In their small town, she and her husband had the biggest house and the most prominent name. She had been coming to the church regularly, but he thought that church was a crutch for the ignorant. One day she told her pastor that her husband had finally agreed to show up for a service. She fussed and nagged and told her pastor exactly how the meeting should be run, what songs not to sing and how the assistants should be prepared to welcome her highly esteemed husband. The pastor calmly reassured her not to worry, that when he comes, it'll all work out for the glory of God.
Weeks passed, and finally the reluctant husband showed up with his excited wife on his arm. It just so happened that the pastor had been called away on urgent business, and that evening’s service would be held by his trainee – a boy of 19. The young assistant pastor loved God and had tremendous faith, but spoke poorly and couldn't read or write very well. He had never led a service on his own, and was shaking in his boots in front of the crowd of 500, with the town VIP in the front row. He remembered his pastor telling him to stick to the basics of the Gospel, to the passages of Jesus in the New Testament. After singing the one song the woman had asked the pastor not to sing, the young man opened his Bible to the first chapter of the New Testament.
“Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar…” and on he stumbled trying to pronounce each painful line of Jesus’ ancestors in Matthew 1. He was sweating. The woman was horrified. Her husband sat sternly with folded arms. When the Bible reading was finished, the young man had no idea how to preach on what he'd just read. He closed the Bible and asked the people to stand for prayer. He asked the offering, blessed them and sent them home.
The car ride home was deafeningly silent. Dying of embarrassment, she didn't dare ask what her husband thought. Then he asked, “So who were all those people? Why is that list even in the Bible?” Remembering all she had learned, she began to explain about the line of the kings of Judah, of the prophecies of Jesus’ coming, of the many men and women who had made serious mistakes, and yet were forgiven and honored to be in that line, of the goodness and love of God to send His Son to save the world. And with each answer she gave, new questions cropped up. They had never had a conversation so deep and so sincere. By the time they reached home, he asked for a Bible to read more on his own. The next Sunday, he was in church, and he has never left God since.
We can push and strive to figure everything out and try to pin God down on how He’s supposed to bless us. But what we imagine with our limited brainpower can never measure up to the amazing blessings that He has prepared for us — not just in heaven, but right now. If your love for Him is proven by daily obedience, you are promised blessings, wisdom and insight that come straight from the infinite mind of God, and will accomplish so much more than what you and I could ever conjure up in our puny human minds. If things aren't going your way right now, trust and know that God is working out something greater as you remain in faith.
But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind—God prepared this for those who love Him. (2 Corinthians 2:9 HCSB)
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