Afterthoughts

"I’m sick, Mom," Jill croaked as she jostled my arm to awaken me.
As I slid over for her to get in bed with me, I felt fever and knew she probably had another strep infection. I got her Tylenol; then she snuggled against me until the clock went off in the morning. As I slipped out of bed and turned off the alarm, she slid deeper beneath the down comforter and dozed into another fitful sleep. After I called work and wrote up lesson plans, I called the doctor to make an appointment. Then I woke Jennifer to get ready for school.
"It’s not fair," she blurted. "I’m the only one in this whole house who has to go to school. Last week when I felt sick you still made me go."
"You know the rules—throwing up and fever are the only reasons not to go. Jill’s had a really high fever during the night. We’re gonna see the doctor this morning."
"It’s not fair," she wailed as I left the room to signal the end of the discussion.
After I delivered Jennifer to her school and my lesson plans to my work, I went home and woke her up to get ready. I pulled back the covers and helped her swing her legs over the side of the bed and onto the floor. As she put pressure on her ankle, she cried out in pain.
"What’s wrong," I asked.
"It’s my ankle. Remember, I told you yesterday, Brandon dived on it during the 5th – 6th grade baseball game."
As I took it in my hand, I noticed some swelling. "You’ve probably sprained it again. We’ll have the doctor take a look at it."
We arrived at the office and waited a while to be shown into a room. The doctor we saw that morning was one I hadn’t seen too often, but I knew she was a Christian. She entered with a smile. She took a strep test; and as we waited for the results, we exchanged pleasantries and talked about the Lord while she examined Jill. When the nurse came back with news the test was positive, Dr. Borchers wrote a prescription, said her good-byes, and started out the door.
"Mom," Jill said, her voice exasperated. She motioned toward her ankle.
"Oh, yeah. She hurt her ankle. Could you check to make sure it’s not broken?"
"Sure." She examined it by moving it to determine areas of pain. "I don’t think it’s broken, but I’m going to send you to get x-rays anyway." As we went to the hospital, I was a little irritated having to take extra time for something I was sure would prove to be a sprain. However, in a while, Dr. Borchers called at the hospital.
"I guess God was looking out for Jill. She has a break. It’s by the growth plate; so if we hadn’t found it, it could have been really serious later on." As they put on her bright, neon-green cast, I felt guilty I had just dismissed something that could have been so potentially bad. I thought of how wonderfully God had again truly looked out for us.
Jill’s broken ankle is like the story of a Christian’s life. Though fraught with adversities, God is always looking out for us. However, unlike me with Jill’s ankle, God is constantly aware of our lives, and He never does things as an after-thought.
When Joseph went through his adversities—being sold into slavery, being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, being imprisoned, expecting to be remembered by the cook to Pharaoh—all those events might have made Joseph think God had forgotten him. However, adversities brought Joseph to a place where he was at the right place and time to save God’s people from being killed off during a famine. As he later told his brothers, "God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save you by a great deliverance." He knew it "was not [his brothers] that sent [him there], but God" (Gen. 45:7-8). From the moment the worlds were formed, God knew Joseph and the plan He had for his life. (Scrip)
Jesus’ birth was the same. Israel had been expecting God to deliver them from adversities for years, but God’s time had not come to fruition. He made all Israeli history add up to the momentous event in that stable 2,000 years ago. The lineage of David, from the tribe of Judah, from Bethlehem - - all of these prophecies were fulfilled by the birth of one baby whose parents God had carefully chosen for that time. Even when they escaped into Egypt, their fates were more than God’s after-thought. They were the exact time and place for God to accomplish His purpose and fulfill prophecy.
God carefully chooses our destinies. Even in such a horrific year as America has experienced, He knew those events would be part of His master-plan, and not as an after-thought, and " that all things work together for good to them that God, to them who are called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28). We must rely on the knowledge that God is orchestrating all areas of our lives and leaves nothing to chance. Sometimes that’s hard for things we just see as negative and can’t see God’s hand in yet.
In our lives, we have many people who rely on our prayers. My daughters are in college and bombarded by temptations. We have a new grandson to join the five others. Wade’s daughter is still in high school, and his other daughters have family crises where they need us and our prayers. We know they will all have adversities, but God doesn’t haphazardly ordain their lives. He carefully plans their lives and sees their needs even before they do. "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Tim. 2:19) and He is never late to work out His children’s lives.