Parent, have you ever experienced a parent’s worst nightmare—your child separated from you and lost at a crowded public event?
Reader, have you ever experienced every driver’s unhappy experience—your GPS getting you “lost-er and lost-er”?
First Set of “Human” Incidents…
This past Saturday, my wife Shirley and our daughter Marie were traveling in downtown Seattle headed to a Mariners’ baseball game. Our GPS kept changing its set of directions to the parking garage, often at the last second. Perhaps it detected heavy traffic, or an accident, or a closed road. For whatever human reason, we circled around the parking garage for about an extra 10 minutes before we made the correct turn (which was the opposite of what our GPS said to do!).
Surprisingly, I was somewhat calm and patient during all of this. Something of a minor miracle in and of itself when I’m lost in a major city. And, as always, Shirley and Marie were both very patient and helpful.
Second Set of “Human” Incidents…
Then we left the parking garage headed to join up with two of Marie’s friends—who are from China and had never been to a baseball game before. It took a while to locate each other. When we did, we realized we had each funneled ourselves (humanly speaking) into the same entry gate area.
Third Set of “Human” Incidents…
After greetings and chit-chat, we distributed the five tickets (yeah, I know, no electronic tickets on my phone—I’m slowly entering the 21st-century…). It was then that I realized that I had left my wallet in the car (just a human accident of my forgetful brain). So, I sprinted (well, I used to sprint) back to the parking garage. Marie, Shirley, and her two friends waited for me just inside the gate. I had encouraged them to go on ahead and I would meet them at our seats. But they are all so patient and kind.
God’s Affectionate Sovereignty at Play
By now, it is close to game time. And yet…we are all still relaxed, walking leisurely through the crowd…
At one point, in a crowded corridor, we passed a family with young children as, they too, were seeking their seats.
Shirley—a Mom and teacher—spied out what happened next. The Mom and Dad veered one direction, seeking food for their fam. However, they did not detect that their youngest was lost at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.
They kept walking one way; their very young child (perhaps 3-years-old) kept walking the other way. Perhaps Mom thought he was with Dad, and perhaps Dad thought he was with Mom.
It was a Home Alone sort of parental experience, except “home” was the very scary, cavernous, and potentially dangerous T-Mobile Park.
But eagle-eye Shirley—and the God who watches and orchestrates every detail of our lives—were actively at work. Shirley spotted what was happening. I turned as she turned, and I saw this helpless child bursting into tears. He was lost and alone. His parents were nowhere to be seen.
Shirley—the kindergarten teacher, Mom, and Grandma—gently, kindly, and safely stooped down to reassure this terrified little boy. And Shirley knew exactly what direction to head to find his family, because she had noticed this family a few minutes earlier.
Quickly, Shirley reunited this boy with an equally-terrified Mom and Dad (and several siblings) who were frantically looking for their little lost boy. Relieved and thankful to Shirley, they scooped up their son into their reassuring arms.
God Our Good Shepherd—Actively and Caringly at Work
Now, none of us can predict what might have happened if Shirley had not sprung into action. God has infinite ways and means to protect and shepherd His children.
However, Shirley, Marie, and I could not help but think that a series of seemingly random and unconnected “human incidents” led us to that very spot at T-Mobile Park at that very nano-second in time.
Nor could we help but share that we were convinced that God was actively and caringly at work in each of the “human events” that day. He was shepherding us while we followed our crazy GPS, while we were trying to connect with our friends from China, while I returned for my forgotten wallet, and while everyone decided to wait for me…
And God wasn’t just shepherding our lives. He was shepherding that lost little boy and his family’s lives. And our Father was shepherding the intersection of our lives that Saturday afternoon.
What the apostle Paul said about nations, is true about a party of five trying to find their seats at T-Mobile Park.
“‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’” (Acts 17:24-28).
God is sovereign.
God is affectionately sovereign.
God is our Shepherd King.
“See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young” (Isaiah 40:10-11).
Resting in God’s Caring Control
None of us know what potentially frustrating “human incidents” we will encounter today, tomorrow, or the next day or next year.
But all of us can know a Father with a Good Heart who is in Caring Control.
Even the most miniscule, microscopic, miniature, minute events are not accidents nor incidental.
If God can and does look out for a little lost 3-year-old boy through a teacher-Mom-Grandma who just experienced several human incidents, He will look after you and me.
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