The LORD will perfect that which concerns me;Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
Psalm 138:8
I watched a documentary video called God of Wonders several months ago that examined various facets of creation, with commentary from intellectuals relating everything directly to the God who made it all, and what it tells us about Himself - His love for us, and His care for all He has made. I was at a place of trial in my life and started to watch this video as mere distraction when I found myself being ministered to by the Holy Spirit. As I watched the vastness and intelligent design of the cosmos being expounded; the detailed mechanics of the skeleton, wing and lungs of birds; the care of God in giving us an innumerable species of plants and herbs for food, medicine, and sheer enjoyment; and the incredible and unmatched design of the human body and DNA, one of the biggest realizations I came away with was that God is not merely about functionality, but He is a God of beauty. He didn't just give us an Earth to live on with the things necessary for our physical sustenance, no, He also added color, fragrance, things for our enjoyment. Functionality and beauty. I serve a God of wonders. I trust a God of wonders. I came away being refreshed and having my faith stoked to continue waiting and trusting God to work out the details of my life.
Our God is a God who defines beauty, who creates beauty, who enjoys beauty. He really does all things well. As my mind turned to the awesome works of the Creator, a truth sank down into my heart: How God works in the things that are seen is not more awesome than how he works in the abstract, unseen, or intangible issues of life. He will take a bleak situation and not only work it out your survival, but give you joy and gladness. Functionality and beauty. I see this principle in the lives of the Old Testament saints that we get glimpses of such as Ruth and Joseph. Functionality and beauty are interwoven in the outcome God worked for their lives.
Ruth turned her back on the grief of the death of a spouse. She was childless and penniless and in a strange land. She trusted the God of Israel as her refuge and at the appointed time didn't just get a place to live, or a husband for practical purposes. Instead, she got a God-planned outcome, an honorable, kind husband, a child in the lineage of the Messiah, a good reputation among an entire town, and no doubt, much gladness that her history could not predict.
Similarly, Joseph's dark years of betrayal, false accusation, and imprisonment ended with not just a deliverance for Israel from famine by his gifts of wisdom and interpreting dreams; but God also granted him personal wealth and honor; a family of his own and a dramatic reunion with his beloved father followed by gladness and peace.
These two lives display what we may say are storybook endings but this is just how our God works. He loves us and He does all things well! Trials will come, great storms will assail, but the life that is built on the Rock - the life that turns to be obedient to God's word and to believe Him in every season of life - will always be triumphant. I have no doubt that, in Eternity, if those who have so trusted God should review the lives they lived on the earth in this age, they will see not just functional deliverances and provisions accomplished by the LORD on their behalf, but also the God-kind of beauty in the way He worked things out because they steadfastly clung to Him.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.Facebook
Ecclesiastes 3:11
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