How He Uses Thoughtful Details to Express His Loving Care
I was recently sitting on our deck, one of my favorite places to spend time with God. It was early in the morning, the air was crisp and the backyard was bursting with various shades of green, vibrant hues of pink, and multi-colored birds who were flitting all around me. When I think of God the creator of the universe as our host, I think of the various ways He loves us through thoughtful details. In Psalms 8:4, it says, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
First, I think of the obvious beauty of His creation all around me, air in my lungs, and a brand-new day. Then, as I think of all the other ways he meets our needs I am quite frankly blown away by His thoughtfulness. Some days I may wake up with the overwhelming concerns of the world or struggling to work through a difficult situation or simply just need to commune with my Father. Does this ever happen to you?
Inevitably, though, I will open up my Bible, hear a podcast, or read a devotion that speaks to exactly what I am walking through. These are not just coincidences.
One particular day I was spending time in prayer for my sweet daughter who is walking through a challenging time. In the middle of praying, I received a text message, and I stopped to see if it was something important. It was a message from a friend who is participating in a summer book club and was reading a paragraph that stood out to her from our new book, The Sublime Soiree: God’s Invitation to the Party of your Life. See the picture of what her text said. I love this!
First of all, it was encouraging to me. Second, the message convicts me every time I read it, and thirdly this happened to be a part of the book that I contributed. She then wrote, “I love this and it makes me think my tunnel vision is such a selfish act when God could be using me with incredible moments and I get stuck in my to do list.” I was encouraged by her words.
Then, not even a minute later, my daughter texted me and said, “See what this person texted me this morning?” It was from the same person who sent me my text. It said, “I’m outside reading your mom and Linda’s book, and I miss you sister and love you. Thought I would put a smile on your face.”
Now this person is a prayer warrior and mentor to my daughter too and has reached out to my daughter that I was just praying for. I love how God used this person’s text to not only encourage me, but also my daughter, and that she was being encouraged as she was reading our book. Wow! God is so good and He cares about a mom who is burdened over a situation. He is an encourager, and He hears our cries. I love how, as a new author desiring to encourage others, He uses others’ words and thoughts to encourage me.
Shortly after this all happened, I heard a ring from the doorbell. I answered the door and a lady said, “I am here to pick up the item you had listed on Facebook Market.” She then said she is a landscaper, and we started talking about how we have needed yard work but our person has not gotten back to us. Moreover, we needed the work done sooner than later, preferably by someone affordable. I smiled again inside and silently prayed, “God, you knew we needed some work and you brought someone right to us.” Thoughtful indeed!
Now, I am not sure if this person is the one doing our work, but we have someone to contact that we didn’t even look for. One may say these are all coincidences but I say no. The God of the universe cares for our every need. I am not saying God always gives us what we want, but he is a God of thoughtful details who cares for our every need and sometimes even the things we really want. We can rest in Him. He knows what we need. God loves to shower us with thoughtful details that demonstrate His love for us. So today look for the thoughtful details in your life. Record them in a journal or share them with a friend.
Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” In what area of life could you use God’s thoughtfulness today? How could you encourage someone today by sharing what God is doing in a particular situation?
— Sue M. Lindsey © July 2024
