By BRENDA RUMBOL
Tuesday 28 July 2020
Through our bible readings and reflections these past few days there seems to have been a theme coming through, summed up in this comment: ‘God’s plans for his people would not resemble anything dreamed up by humans’ .
It started with a reading from Micah 5:2 ‘But you Bethlehem are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you.’
Then there is the occasion (see John chapter 6) when Jesus in the hills above the Sea of Galilee was surrounded by a great crowd of people. They were hungry to hear his teaching – but they also needed food to eat. Andrew saw a lad with his picnic lunch. He told Jesus who then instructed the disciples to get the people seated in groups. ‘Why?’ they must have wondered. ‘What’s he going to do?’ The boy relinquished his lunch and the people were fed.
The people in Bethlehem wondered why they were singled out by God.
The disciples were astounded by what they had seen.
Both groups had reason to ask and think: ‘What next? What’s going to happen? Newspaper reporters love to get politicians to speculate on likely outcomes of this or that pronouncement or decision. But God’s plans for his people would not resemble anything dreamed up by humans.
Yesterday I had been in the garden and in the evening noticed something moving on my trousers – a small caterpillar. I put it outside. That tiny struggling green creature will one day become …. a beautiful butterfly, free to fly.
And today – an insignificant town in the East Midlands
- a young person
- a group of ordinary people wanting to learn about Jesus,
- a group of believers from different walks of life
- a small part of God’s creation.
What has God planned that will not resemble anything we have ever dreamed of?
“Because He lives I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future.
And life is worth the living just because He lives.”