June

INTO THE FATHER’S HANDS

There is an old German legend. A farming community had been hard hit year after year by drought and disasters. They despised it and decided that instead of going through this “pruning”; which they thought did them no good at all, they got together to have a talk with God.

They told the Lord their crops had been scanty and skimpy and small and that if He didn’t object they’d like to run things for a while.As the legend goes God usually doesn’t grant those kinds of requests, but this time, He said ok, I’ll let you handle things for a year.

It happened just as the villagers wished it. If they wanted rain, it rained. If they wanted sun, it shone all day. That year the crop grew bigger and thicker than ever.But the crop had did not bear anything to harvest.The villagers complained yet again.

God told them that He gave them everything they asked for, but He explained that what they asked for was not what they needed. God the went on: my children along with the sun and rain, you also need hard winds, without them the plants can’t pollinate and you get nothing to harvest.

What if like that community you were to speak to God in that way? What would you ask Him to remove from your life? Sadness, suffering, struggle? These things seem to be no more than annoying anyway.

Learn the lesson of the German village. Though we humans think we know what is best, our vision for the future is truly limited. We are unable to see that all things work together for good to those who are called to the Lord’s purpose. (Romans 8:28).

Learn from your Savior. He knelt in Gethsemane as he carried our sins He looked to the Cross; Jesus asked if it were possible that the cup of suffering be taken away. But what He was willing to do was to place His life into the Father’s hands.

Will you?

Adapted from Stories from the Lutheran Hour

Pastor David

         

revdavidnuss@aol.com

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