Take time to enjoy the little things, they tell us, the simple pleasures that make life enjoyable. I will be the first in line to agree with that philosophy. Lingering over a steaming cup of good coffee in the quiet stillness of the early morning. A stunning view of a gorgeous landscape spread out before your eyes. The call of a bird or a close-up view of his bright feathers, the peacefulness of a warm summer night alive with the drone of crickets and toads, the warmth of a conversation with a dear friend, the gentle pressure of a loved one’s hand within yours, the brilliance of the rising sun breaking through the grey of dawn, the pale gleam of stars shining on dark cloudless nights. Yes, it is indeed the small things that bring a depth, a richness, a fullness to our everyday lives. Good gifts from a good God, as perhaps you’ve often heard or thought.
And it is true. They really are good gifts from our Father, who knows how to give good gifts and bestows them freely in His kindness and generosity. The big things are good gifts as well – the epic vacation, the much-awaited and greatly-longed-for trip, new life in the conception and birth of a child, the integrity of a life well-lived for the Lord, a faithful and dedicated marriage, healing from illness, etc. These things too are providence from the Lord, and I’m sure there are countless things, both large and small, that come to your mind which I’ve not mentioned.
I think though that we need to be wary of how we think of these things – or more precisely, how we think of the Lord in relation to these things. Often, we have it set in our minds that these good gifts are proof of His goodness – and so they are. However, all too frequently, we have the cause and effect reversed in our ways of speaking and thinking. Our God is not a good God because He gives good gifts. Rather, He gives good gifts because He is good, and should His good gifts cease, yet His goodness shall remain. Pedantic, perhaps, this distinction might appear, but I would posit that it is, in fact, quite necessary, nothing less than a vital distinction that we need to anchor in our own minds, settling it as firmly as possible lest we be swayed when the storms come – for come they certainly will.
There will come a time in each of our lives – and experience, both firsthand and secondhand, has taught me that it is more likely to be many times – when the good gifts seem to have ceased, when the vistas are grey and lifeless before us and the dawn seems to be night, when the wounds of a friend are no longer faithful, when loved ones depart whether voluntarily or in death, when new life ends when it has scarcely begun, when health fails and healing does not arrive, when spring cannot be seen on the horizon of the wintry landscape of life, when thick clouds obscure the stars and even the sun. In those moments, when we can see no earthly good, what are we to say? What are we to think? Is the Lord still good when sundered from those things which He “normally” so richly provides? Do we still trust in His kindness when there is no earthly benefit in doing so? Do we love Him because He is good, or because of the good things He gives?
Ours is not the first generation to consider these questions; they are by no means new to our time. Indeed, multitudes before us have confronted these questions, and we would do well to learn from them. Satan himself suggested that even the most righteous followers of God cling to Him only because of the temporal blessings that He sends our way. We see that in the first two chapters of Job, and 20 of the next 36 chapters recount for us Job’s steadfastness in the face of trials. This book carries with it a strange sort of comfort for us who witness his doubts and questions – for which the Lord does not reprove him, and indeed says that Job did not sin with his lips. We have there too not only an example of suffering well, powerful as that is, but an example of trust in the midst of suffering. Job reached the conviction – whether before or in the midst of the experiences thus recorded for us – that despite all, there was no alternative better than to trust in the Lord. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him”. (Job 13:15)
In a parallel situation, when following Jesus turned out to be other than all sunshine and roses and many of His followers turned away, Peter too gives us words that we can perhaps borrow when the path ahead is bleak and our own words fail: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)
To whom indeed? Where else shall we go? Should His good gifts cease, yet the Lord – He who changes not, with whom there is no wavering or shadow of change – remains good. We need that truth to sink into our hearts and minds, to root itself deep into our very beings, to anchor ourselves to it. Today is the day, friends; consider the goodness of God.