You Can Trust The Father
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3: 5-6
In the late 1960’s, a white landowner sold my parents a plot of land in a segregated, all-Black community. As part of the deal, he would relocate a brick house from another neighborhood to their vacant lot. It was this modest style rancher that became our family home, and the one I now occupy.
Dad must have told me this story a hundred times. Admittedly, I probably scratched my head a thousand times. How does one move an entire brick house? I’ve watched enough HGTV to know it’s possible, but I don’t recall them ever moving a brick house. Yet, I know my dad well enough to take him at his word because of who he is to me.
This is just how it is when we have a relationship with God the Father. When we cultivate our connection to Him through Jesus Christ, we learn His ways and track record, enabling our trust to develop. And because of who He is to us, we learn to take Him at His Word, even when it seems illogical.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55: 8-9
There have been myriad occasions when my life simply did not make sense. Molested repeatedly for years beginning at age six; an attempted suicide at nineteen; a tumultuous marriage riddled with domestic violence in my twenties; the recent demise of my whole immediate family within forty months; and a host of poor decisions along the way that I would just as soon forget. I struggled. Suffering for decades. Unable to deduce the meaning of it all. I had given my life to Jesus at eight, so why was my journey so jacked up? Or was it?
As often as I wrestled with Dad’s account of our brick home being transplanted from another neighborhood to ours, I believed him. Though plausible, it appeared unreasonable. Yet, I trusted it because Dad told me so. As with my life, I have learned to trust God, even when it’s been unfathomable and especially when it’s been difficult. Recognizing His love for me, because of our relationship, I can take Him at His Word. His character is proven trustworthy and unchangeable. Numbers 23:19 tells us, God is not a man, that He might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill? God always does what He says He will do, and He has witnesses who can attest to His truth.
Upon returning home from walking my dog Sasha recently, I noticed an elderly Black gentleman on a stroll nearby. As he got closer, he stopped to ask if I was the daughter of the late Wilsons who used to live here. Confirming, he then stared at the house and shared, I still remember the day when your house was moved to this plot of land. Then he proceeded to tell more of the same history about my home that Dad had done on numerous occasions. And though the notion of moving an entire brick house still baffles me, my trust in Dad’s word was validated.
This is just how it is with our loving Lord. We may endure trials that cause great suffering and struggle, experiences that just don’t make sense. But then later in life, someone comes along, notices our fortitude, and testifies to when our life was in disarray. They witnessed the unthinkable moments. They saw the pain. But seeing how God transformed our lives from trauma to triumph, they attest, “God did just what He said He would do!” Genesis 50:20 tells us, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So be not dismayed by the turbulent circumstances of life. God has a perfect plan just for you and me. It may not make sense now, but with God, it always adds up!
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11
