenians worshiped everything on heaven and earth it seemed. I'm not going to tear this passage apart and feed it to you mouthfuls at a time. The Holy Spirit can do that. I was just struck by two statements in particular :
"human hands cannot serve his needs---for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything and he satisfies every need."
1) God has no needs. Regardless of our belief as to how we may help him along by our service or our wisdom--that is pure, mistaken pride speaking. God does NOT NEED YOU to achieve his great purposes. Even when Israel sinned through her idolatry and God was furious with the sinful , traitorous hearts of his people. -- So furious that he was about to throw out hundreds of years of history with his plans for a promised land to Abraham and his progeny and destroy them all in the wilderness and make Moses the father of the Promised Land...and make him into a great nation. God was NOT stumped or stymied or helpless in the face of Israel's sin. He did not need them at all in order to possess the land and make them a great nation. He will simply make another way. God does not need your advice or even your obedience --YOU are the one who needs that. And although it breaks his heart to be rejected, eternity marches on. God's love within the Trinity, was complete and joyful. Think of eternities past where God did not have a people yet to be lined up with the brilliant loving plan of the Lord. He was completely satisfied and replete with the joy of unadulterated love that exists between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And now we come to :
2) God shares with us clods of clay, the wonder of life and breath --he gives us Life and not only that but for every one of us he has heard our cries and has given us what we think we need at the time --often later to find it was the Giver, not the gift, that we really needed. But he humors us and he blesses us and out of his replete supply of blessings and gifts he puts into each of our lives so many blessings that it would be impossible to capture each one of ours in a single day with our attention and gratitude.
I find great comfort and joy in the God of Repletion-"from Whom all blessings flow." No need is too hard for him to make into a reality And in times of duress and we need something as simple as a warm blanket...there too he grants our needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment