FOR ALL THAT IS SEEN AND UNSEEN


Guardian Angel - buy at Allposters.com


If I were a guardian angel I'd probably be annoyed - a lot! And really not be too happy about the fact that the little person in my charge was routinely oblivious to my loving care and attention, and always making me work overtime. No wait, that sounds like my life already, so never mind, let's start over.

I think it is really great how our Lord loves us so much He can't take His eyes off of us, and weaves our little lives together with the lives of others in such a way as to accomplish His will in us, sooner or later. And I appreciate how sometimes, when bad things seem to befall us in such seemingly random ways, we may look back years later and understand how, my yes, those things simply HAD to occur the way they did in order for x and y to work out the way they did.

Then sometimes I wonder why one may have to pray for something for a couple of dozen years, and not receive what one has requested. Then one gives up, and says, "Well, OK, I guess I accept Your will", only to find that within 20 minutes of acquiescing, the request gets granted.

What also unnerves me is the thought that I may spend the rest of my life praying for something, a good thing, and then die without hearing from the Lord, which defaults, really to a "No". Well, really that hasn't happened yet because I am still here and while there is life, there is hope.

I have, as have you, however, seen the most heinous, over the top bad things happen not once but twice or more to the same person and that is where having faith gets really tough. A schoolmate of my daughter's got drunk and lost control of his car, striking a tree and killing himself. Within the year, his father, unhinged mentally from his loss, went banging on doors ranting and raving in a paranoid state about someone being after him, trying to kill him. He was pleading with the people in those homes to call the police. When the police arrived he was acting so bizarre that instead of saving him, the police ended up shooting him and killing him.

What? Why? What were the immediate circumstances leading up to this? Whatever they were, I am sure they were the final set of things that went wrong once his young son was taken from him.

Just last week, another young man (aged 21) of my daughter's acquaintance left a bar (under the influence, yes) and attempted to cross the street. He was struck by a car. He lay for several days, hooked up to life support. They took him off it earlier this week. They are burying him now. Tragic, but unnecessary, yes? Foolish young people. Demon rum. The incident that set this one in motion?

Six months ago his 18 year old brother sat in his car outside the kiddie playland place where his girlfriend worked. She was due to get out of work around 9 pm. Shortly before that, a man walked up to the young man's car. He saw the gold chain the boy was wearing and wanted it. Things went very wrong, and the man shot the boy, leaving him to bleed and die right there.

So big brother quit college in California to be close to his grieving mother. Now she has lost two boys, within six months of each other. Both gratuitous, unnecessary, and in there sum, beyond tragic. A caricature of tragedy. Why? Why? What kind of God, etc.?

I do not know. I have a few problems of my own, though nothing, as yet, and I pray never as horrific as these I have described. All I can give is my own testimony. I know that God is real, that He loves me, and pays close attention to everything about my life, that He gives me good things, and makes all things to work together for good. I also know that we are not promised easy lives, but abundant ones.

I pray I may take hold of that abundant life and make as much of mine as I possibly can. And where I cannot, where my strength gives out, He will step in and provide. When I lose my way, He will guide me back onto the good path. I have many a merry companion on that path as well, fellow pilgrims who lean on me and I on them. I am thankful for them and I hope they are thankful for (or at least forgiving of) me. I pray we will all keep our minds stayed on Him.

"Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26:3