Michael quit his job, we placed our house on the market and in the midst of having COVID we moved to Ohio. We moved! We did it! We moved in December because we felt the call that it was time to move home and be close to family; so, here we are! We did and do believe that God assured us that this was the right move through His WORD, the Bible and through prayer.
I have always believed that when God calls us, that is when life will just fall into place like a cute organized puzzle because He called us to be there. I believed in smooth transitions and lofty provisions. I believed in the right away and not the sit and wait. Since moving to Ohio I am finding that what I thought would be is not what actually is.
I came home from work one day and wept in the bathroom. I cried out to God, “God, why did you bring us here? What are you doing? What are we supposed to do as a family? How will you provide? We believe in your call please help us to remain united and stay faithful to you even when we do not see you.”
In my questioning and doubting I have been reminded of Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary could have had many questions after her visit with the angel Gabriel who told her in Luke 1:28-38:
“Greetings, favored one! The LORD is with you.”
But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the LORD God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the LORD; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
After receiving this promise, this calling, Mary could have had the thought that her life would be smooth sailing from this point forward. An angel came to her and told her that she was favored by God and that she would carry his Son. She was told he would take the throne of David and be King. She could have thought that she would be rich and that her life would be easy and everything would be provided unto her. She could have believed that since she carried the LORD, God would provide for every need and want, however, not long after receiving her calling from Gabriel she was faced with PREGNANCY which for many of us is NOT EASY, the man she was engaged to planned to quietly divorce her (thankfully God sent an angel to speak to Joseph through a dream not to divorce Mary…Matthew 1:18-21), a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the people needed to travel back to their hometown to be registered, so Mary had to travel to Joseph’s hometown while being very pregnant without superb travel accommodations; (I mean where is the first class???) and then while in Joseph’s hometown, with no place to go because there was no room in the inn she had to deliver her baby, the Messiah, outside with barn animals (Luke 2: 1-7). This CANNOT be what Mary envisioned when she received her calling.
Mary could have asked the same questions I asked, “God why did you bring me here to this barn? What are Joseph and I supposed to do as a family? How will you provide, God?” However, what did Mary do in this circumstance? She took the steps necessary to deliver her Promised One, our Promised One. She opened her life up for visitors in what could have been seen as an embarrassing situation.
Luke 2:16-19
“The shepherds went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words in her heart.”
Mary did not worry, fret, hide, feel shame or embarrassment but instead she treasured these words in her heart. In the midst of my own life’s chaos and twists and turns I too can stand firm in the calling that God has given and know that just as He was faithful in Mary’s time He is faithful now. He is unchanging! I am not promised smooth, quick transitions and lofty provisions and I am not promised that life will go as I have planned; but I am promised that God is faithful and true and that He is present. I can treasure and recall that He gives strength in weakness, that He comforts those who mourn and that He brings joy in the midst of deep sorrow. And as I look around and see chaos, and that life does not seem to make sense; rather than worry and fret I can remember Mary. She looked around the barn filled with animals, manure and shepherds and she treasured those moments in her heart.
Can we open our eyes to what is happening beneath the surface of our chaotic lives and know without a shadow of a doubt that God is in control, that He is faithful and just and we can treasure these moments in our hearts? Is it possible that when we too look around, we can have eyes to see not what is right in front of us but that Jesus is there? He is in the moments where we least expect him to be found and we will be able to experience Him in fresh, unexpected ways because life is not going as we have planned. Is it possible that this imperfectly perfect moment in time will turn out to be one of our most treasured memories? The answer is a resounding YES! Just as Gabriel said in Luke 1:37, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” God can take our cookie cutter lives and flip them upside down to reveal to us that He is God in the stable and He is God in the mansion. He is God in the chaos and He is God in the organization. He is God in the sorrow and He is God in the joy. Be still and know that He is God in any and every situation we may find ourselves in today.
Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.
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