After The Work

Take a moment and imagine a log floating down a river and upon that log is a frog. He has no concept of a log as a tree, only that he can rest upon it and hop when it strikes him to. The frog also knows about water, unlike his cousin the toad, frogs are all about water. A river? No idea were it came from and where it goes. The river has its twists and turns, change in speeds, rocks, and other logs are all obstacles in the logs path. The frog has no notion of steering around them, nor can the frog do anything to change his direction and fate.

In a similar way, are we not like frogs on a log? We are speeding around the sun without knowledge of the future. We move towards our destiny that is held in God’s hands. While we can learn so much about life, creation, and our relationships there is so much in the universe that remains a mystery. We know our surroundings, our day to day, but have not a mind for the futures real destination. We can imagine, we can hope, we can worry but we cannot change what God has for us. Very true. Like the frog, we know we can hop here and there. Yet, God alone knows what we will chose before we choose it. We make our choices, but God being Omniscient, knows our mind, our wills, and our decisions.

Psalm 139 celebrates God’s omniscience: “O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in–behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.”

God knows us completely, familiar with “all my ways”. He knows when we sit and rise, our thoughts, and our going out and lying down. What a great comfort! “While we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly.” All our gifts and all our warts, God loves us unconditionally. In fact there is great purpose in who we are, our DNA knitted together with intelligent intent. We were meant to be born, to live, and to learn. He knows our beauty and the parts of us we think are ugly. Even the hairs on our head are numbered. Such intelligence! God created you to be who you are and if you were the only person on earth Christ would still die for you. The incarnation is such a comfort that God put literal “skin in the game” enabling us to relate to the Father through the Mediator Jesus Christ.

“You hem me in–behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.” Hemmed in, many are not familiar with this term today as we do not sew our own clothes anymore. In the great tapestry of our lives, God stitches each hem with intention, part of the overall larger picture. Our place is not a mistake, but exactly where God has us. For better or worse, we cannot see the tapestry from afar in its complex completion. Only God sees it all. Like a parade going by, we see the floats and the bands one at a time while God sees the whole parade from beginning and end. We may even be frustrated and bewildered by life and why things happen the way they do, but God has a plan to be sure. God’s “hand is upon us” meaning we are under is protection and care. He intends our birth and authors the time of our death. Frogs on a log floating down the river.

We can imagine sometimes the frog thinks he is steering the log, as if he can influence the log or the river. He may even cause himself great stress or grief believing we can do something for ourselves without God’s direction or knowledge. Nevertheless God is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”. He allows us to struggle until we surrender to the True Reality of God’s sovereignty over this world. Ultimately God would have us make decisions in our life based upon his will and teachings with our own will rather than toil and struggle outside of God. In the end it proves futile. Like Jonah, we can run and dodge our calling but in the end God will all have us engage in His plan.

There is a peaceful feeling when we accept life as if God were guiding us down the river. We can become stubborn and fight the waters, but even stones are eroded away by the waters over time. No one escapes our fate. All the better to accept this and know God’s way is best. We are free to run, jump and swim but the log is our place and the river is where we are headed. We don’t know the future, but what is faith without accepting God’s plan for our life. Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” A comforting promise for us frogs on the log floating down the river of life.