Golden Sacks

God puts His beauty in the most unexpected places. Crazy places, sometimes. God hides it in little spots for us to discover. It’s quite fun when we do! And sometimes it is a I-don’t-believe-it sort of wild and leaves you mumbling, “Wow o’ wow!”

Psalms 119:64 says something very special to me; “The earth is full of Your lovingkindness.” This means that God has sprinkled all kinds of gifts of His love to us all over the place. This Metallic Mechanitis Butterfly Chrysalis is a fun example of His lovingkindness.

It’s mind-stretching to dive into the science of a drab worm-shaped mushy caterpillar transforming into a colorful, ingeniously aero-dynamic flying wonder, but this one does it in style. Its transformational chamber–its chrysalis–is glimmering gold in color. It uses some intensely complex light physics to pull it off. We can’t make glimmering gold color like it does. It’s too complex for us.

Why did God go through the effort to create the this spectacle of tiny beauty? One reason, and one reason only. His love for us is not a nice hopeful idea; it is a blazing reality. This golden wonder shouts one thing; “I love you. Come closer. Give me entrance into your life in every way so I can bring on you all the good that I desire to.”

Recently, I had something take way longer than I ever imagined it would. It was something I prayed much about but it hit obstacle after obstacle. The obstacles got to be quite discouraging and very much annoying at times! But, when God finally brought it to pass, it was incredibly astonishing.

I find it fascinating to watch the Lord work in my life and in others’ lives, and I did especially in this situation. I had my eyes fixed on one goal. My earnest prayer was, “God bring this to pass.” It was troublesome to hit all the problems we did. But I knew well all the admonitions God gives to “Rejoice always.”

I knew well that to “Rejoice always” means that God IS and that He is omnipotent and that He is involved with everything in my life, but my reality smacked of frustrations and sang a different tune. As I pushed through to praise, I saw great numbers of things happen that brought joy and purpose. But still, I had no idea of the much much larger picture.

When things progressed I found myself staring at wonders that staggered me. I thought that God was aiming for the blessings that came day-by-day and the big goal I was pursuing. He was…but He was also fixed on the mind-bending goals that only HE knew. When finally things rolled out, I found that there were far greater goals than my “great goal” and all the little pieces flowed together in ways that completely surprised me. Blew me away is actually a better way to say it, California style.

Psalm 119:149 says something related to this: “Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness.” This verse means to pray for specific objectives but to then lay all down, saying in essence, “Lord I don’t know the best way to fling this all out. I’m asking You in Your wisdom to do what you in Your lovingkindness would do.” It’s looking beyond our little prayers to His exceedingly more– if that’s what is planned by the Lord at the present juncture.

Let God answer your prayers according to His lovingkindness…in His very best ways. It will sometimes take longer than you think it ought to, but there is great joy in the journey and when God finally pulls all the strings, He will bless you profoundly with beauty He had planned all along.

Oswald Chambers said, ”Get into the habit of saying, ‘Speak, Lord, lead Lord’ and life will become a romance.”

This is great advice to follow 100 times a day! There’s nothing like God-intersections frequenting one’s days!

“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” - Genesis 28:15

Sometimes the going is hard…and sometimes really hard. Sometimes things get confusing and other times it seems like nothing at all is happening and all is going no where. But as we seek with all our hearts to please the Lord, it enables Him to work wonderfully. He doesn’t leave us. He fulfills all His quite wonderful intentions.

Don Miller

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” - Proverbs 25:2

Search out the beauty and wonders God has hidden!

Don Miller