God's Promise to Our Descendants

 

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1 Samuel 20:14-15 GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

¹⁴But as long as I live, promise me that you will show me kindness because of the Lord. And even when I die, ¹⁵never stop being kind to my family.

 

Jonathan was speaking to David. With prophetic vision, Jonathan looked into the future. He realized that David was in the ascendancy and he was on the decline. At the time he was speaking he was crown prince. His father ruled the country as a tyrant, like the kings of the other nations around him. Through prophets, including Samuel, God had spoken to Saul. The only effect this had was to harden his heart and to further alienate himself from God.

At 70 I, too, feel the weight of time on my shoulders. Who knows when my call will come? My mother died at 66, and her mother at roughly the same age. On the other hand, my dad died at close to 101, and his dad at 69.

My concern is that Sylvia be well looked after when I’m gone. She has only been a wage earner for a few years of her life. So she and I will be living on what social security I have earned and what denominational sustentation the church will decide to grant me after working for them for 45 years.

Am I worried? No, not really. The Lord had seen to it that we have always been fed and clothed and housed. And I know my Lord. He often does things in very strange ways. But he does not forget his own.

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I first wrote this in March of 2012, before I had any definite plans for retirement. A little over a year later I did retire. Over the last decade God has richly blessed us in both finances and health. As time has gone by, my faith has only grown stronger in God’s promise to look after us.

 

Thank you, heavenly Father. You have more children than anyone can count, yet you love us each one individually and do look after us!

 

 

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[1] https://www.learnreligions.com/jonathan-in-the-bible-701186

The Desert Shall Blossom as a Rose

Song of Solomon 2:12

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹² The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove.

It was twelve years ago, in 2005, that we last had a season like this one. The desolate desert meadows of Anza Borrego were blanketed in the royal purple of the sand verbena punctuated by the lush desert primroses. Hundreds of people walked delicately through the blossoms. Lovers hugged each other in the irresistible romance the flowers leant to their courtship.

In recent years, the entire desert longed for relief from a fierce sun, desiccating winds, and a drought that seemed never ending. Then the winter of the year of our Lord 2017 finally came with lavish, soaking rains. They washed the mountain crags clean. At long last the former lakebed caught the rain and allowed it to sink deeply into the ground again and again over a number of weeks.

On a recent Saturday Sylvia and I drove down to Anza Borrego State Park again just to see with our own eyes the fruit of rains that had brought so much green to our desolate, desert hills. As before we found hundreds of people, starry eyed lovers, excited children, and rejuvenated old folks all wandering, entranced, amongst the desert gold flowers. This time the golden blanket was punctuated by the purple sand verbena and the white desert primrose.

Besides the flowers, we were blessed to see several types of birds.  Not only did we see doves (mourning doves) but great raptors and tiny hummingbirds as well. The hummingbirds benefit the most from a plenitude of flowers. In addition, great, fat, striped caterpillars sat in the shade of the withered leaves gorging themselves on the rich feast, unknowingly heading toward their transformation into creatures with beautiful wings and delicate antennae.

The hand of the Creator stretched out and reminded us that, in the midst of the desert of death and sin in this old world, God is still personally interested in us, in our joy and happiness. He is still interested in instantaneously changing us into beautiful, imperishable immortality.

Thank You, Lord, for these beautiful reminders of the bright future You have already prepared for us!