"But God..."

      

     I couldn't even guess how many sermons I've heard in my seventy-five years, but how few I've remembered in any detail! Hopefully, many of them have been absorbed into my thinking and behavior, but there is one I will never forget, and perhaps it is for this very day. It was one of my son Christian's first, and it was entitled simply "But God." 

      I just did a search on both Bible Hub and Bible Gateway for the phrase and got results from 44 to 99, depending on the version of the Bible, so needless to say, it's a recurring theme in God's Word. Nearly each time, the phrase indicates a reversal of either events or someone's thinking from what we would consider a negative trend to a positive one. A familiar example is found in Genesis, when Joseph, who had been sold into slavery by his brothers yet had risen to the second most powerful position in Egypt, rescued his entire family from the famine in Israel. His response to his brothers' remorse when they recognized him in the house of Pharaoh was this:

"So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."  (Genesis 45:8 KJV, emphasis mine)

      This morning I arose from bed, as on most days with burning flesh and aching bones. I confess my attitude of late has been pretty negative. It seems I interact with fewer people as each year goes by; I laugh less, and smile rarely; I have little hope of ever having a "normal" life, or the active life I once had; I dream less and less of the places I'd like to go and things I'd like to do "someday." I quickly returned today to my recurrent gut-wrenching thought, "No one has any idea how it feels to be me, or understands how hard it is to keep going each day!"  Immediately and unbidden came that phrase "But God!" It came as if on a wisp of a cloud I could almost reach up and grasp with my hand, and my mind grabbed onto it like a lifeline and began to mull it over like a sip of sweet wine one wants to roll around on the tongue before swallowing. And I began to smile!

      It was as if all the peace I had been longing for for five and a half years came over me all at once! In the blink of an eye I understood that all the prayers I pray, whether for myself of someone else, I don't even need to put into words. All the agony that spills from my heart and body out my eyes-- He already knows! It has been written in His book since before time! How does He know how this flesh-life feels? He experienced it all during His brief time on earth as Yeshua, Son of Mary and the Holy Spirit, perfect God and perfect man, subject to all our pains and trials. Yet He was the Only One who didn't succumb to our human frailty and make the selfish choices we make that lead us away from our perfect Father God, because He WAS God! (See Matthew 26:63-64, Mark 14:61-62, John 4:25-26.) 

      He could have avoided it all, chosen to stay on His heavenly throne and leave us humans to our own pitiful devices, but ... being God... He didn't! He came to die, to walk with us, so we might live, not just brief, pain-filled days on earth, but forever with Him in His perfect, pain-free Heavenly home! 

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am."  (John 14:1-3 NLT)

      I stop and marvel for a few moments at all the "But God" times in my life, times when things were going or could have gone very badly, but God, by His grace turned the bad into good. Today I was sad, but God turned my sadness to gladness. Today I was in pain, but God turned my pain to patience. Today I felt alone, but God comforted me. 

"For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning." (Psalm 30:5 NLT)

"He must increase and I must decrease."

John 3:30

 ✝️