I’m not sure why we ever wake up and assume the day before us will be normal. The “crazy potential” in our world is just too great for that.
To wit, I offer the following, reported by various legitimate news organizations:
- A couple in Georgia discovered a live buffalo in their swimming pool one morning. It had wandered into their yard and fallen through the pool cover.
- A woman was driving down an Ohio highway, miles from any body of water, when a large fish crashed through her windshield. She later learned a bird had dropped the lunker.
- A golf course employee came upon a live shark flopping around on the 12th tee. Once again, a bird with a loose grip was to blame.
- A roving band of cows crashed a backyard party in Massachusetts and bullied the guests into giving the bovine gang their beer.
- A cable guy walked into the basement of a New Jersey home and discovered a 500-pound bear asleep on the floor. The homeowners had no idea how the bear got there.
- A woman walking on a New Zealand beach found a young Emperor penguin who had taken a wrong turn near Antarctica and traveled 2,000 miles in the wrong direction. (Bet it was a male penguin who wouldn’t stop and ask for directions.)
- Shoppers at a Kohl’s department store in Iowa were stunned when three deer strolled through the store’s automatic doors.
- Folks in Staten Island, N.Y., were startled to see a zebra and miniature horse galloping down a main thoroughfare. The pair were escapees from a petting zoo.
- Diners and employees at a McDonald’s restaurant in Colorado were surprised when a cow named Lady Darcy ambled up to the drive-thru window. The Lady had wandered away from an area dairy farm. (One would think cows would want to steer clear of hamburger joints.)
Yes, indeed, no matter how on top of things we may feel, we truly never know what a day will bring. Pain, pleasure, joy, sorrow, weirdness or boredom. We just never know.
But God does, and I for one am incredibly thankful He’s willing and able to help us deal with whatever comes.
Remember the ad campaign promising that a certain insurance company would be there to help us handle all the “ifs in life”?
C’mon now. Beyond sending a check … maybe … what else could that company possibly do for me?
Get the buffalo out of my pool or the bear out of my basement? Heal my body or restore a broken relationship? Find me a job or pay my mortgage?
I’d rather trust God to help me handle the “ifs,” thank you very much. He may not keep me out of every tough situation, but He will keep me through each one.
God is perfectly sovereign and altogether good, and yet very bad things happen in this world. There is much mystery in what He allows and ordains.
When I get confused and frustrated about that, it helps to pause and remember this world is not an expression of God’s first or final intention for His creation. Sinless perfection was temporarily lost in the Garden of Eden, but will ultimately be restored at the end of time, when the Bible says God will create new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17, 2 Peter 3:13).
We’re living in the “meantime”… and it certainly can sometimes feel very mean.
My finite mind cannot understand how an infinitely wise God weaves everything that happens into His plan, but I don’t have to understand. It’s enough to know and trust the Weaver.
- Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord, how then can man understand his way?” – Proverbs 20:24