In The Heat Of The Day
Twenty-four years before, when he was 75, God had made a seemingly outlandish promise to him: he and his wife would have a son. Even so, their nomadic life plodded on, and no son was forthcoming.
We all encounter times when life creeps along with incredibly predictable sameness. Each day brings little deviation from the ordinary--until the unexpected strikes.
One verse in the Bible (Genesis 18:1) describes how such a moment came upon Abraham the rich man: "Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day."
Since God had often spoken to Abraham, why didn't he immediately recognize the strangers who came to his tent that day? Perhaps because they were cloaked in the ordinary, and Abraham mistook them for mere men. Yet they were God's messengers bearing extraordinary news.
When the three visitors arrived, they found Abraham doing nothing more significant than seeking relief from the blistering heat. What could be more mundane? Was he praying or thinking about the promised son? We don't know.
In our own experiences, we may pray for God to do some particular thing. But do we really expect anything from it? And if so, how will the answer come? While God may answer prayer in a dramatic way, many times He moves almost invisibly through the regular events of daily life. And that tends to camouflage His workings.
Do we somehow disdain the routines of cutting the grass or paying bills or washing dishes? Yet on such an uneventful day--even in the heat of the day--God broke the news: within a year the son of promise would be born to Abraham at age 100.
Are you looking for God to bring about a particular result in your life? How do you expect that He will bring it into being? Will you be satisfied to let Him choose the time and the way to act?
Questions like these trouble me, for I would like to have more control over my own circumstances and how life plays itself out. And I would always choose the quick and easy path to a comfortable end.
Yet even as I am writing this, a telephone call has interrupted me, bringing an unexpected ending to this column. We have just heard that our son has been involved in an accident, and we don't yet know all the consequences.
And in these moments, another verse from the Bible (Psalm 27:14) comes to mind: "Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." For God is at work, even in the heat of this day.
Copyright 2002 James McAlister
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