The robin was suddenly smacked with a bolt out of the blue. A merlin (a type of small falcon) dropped, seemingly out of nowhere, and knocked it out of the air. They both hit the ground with a thud in front of me, and there was a brief flurry of feathers.
The strike must have been a little off target as the robin flew away while the merlin flew up into the nearby crabapple tree. It sat there for a few moments, looking a little stunned.
Score: Robins: one, Merlins: nil. This time.
Sometimes, life can be like that. We are cruising along, living life as usual, when some major problem hits us out of the blue. There is no warning at all, at least none that we noticed.
It can come as a job loss, an illness, a marital breakdown, a death in the family, an economic collapse, or any of ten thousand or more different scenarios. Whatever the problem, it leaves us shaken and stunned.
We wonder what happened. We wonder where God is in the midst of it all. We wonder how, or even if, we will survive.
We begin to realize that we aren’t as much in control as we had imagined. In truth, there is very little that we do control. We’re not the center of the universe, and not everything falls under our purview.
That’s actually a good realization to have, even if we came to it the hard way.
Jesus spoke on that subject.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:25-31
Remember when times of testing come (and they will), God is in control. He knew about it before it happened, even if it seems out of the blue to you.
We can trust Him, no matter what we face. The outcome might seem uncertain to us, but the one who holds the stars in His hands has our backs.
Even when circumstances are hard, God is good.
To paraphrase a Bobby McFerrin song,
Here’s a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don’t worry, trust Jesus.
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don’t worry, trust Jesus
Don’t worry, trust Jesus.
Until next time, no matter what comes your way, remember that God is there for you.
Kevin