What Do I Know of Holy? {He Is On His Throne}

After hearing Mary's perspective today in my reading from Max Lucado's One Incredible Moment, I am reminded of my thoughts on Joseph from last week, that things never quite seem to happen the way that we planned them.

Rest well, tiny hands. For though you belong to a king, you will touch no satin, own no gold. You will grasp no pen, guide no brush. No, your tiny hands are reserved for works more precious: to touch a leper's open wound, to wipe a widow's weary tear; to claw the ground of Gethsemane.

Your hands, so tiny, so tender, so white---clutched tonight in an infant's fist. They aren't destined to hold a sceptor nor wave from a palace balcony. They are reserved instead for a Roman spike that will staple them to a Roman cross.

Mary would never have planned for her child to walk the path that Jesus did. None of us would choose or want that for our son.

And yet, if she had tried to stop Jesus from walking the path to crucifixion, there would have been no resurrection. If he had not died, we would not live.

And I cannot help but think about Lazarus. Jesus could have saved him. He could have prevented him from dying. He did not need to leave him dead for that long. But if he had healed him before he died or if he had raised him from the dead immediately, we would not have witnessed God's glory and known for sure that it was of God and not man.

So when times are tough or things do not go according to plan, I encourage you to remember that {like silver} if we do not go through the fire, we do not come out refined.

And when you are wondering where God is in the middle of this mess, he is sitting on his throne. He is in control. He has a plan and it will prevail. He is on our side.

The God who can, will.

We just have to trust him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. {Proverbs 3:5-6}