(2009-01-13) Did you ever get thanked for something you didn’t realize you’d done?
An argument from the professedly rational against populist Evangelicals is their notion of tiny answered prayers.
What earthly sense does it make for the All-Being Master of Time, Space, and Dimension to hand out unchipped manicures and unexpected green lights?
This seems demeaning–God as cosmic Pez dispenser.
A common counter-argument is: in God’s’ ordered universe we have no coincidence.
(Which doesn’t answer the charge of “demeaning.”)
*******
What if we’re looking at the wrong angle? What if we’re holding this upside-down?
Our place is to be straightened by faith, tamped surely into God’s alignment.
If we are snarled and tangled, the weaving is out of kilter; we catch on things and snag. Heaven knows we’re prone to twisting!
But if all is lined up as it should be, we can slip smoothly through life like a pashmina scarf through a ring.
Right?
*******
In the big picture, one doesn’t notice the small misalignments:
the slubs and tangles show when our fabric sweeps through the world, catching on tiny spurs and hooks.
If I’m aligned, my tangles are smoothed away
and I slip neatly past those hooks.
Thanks for getting me here on time, God.
What? Oh, that — well, sure. Anytime.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. –Romans 8:28