Psalm 116:1 I love the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications, because He has inclined His ear to me whenever I called upon Him.
But aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from Your
Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10: 29-31
…This feels a little silly but I know it’s not…
I’ve been missing the ring my parents gave me for my 16th birthday for several months—my birthstone offset by two small diamonds, a pretty little thing. It’s been gone since at least January, maybe longer!!! 8 months or more!!! I felt REALLY BAD that I’d lost it, really lost it, after nearly 30 years of having and enjoying it. I turned my bedroom and house inside out looking for it while giving my house a good cleaning in May. Nothing. I thought it was lost, really lost. I prayed to God to let it re-appear somehow, or to let me know if it was gone forever. My impression from my prayers was that it was gone forever. I was a little sad, but what could I do? I gave up looking, with this sick, sad feeling in the pit of my stomach, added onto the rest of this ache from all this pandemic.
Last night, I was looking for some wrapping paper in a plastic bin under my bed where I keep the wrapping paper. When I pushed the bin back, there it was!!! I literally gasped in delight and wonder, thankfulness and awe. Poor ring must’ve been trapped under the groove in the plastic storage bin somehow for the last 8+ months!!! EVEN THOUGH I had moved my bed and those bins…TWICE!!! I’ve prayed for other things like this before, and each time I ‘find’ something, I think God decides to give whatever it is back to me, to bless me and to let me know that He cares about the things (and people!) I care about!
This time though, I was more deeply touched than usual, because this ring has such sentimentality to me being a gift from my parents for my sweet 16, and because it had been missing for so long, and because I had basically given up that I would find it. So I have this lingering, overwhelming, deep sense that I am deeply Loved, that God MADE my ring re-appear to tangibly show how much He cares for me and the things I care about, to encourage me, and to give me Hope.
God is good (and not just because He returned my ring to me!). He delights in all of us, and loves us very much, even so much as to return things (and people) to us that we’ve lost.
Here is the refrain that followed in my heart last night!
God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
He’s so good, to me.
He answers prayer.
He answers prayer.
He answers prayer,
He’s so good, to me. (Velma A Ledin)
And,
God answers prayer in the morning,
God answers prayer at noon.
God answers prayer in the evening,
To keep your heart in tune. (John W Peterson Co)
There was also this swell of verses which came to mind around this encounter with God…I hope they give you hope to not give up, even on the smallest thing, even on the deepest hope or dream or healing of that ache or relationship or lost person in your life. May you be deeply blessed by reading these verses:
The Lord, your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory (“the Mighty Warrior who saves”—NIV); He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you in His love; He will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. Zephaniah 3: 17 NRSV
The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still. Exodus 14:14 NRSV
Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:8-10 (sandwiched in between the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the prodigal son <3)
Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen, in whom My Soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will faithfully bring forth justice…I am the Lord, that is My Name; My Glory I give to no other, nor My Praise to idols. See the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare, before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Isaiah 42:1-3, 8-9
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:1-8
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. 2 Cor 4: 16-18
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your record? Psalm 56
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from Your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. Matthew 10: 29-31
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value that they? And can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to the span of your life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all His glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first of the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:25-34
…There is more, but that will have to do for now.
Debra Kornfield 