Sand through His Fingers

Do you remember playing in the sand as a kid - especially at the beach?  I spent many summers in the sand of the beaches of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  My grandparents lived only 30 minutes from Ocean City and Assateague.  One of my favorite activities was scooping up handfuls of sand, hoping to find a sand crab in my palm after the sand sifted away.  Recently the Lord gave me a vision that involved that very activity, only it was His rather large hand outstretched over the sand with me standing beneath it.  Before you think I am going weird on you, read on. 

Most of us have by now embraced the belief that God does not cause all things to happen, but rather often allows them to happen in our lives.  Imagine your life.  Imagine that the sand represents the myriad of things that are coming your way.  God has Romans 8:28 in mind: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.  He is considering how each event, interaction or word spoken will benefit you in the plans He has for your life.  Selectively He allows some of the sand to sift through His fingers and "fall" on you.  Remember that sand is an abrasive substance.  Seashells continually rubbed by sand become smooth and lose their rough edges.  Similarly those "sandy" occurrences in your life are meant to soften those rough protrusions in your spirit.  After enough encounters with the sands of life, your image begins to alter and surprise, you can become more Christ-like.  But there is more.

Just like the sand crab I was trying to capture as a child, there are events, interactions and words in our life that God chooses to capture because they will not contribute to His plan for you.  After God gave me this vision, I began to vividly recall specific instances in my life when it was clear He hung onto a "sand crab".  I do not know about you, but there have been times in my life when I placed myself at the wrong place and at the wrong time.  The disaster that could have - no, let's say, should have - befallen me did not occur.  I escaped unscathed, relatively speaking.  Now in the wisdom of my later years, I can look back and say, "Good grief!  How stupid was that move!!!"  Yet by a clearly miraculous intervention, I was protected.  Folks, I did not even have a personal relationship with the Lord then.

All of this begins with the basic premise, the critical belief, that God loves us.  He loves us so much that:

• Luke 12:7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.
• Psalm 139:2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away.
• Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD.  "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
• John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

Get the idea?  First and foremost we must believe the truth that He loves us.  Otherwise we will start listening to the lies of the great deceiver who would have us believe otherwise, who would have us believe that our Lord is intentionally harming us, that He is a control freak who simply likes to wield His power.  Sounds like a self description of the enemy, the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

Believing that God loves us more than we can imagine means that we must trust Him with our lives and our hearts.  We must trust that even while we cannot see the light in the midst of the storms, the Son is indeed shining behind the storm clouds.  The storm will pass and when it finally does, there will be sun, fresh air and sometimes even a surprise rainbow.  We have to trust that even when we feel as if He is not there, He is.  We have to trust that ultimately He works this out not only to our own benefit, but to that of the kingdom as well.  We also need to trust that earthly rewards are not the preeminent thought in His mind, rather eternal rewards are.

So let's go back to the sand and the hand.  Consider the weight with which God considers each moment of your life (reread the scriptures above if necessary).  Ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you the sand crabs that God held onto and did not let travel through His fingers.  Ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you how the "sand" that was allowed to fall upon you actually shaped your current image.  More importantly ask Him to reveal to you His heart for what you look like in His eyes and His desire for the "completed work".  Too many of us focus on the sand instead of the process.  Personally, I am so grateful for the process and I am also grateful for each grain of sand, as painful as many of them were.  I am excited about how far I have come in this refining process, but I am even more excited about the future and what He is going to yet accomplish with me.  My prayer is that you will embrace a new attitude for the events of your life and embrace the process anew.  Shalom!