He Watched Over Our Lives
By Janelle Hill
Recently, my family went away for an extended holiday. While we were away, one of our children became seriously unwell and we were rushed to hospital. Our lives changed from that moment, and we wondered how we would manage the times ahead. In prayer, we committed our lives to God, trusting that He knew the best way for us. We have known God’s love for us in the past, but we have still been awestruck by the extent and detail of His provision to us during this time.
God takes a very specific interest in each one of us. The book of Psalms says that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ and that God saw each of us when we were in the womb. Ps 139. Every day of our lives was written in His book, before we were even born. The Psalm goes on to say that His thoughts about us are so numerous, that if we counted them, they would be as many as the sand of the sea! We are precious to God.
In our time of crisis, the first thing God provided was a word of faith. When God sends us His word, it draws our attention to the hope we have in God. The Bible says that this hope is like ‘an anchor of the soul’. During times of trouble, stress, and grief, our lives can feel like a ship tossed about in a storm. We don’t know how our situation will turn out. Our emotions can go up and down. God’s word is something that we can hold onto, despite what happens around us. God will always answer us with His word when we ask Him.
On the morning before our crazy ambulance trip, when we didn’t even know what the day held, God gave us a promise. As we sat around the breakfast table, reading the Bible together, we read this:
Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Behold the birds of the air; for they sow not, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them; are you not much better than they are? Matt 6:25.
As everything happened during that day, we remembered God’s promise to us and it was like an anchor to our soul.
The second thing God provided was the covering and protection of His hands. In practical terms, there was never a moment when we were alone. God provided ambulances, doctors and specialists within seconds of our need, despite the fact that we were in an isolated location. The Bible promises us that God will hold us if we trust Him. A poem in the book of Psalms says, ‘if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the furthest parts of the sea; even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will hold me’. In another Psalm it says that the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. Psa 139:9-10 & Ps 27
The third thing that God provided was fellowship. Fellowship is an old fashioned word that we don’t use much nowadays, but it means ‘deep friendship, companionship, and community’. In our isolated western society, we don’t see a lot of genuine fellowship, but true fellowship is possible. For us, a long way from home, family and friends, God provided us with people from the local church who gathered us up. They prayed with us and for us. They provided our practical needs, and they provided love and friendship when we needed it most. Our church friends and family back home also prayed for us and called us on the phone, providing long distance fellowship and community. The Bible says that we can help to ‘carry one another’s heavy burdens’. Gal 6:2
The fourth thing that God provides is consolation in suffering. Consolation is a word we often use in relation to ‘getting 2nd best prize’ (consolation prize) or something we give to a grieving person. Consolation means to ‘lessen someone’s sorrow’. Jesus, who is God, became flesh and blood like us, and He experienced hunger, pain, grief and sorrow. He took and experienced all the sin, pain, sickness, hatred, and loss of the entire human race. No matter what you have experienced, Jesus has felt it all. He suffered the pain you are going through. Now, your suffering need not be a futile, lonely exercise, but can be a participation with Christ in His suffering for us. Then our suffering has a context and a purpose that brings God’s life and change to our lives.
Jesus said, ‘Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Behold the birds of the air; for they sow not, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them; are you not much better than they are? Matt 6:25.
