There is a miracle of God’s mercy that we often overlook. Not only does it come fresh, full and renewed every single morning, but it also keeps us from destruction. His mercy is a healing balm available to us on the small scale of our individual lives and also on a global scale. That’s why Chuck and I have been having conversations with our kids about the days we live in. Lots of threats, lots of predictions, lots of fear, fear, fear. But God calls us to live and move in faith, trusting His goodness, living as God’s children in what is often presented as a God forsaken world.
Do we prepare for hard times? Absolutely. My friend put it so beautifully, “Enough to survive and to share!” That’s just wise and generous living.
I have a vivid memory as a small child standing in my grandmother’s pantry. Rows and rows of jars of canned food that she had put up from her garden. “Enough food for a year, just in case,” she would say.
You see, my grandmother lived through the Great Depression. And so did my mother. In my home growing up, we had a hu-u-u-ge garden and we canned stores for the winter. In her later years, my mom stopped canning but she still had a well stocked pantry for ‘just in case.’ That’s not fear, that’s wisdom straight from Proverbs 6 about the ants.
Today, we are way past the Depression. And yet.
While we navigate the social media mania and diligently search for scraps of reliable facts, there is a God in heaven who is completely and intimately involved in every detail. He loves the world He has made and the people He created to fill it, even if they don’t love Him. Far from being abandoned, or orphaned, we drink from the mercies God generously rains down every morning.
We consult the web, the scroll and predictors. But do we consult the King of Heaven? Or worse, do we dare tell Him what is going happen?
“Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counselor?
Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?”
Isaiah 40: 13-14
As Chuck and I quietly enjoyed time at home for the eclipse, we recounted the major hysterias just in our lifetime. Y2k, 9/11, Market Crash 2008, Covid Epidemic 2020. This doesn’t even count the meteors, aliens, conspiracy theories, nuclear blasts, and the precisely predicted day of Jesus’s return. We told our kids “Humans do the best they can, and sometimes they get it wrong. However, God never fails. His mercy never fails.” Then we went on to tell them about divine interruptions, holy interventions, and God provisions in the worst of times.
This is where the buzz started around His mercy.
Do you remember that Y2K had worldwide attention? In Chuck’s realm of telecom and IT, the companies he served brought in international specialists and attached bonuses and created entire tasks forces to figure out how to minimize the coming crash. Few businesses implemented all the required updates. The world watched, beginning in the far East, as the time zones switched to 2000, one after the other. There was no collapse. No catastrophe. In the end, all the specialists shook their heads, none of us were ready. How did we make it through that…?
God has a thing or two to say about the affairs of men. It begins with His Love and ends with His mercy.
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:21, 26
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are ACTIVELY working in the world today. We see the horrors of mankind and the absolute mess we are generating on so many levels. But are we seeing and celebrating the miraculous and merciful works of our Loving God?
I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have the wardrobe for fear and hysteria. It’s not in my color wheel, doesn’t bring out my best features. Makes me look fat. Smile.
But seriously. Faith looks beautiful in us and on us all.
God’s mercy is a one-size-fits-all, perfectly.
So keep using your words to release the Kingdom of God.
Keep storing goods so you can be generous ‘just in case.’
Look for the mercy of God.
Release the mercy of God.
Celebrate the mercy of God in your own heart, your relationships, and the world you live in.
It’s fresh every morning so might as well have a hot serving with your coffee.
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
Lamentations 3:22-23 NLB