When God Acts and We Don't Know

This is a busy time for me.  Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, which starts the season of Lent.  That means that I have an extra service to prepare each week, as we have Wednesday night services in Gettysburg during Lent.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining about that.  After all, it happens every year.  Besides, I enjoy writing sermons and preparing worship services.  I don’t mind being busy doing those things.

The point is, though, that I get pressed for time occasionally.  And the other day, when I was feeling pressed for time, something happened that gave me some extra time that I had not anticipated getting.  It really helped me.  It wasn’t a huge thing--it wasn’t a life-changing event or anything--but it made things a little easier.  And so, I said a short prayer, thanking God for having given me some extra time.  

It then occurred to me to think how often that happens--that God does some little thing for us to make our lives a little easier.  It occurred to me to think about how awesome God is, that God does not just care about the big things in our lives, but cares about the little things, too.  And it occurred to me that I don’t thank God nearly enough for all the little things God does for me.

And then, I thought, I wonder how often God does things for us that we don’t even know about.  Times when we’re trying to do something and everything goes smoothly, with no problems.  Times when maybe we do have some problems, but the problems aren’t as bad as they might have been.  Maybe even times when something goes wrong, but it doesn’t go as wrong as it could have.  After all, one of my favorite quotes is from the author Cormac McCarthy, who said, “You’ll never know what worse luck your bad luck may have saved you from.”  God could work that way sometimes, too.

And then I had one other thought.  I thought, what if, when we get to heaven, they show us all those times.  All those times when God was doing things for us and we never knew.  All those times when God was actively helping us and we had no idea that God was even involved.  What if they show us something like a highlight reel of our lives, showing us how God was helping us every step of the way.

That would be pretty humbling, right?  I mean, I think going to heaven and being in the presence of God will be humbling enough, but this would make it even more so.  To actually see all the times when the almighty, all-powerful God was doing things to help little, puny, unworthy me and I didn’t even know about it.  To see all the times when God was helping me, protecting me, saving me, guiding me through life when I thought I was doing it all myself.  What an incredible experience that would be.  It would make us want to do nothing but be grateful to God and worship God all the more.

But we don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to have that experience.  All we really need to do is open our eyes and open our hearts.  All we really need to do is focus on God now.  All we really need to do is look back on each day and think of all the times when we knew what to say and knew what to do.  All the times when something could have gone wrong, but didn’t.  All of the times when things went more-or-less the way we thought they should go.  And then seeing God in all of those things, being grateful to God for what God has done, and recognizing that a God who loves us that much has to be worthy of our worship.

I’m going to try to do that this week.  I hope you will, too.  Try to see God at work in the day-to-day activities of your life.  Be grateful to God for the things God does for you.  And know that such a God is more than worthy of our worship.