The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"The Obvious and the Obscure"
With God, we do well to expect the unexpected.
"Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12).
Those unfamiliar with God and His often atypical ways would never expect His Son to enter the world by way of a feeding trough for animals, garbed in strips of cloth. The Bible is replete with such enigma regarding our Lord and His working far beyond our capacity to anticipate. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Applied to our lives regarding our Heavenly Father's personal presence and working leads to both blessing and challenge. Unexpected blessing often finds us joyously amazed by grace measured in terms of "exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). Unexpected difficulty also sometimes finds us bewildered and grieved by the same grace that administers and allows challenge just as necessary in our present lifetime. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). Both contingencies place us in the proper awareness that our Lord acts according to knowledge and understanding that infinitely transcends our own. Thus, expecting the unexpected must be planted deeply in our hearts and minds as a primary awareness and conviction.
In this day, much may occur as we anticipate. Some things may surprise with both delight and difficulty. It cannot be otherwise for those who have committed heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ. We serve a God who explains much in His Word, as illuminated by His Spirit. He can never begin to tell us all, however, nor could we process His providence completely if He attempted to do so. We rejoice in that which we can know, ever seeking to "with all thy getting, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7). We trust when that which we cannot comprehend lies before us as mystery in why and how our Lord works. Whether in light or darkness, we will find our Father perfectly trustworthy as He reveals Himself in both the obvious and the obscure…
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
(Deuteronomy 29:29)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."
(Matthew 10:29)
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