His Fingerprints

It was beyond serendipity.

I wouldn’t even call it finding a needle in a haystack. It was more like; take a needle, break it in three parts, throw one part into a bunch of hay, mix it up – and then have someone dive into the hay looking for the broken piece a week later.

How else could you explain Rebecca being chosen as a bride for  Isaac?

In the absence of biodata, aesthetic preferences and family circumstance, how do you make a perfect match?

Abraham’s method was to send his servant to find a wife for his son. As Patriarch of a new bloodline put in place by God, Abraham’s primary focus was not wanting his descendants polluted by the pagan practices of the population around him. It was a focus that was honored by God, evidenced by the series of miracles that followed.

Daunting didn’t even begin to describe how hard the task was.

Maybe that’s why the servant who knew of Abraham’s God, asked for very specific help from the only source who could make the right choice.

Did it ever occur to you that Rebecca could have stopped watering the camels after a couple of rounds or even after she got tired?

Not knowing there was anything in it for her, Rebecca kept working in a show of hospitality that went beyond the normal. Couple that with the eventual discovery that she was of the household of Abraham’s brother, left no one in question – including her family – that she was God’s choice for Isaac.

God had made some lofty promises to Abraham.

Before Isaac’s miraculous birth, the assumption was that those promises were going to be fulfilled through Ishmael. Everything changed with Isaac’s appearance and in another show of the divine, God picked a wife for Isaac to spend his life with and multiply Abraham’s line.

I can’t even begin to imagine how big the wedding feast thrown for Isaac was. It was finally the beginning of good times after the death of Sarah, and no doubt the entire family was looking forward to the brood of little ones that would be bounced on Abraham’s knee.

A year passed. Then two. Then five, and still Rebecca still did not conceive. Mind you, Ishmael was adding on to the family tree and giving Abraham the grandchildren Isaac couldn’t.

This is where my questions come in.

Wasn’t this a marriage expressively put together by God?

Why wasn’t God blessing it with children?

Why was every other person’s family growing while Isaac’s remained stagnant.

Was the original pairing not of God?

Had the couple done something to incur God’s wrath?

You probably know the feeling.

There was a time you were sure of God’s presence and favor.

Beyond that, everyone around you had no doubt God was involved in your life.

Things have changed with the passage of time.

Obvious needs remain unfulfilled and now your praise has been replaced by questions. 

Was God ever involved in your life, or were your serendipitous moments just coincidence?

Remember Isaac and Rebecca.

The  couple had children after 20 years of marriage.

That was more than enough time to question, fret and give up on the presence of divine providence in their marriage.

How does a God who obviously orchestrated such a fortuitous beginning, go silent for so long?

God wasn’t done just because He was silent for two decades.

I hope you haven’t had to wait for that long to get one prayer answered.

If you have, you probably are ripe for a good reminder

 Isaac  and Rebecca had done nothing wrong and God was still on track to fulfill His promise to Abraham through them.

There is nothing you have done wrong that is big enough to separate you from the love of God. He is still on track to fulfill every promise made to you and some promises you don’t even know have been made to you.

Let me let you in on a well-known secret.

God seldom operates on our timeline.

A lot of people will tell you of the multiple hoops you have to jump through to get your prayers answered.

I’m not one of them.

Your job is to remember that everything that needs to be done was done at the cross by a God who did not spare His Son.

He is still with you.

He will still come through.

Like Isaac and Rebecca, you may actually end up with double for your trouble.

That’s so like God.

That’s who you can trust.