He is at work

I returned to the local pond this morning, having been away in Arizona for the past week.  I saw amazing, dramatic sights in Arizona...vast desert with large cactus plants standing like people in places where few people go.  We saw high mountains that appeared ancient and chiseled by wind and weather.  The heat was intense in mid-day and encouraged shelter from shade until the sun sank lower in the sky.  Then the air was pleasant and breezes were comfortable.  Perhaps the trip to Arizona made the green of the trees surrounding the pond stand out more than usual.  I thought about the work that God had invested to form the ancient desert of Arizona and the work He invested in fashioning the trees and flowering bushes I saw this morning.  It occurred to me that God is at work.  Some of His projects are very long term: like the creation of a desert.  Some of His projects are much shorter and closer in time, like the painting of trees with spring color.  In our lives there is a parallel.  Some of the work He is doing is long term, as the work of wind to carve art from stone in a desert.  Some of His work is as near as today, when He walks by our side through the challenges of the day.  But He is at work...He isn't a God who just set it all in motion and stood back to admire the job.  He is involved in His handiwork and just as He formed us...He is still at work in and through us.  There is beauty in the desert and there is beauty in the green of spring and it all is linked to His active hand.

 

Job 37:

 ⁵ God thunders marvelously with His voice;
      He does great things which we cannot comprehend.

 ⁶ For He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth';
      Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.

 ⁷ He seals the hand of every man,
      That all men may know His work.

 

Psalm 74:¹² For God is my King from of old,
         Working salvation in the midst of the earth.

 

blessings,

Rob Smith