Promises and dominoes

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10

I watched my boys play with some of my old, antique dominoes last week. They meticulously stood each piece upright, laid the path in the kitchen, knocked down the first standing in line, and watched and listened for the rest to fall in rapid succession. They knew exactly where the last one would fall. They knew the outcome.

I see the draw of a game's ending. It's black and white. Someone wins and someone loses. But life is not black and white. It holds twists and turns. The boys are learning that difficulty doesn't equate to losing in life. There is no losing with our Savior.

Despite knowing this truth myself, when life doesn't fall in line, I want a sign. I want some sort of forecast to lessen the blow of being swept in an unforeseen direction.

The truth is, some of the greatest, most God-orchestrated moments in my life have completely lacked any sort of embellishment. Those moments have unfolded without the faintest effort or help on my part. There was no prophetic sign or discernible outcome. No domino effect. 

"You will see neither wind nor rain, says the Lord, but this valley will be filled with water. You will have plenty for yourselves and your cattle and other animals. But this is only a simple thing for the Lord..." 

2 Kings 3:17-18

That verse beautifully played out one evening a couple weeks ago. As I was sitting in our bathroom brushing my teeth with my son, I was thinking about how much I needed to clean our tub. My son finished, sat on the tub edge with me, and got really serious. Unprompted he said, "Mommy...I don't care what I get for Christmas. I just want Daddy's tumor to go away. All I can do is hope and pray it goes away, and that doesn't feel like enough." I would have rather he told me how much the tub needed to be cleaned. My heart broke. We cried ugly tears. We talked about God's promises and how genuine they are in spite of how our circumstances manifest. We talked about how those promises are in the big and small things every day and that we can trust and anticipate that He will fulfill them.

When the depth of their hearts come out, I can only be in awe of what God has done in spite of my non-expertise. We are all walking something so unfamiliar, and all from different perspectives. No breakthrough came from any path my hands laid. Those moments are the best. The ones when I'm reminded that God has all our days written in His book. It is already handled and He is already moving with or without me seeing all the fine details in between. Nothing is uncertain to Him and we need only be still.

Feeling so small has never been so reassuring.

Copyright 2018 ->Renee Sunberg