God Provides
One snap of the shutter, and there it was . . . one beautiful moment captured in time for eternity. The late summer sun reflected in the breaking wave made the water look like liquid gold splashing onto the shore. If my friend had not been there with his camera, the wave would have gone unnoticed, like so many others that have come and gone, seen only by God.
Who can imagine how many waves Lake Michigan has sent rolling onto the shoreline? Yet each one is unique. As seen in every wave, God makes extravagant beauty out of seemingly mundane things. Using water and air, He makes wondrous works of art. We enjoy His gallery in skies above and on earth and sea below. But most of earth’s beauty remains invisible to us; it is seen only by God.
God uses another gallery to display His glory—humans. We too are made out of something ordinary—dust (Gen. 2:7). But to us He added an extraordinary ingredient—His very own breath (v. 7). Like waves of the sea and flowers of the field (Isa. 40:6), our lives are brief and seen by few. Yet each one is a beautiful “moment” created by God to say to the world, “Behold, your God!” whose Word will last forever (v. 8).
The 2018 Our Daily Bread Resources are here!
Ideal Gifts For This Season
Exceedingly Better
My birthday is the day after my mother’s. As an adolescent, I would scramble to think of a gift that delighted my mom yet fit in my budget. She always received my purchases with appreciation, and on the following day, my birthday, she would present her gift to me. Without fail, her gift vastly outshone mine. Her intention wasn’t to diminish what I’d given her; she simply gave generously from her resources, which far exceeded my own.
My desire to give to my mother reminds me of David’s wish to build a home for God. Struck by the contrast between his palace and the tent where God revealed Himself, David longed to build God a temple. Instead of granting David’s wish to give, God responded by giving David an exceedingly better gift. God promised that not only would one of David’s children (Solomon) build the temple (1 Chron. 17:11), but that He would build David a house, a dynasty. That promise began with Solomon but found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, whose throne was indeed “established forever” (v. 12). David wanted to give from his finite resources, but God promised something infinite.
Like David, may we always be moved to give to God out of gratitude and love. And may we always see how much more abundantly He has given to us in Jesus.
A Baby Boy
The full-page advertisement in the newspaper caught my eye immediately. Near the top of the light-blue page was the silhouette of a star. In the center of the page were the words: It’s a boy.
Luke 2:11, printed across the bottom of the page, read: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He…
Good News!
World news bombards us from the Internet, television, radio, and mobile devices. The majority seems to describe what’s wrong—crime, terrorism, war, and economic woes. Yet there are times when good news invades the darkest hours of sadness and despair—stories of unselfish acts, a medical breakthrough, or steps toward peace in war-scarred places.
The words of two men recorded…
The Blessing Tree
I read about a young couple whose business had failed, and they had little money to spend at Christmas. They were going to have to move out of their house after the new year. But they didn’t want their holiday season to be spoiled because of it. So they decided to throw a party. When the guests arrived,…
The Main Reason
Jesus corrects my fuzzy conceptions of God. He reveals a God who comes in search of us, a God who makes room for our freedom, and above all a God who is love.
Those raised in a Christian tradition may miss the shock of Jesus’s message, but love has never been a normal way of describing what…
Christmas in the Village
My earliest childhood memories of Christmas date back to a cluster of small villages nestled among cocoa farms and tall mahogany and palm trees. Wearing our new clothes provided by our parents for Christmas, we were a happy group of eight- to ten-year-old kids walking from village to village like the magi who were looking for Baby Jesus…
