The stores this time of year are full of cute furry stuffed chicks and bunnies, yummy chocolates, jelly beans, baskets, and colorful plastic eggs in anticipation of Easter.
This morning I was reading in Psalm 91 and thought of those cute little chicks and their fuzzy soft feathers. “He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are his armor and protection.” (V. 4). I could picture a mother hen gathering her brood under her wings to protect them from other birds of prey or the cold blasts of air. It’s safe, warm and I can feel the rhythm of the heart beat. If God shelters us with his wings, how is it that bad things sometimes happen to good people and good things happen sometimes to bad people?
Later on in Psalm 91 it says that “if you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home.” (vs. 9,10). No evil will come to us? What?? I’ve had breast cancer, had an employee embezzle, my husband died. I believe God with all my heart and yet have had my heart broken.
Faith in the sheltering wings of God does not remove hardships. While we are under those wings there may be a storm going on with tree limbs falling on those wings, hail beating down, and lightening. In the commotion we may get knocked around a bit but we are still secure under His wings. Those wings of God took the beating for us, became all bloodied, bent out of shape. They were wounded for our transgressions and bruised by our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5).
Anything that has come through his wings to reach us is not an evil. It can’t be because God is good. In him is no evil. The sorrows and afflictions work for our good. We may not understand these pains but we can be assured that in the end they occur for our good or the greater goodness of the Kingdom of God (Roman 8:28).
It is our choice to take flight to the refuge of God’s wings. He extends his wings to all who call on the name of the Lord. It is by his great mercy that we have been saved, because Jesus died and was raised from the dead. Now we live with great expectation and have a priceless inheritance of life eternal (1 Peter 1: 3-5). “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine 1Peter 1: 6,7).”
Thank you God for taking on human form, suffering and dying for me. You are faithful and true to Your Word. You are the same yesterday, today and forever. The best is yet to come!
On the journey,
Trish
