God is definitely reminding me to (again) be thankful this December.
Yesterday I was thankful that it wasn’t so hot and I could write my final essay for the year. Sure, the humidity was high, but it was raining and cooler. If it was steamy all day I would have had to lug myself and my books off to a library to get some air-conditioning.
Thank you Jesus for rain.
Thank you also that the essay is now done.
It seems trite and simplistic, but I’m also being reminded that God is God of the big things and the small things. Even my pathetic essay (it really wasn’t that great) is noticed by Him.
And sometimes it’s the small things, the “throwaway line” that actually means so much. That passing comment someone made, a gesture, a nod; seemingly insignificant but actually so weighty.
I think Old Testament prophecy can be like that. In Hosea 11 it says this:
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
On first glance, if you know your Jewish history you’ll assume that this is a reference to the Exodus, when the Israelites left Egypt, escaped Pharoah’s clutches and became God’s people. And, if you think that, you’d be right.
But that’s not all that it means. It doesn’t just look backwards. It projects forward also.
Many know about the Magi visiting Jesus as a child, in fact I think there are few secular representations of the nativity that neglect to include them. But how often do they include the following details?
When they [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Jospeh in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
The hurried escape gets missed out time after time. Yet it’s critical. When Herod realises the Magi have not reported to him where the baby king is to be found, he goes mental. His ‘mental’ is infanticide.
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
A throwaway line, but critical. The gospel writer, Matthew explicitly points out its fulfillment to his readers.
Often we expect things to happen all in one go. Now that the essay writing is over, if I could get all my Christmas shopping done in one go, that would be amazing. Because it’s me, I am genuinely going to try for one ‘shopping adventure’ only. We’ll see how I go…
Yet that’s not reality. Things often happen little by little. Drip by slow drip the freeze thaws. Little by little the essay gets done (true story).
And little by little the meaning of the prophecy is revealed.
Do not despise the day of small things as it says in Zechariah. God rules over them all.
Yours sizing up her retail outlets,
Alison
