“We’ve been hearing about this, God, all our lives. Our fathers told us stories, their fathers told them…” Psalm 44.1
There are certain “facts” we take for granted. Often the foundation for these facts is stories given to us. Our parents pass them on from their parents who received them from their parents from untold generations. I find these facts shaping my life far more than I realize, or am willing to admit!
God, religion, and relationship facts are central to our lists. It is only through “experience” that we move from our teacher’s values to our own. The challenge for many of us is the level of our God expectations. What do we expect God to do in our lives? Is he really the Santa Claus we expect him to be?
People in David’s time faced a similar problem. They knew their history. They knew how God worked incredible miracles in gaining their freedom from Egypt, taking Canaan, fighting their battles. They knew the past and expected the same in the present. God was a God who took care of things.
Is this today’s God? When will we see him act? Where is he working? We look around, and in our analysis, we don’t see miracles. We see lives going on as they have for years, injustices without accountability, and pain unchecked. Where is God?
God is where he always has been. God is looking to work grace in people’s lives as much as they are willing for it to be. God works, we forget.
We forget the miracle of grace given by the person or thing next to us on the subway. We forget the “random” act of kindness by a stranger who came across our way. We forget the peace found in quiet moments when everything was as God intended it to be. We forget the fresh hope found in a morning sunrise. We forget, but God does not.
Legacies as useful, if we are willing to look and listen in open ways. God brings hope and grace, just like each new dawn.
