Boardroom Meetings with the Angels

It must be kind of fun to be an angel. We pictured them the other day up in God's boardroom, the archangels, Gabe and Mike.  They were discussing, the M family. 

"Hmmmm...looks like there's a problem of provision down there...what do you think we should do?"  asked Gabe.

"Well, we've done many miracles already.  Do we really need to do another one?"  Mike chimed in.

"I know!  Let's do the raven/brook thing!  I LOVE that one!"  yelled Gabe.

"No, no, no...it's been done.  Wouldn't really work.  I don't think they'd get it, "replied Mike.

"We better act fast, whatever God decides to do, because it looks like they're getting a little concerned...." Gabe said.

"Oh, God knows all about that.  He wants people to trust Him the whole way, even when it seems hopeless,"  Mike answered.

"It must be so hard to be a human!" Gabe observed. 

Well said, well said.  The only thing that is different is that I would gladly take the raven/brook miracle!!!

Yesterday was Good Friday.  We've never related to the disciples as much as we have this year.  We sat through the service at a church we had combined services with and the Scriptures they read were just so powerful.  The disciples had a plan.  Jesus was going to save them!  But then the plan went terribly wrong.  Their Saviour was seemingly unable to save Himself.  How confusing that must have been for them....at least at first in those first few hours.  He wasn't supposed to die let alone even find Himself on a cross in the first place!  He had the power to save people, cure people, but then when He had the chance, stayed there, resigned to die, or so it seemed, on the cruel cross.

Hopelessness.  That must have been what they felt.  Yet...a miracle was only two days away.  The miracle of all miracles.  Jesus would rise from the dead!  Unbelievable!  His death was necessary to bring them and the rest of the world life. 

We know the end of their story.  The problem is we don't know the end of our's.  We find ourselves in a story similar to the disciples.  Things are just not going to so well.  We are at a crucial decision point.  Not unlike Elijah where he was in the middle of a terrible drought, yes, he was fed by ravens, morning and night and was by the brook Cherith, but he found that his brook dried up!  All the typical work we normally have by this time of year, just didn't come.  I actually think that is ok in some ways because I think God is opening a door for RM in another area, but what do you do in the meantime while you wait for that door to open?  We don't see any other brooks around!

The really great part in the Elijah story is that God didn't just leave him by the dried up brook, though it would have been totally within His power to bring more water and more ravens.  No, He told Elijah to go to the widow and her son who was collecting wood for her last meal before she and her son died.  She, too, was lacking provision - to the very last bit of flour and oil, when Elijah showed up and asked her for it.  He told her to make him a cake of bread first and then feed herself, the nerve!  But actually, he said something fairly critical before he said that to her.  He said, "Do not fear..."  Then he tells her why, "The jar of flour shall not be spent , and the jug of oil shall not be empty , until the day that the Lord send rain upon the earth."  (1 Kings 17:14).   So she did what she was told and "she and her household ate for many days.  The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty.."

They ate for many days.  The flour didn't run out and the oil never became empty.  Not only did Elijah get sent their for his own sustenance, but in the process, saved a family.  I love how God works!

For us, our brook of work is drying up.  We feel like we know where "the widow" lives and we know she has provision, so to speak, but we can't afford the ticket to get to her house!  What then?!  We need an intermediary miracle!  This is where we are fighting a little bit with God and where we relate so well to the disciples this year.   We're a little confused, like they were.  RM may need to seek out a "regular" job in the field he used to do before going out on his own.  That isn't so bad and he is willing to do so, but it just means a GIANT step backwards in the real work he wants to go after, in his entrepreneurial businesses. It is very difficult to pursue both.  But, if that is what God wants us to do, we will do it.  Perhaps that will be His way of provision, even if we don't like it.  Maybe Elijah felt the same way.  Maybe he just wanted to stay by the brook.  Maybe he didn't like the idea of "commuting" to the widow.  Please, Lord, don't make us commute again!

Yet, the disciples, and the rest of the world, experienced a miracle that first Easter morning, like no miracle the world has ever seen.  God could do that for us, too.  We know He can do anything.  He could turn our circumstances around in a heartbeat.  The key phrase with Elijah was "Do not fear..."  Jesus, also, tried to comfort His disciples in the last hours before His death, "Let not your hearts be troubled..."  He knew what was ahead, even though they had no idea.

RM and I prayed last night, on Good Friday, just the two of us, about our time of darkness and confusion. We had heard of a friend, a very successful friend, who had gone through bankruptcy.  It shook both of us up and got us on our knees again, and kept us there a little longer even.  I sensed kids coming and going all around us as we sat together praying.  At least they'll have  a picture of their parents coming before God with their needs and requests.  We're a little confused, a little fearful, a little hopeful...all at the same time.  We know God has come through in the last minute many times, but we also know He can use situations that we don't like to try us as well.  We know either way, we have to accept what He brings our way.  In the meantime, we love Easter weekend.  We know our hearts don't need to be troubled.  Jesus said it so simply, "Believe in God.''  And so we do.