The God of details ... all the details ...

Get up in the morning, turn on the faucet, expecting warm water ... waiting ... waiting ... no warm water.  Water heater ???  Go downstairs, open door to utility room, walk back behind the furnace - but before I get there I see it ........ WATER!  I think that is supposed to be IN the water heater.  So, the water heater needs to be replaced and I thank God that He is a God of details and I tell myself, "God works ALL things together for good to those who love Him" (Romans 8:28).  Even water heaters?  Yes, even water heaters.  Many don't have water heaters - or water ... or faucets.  Then God provides a dear brother to install it if I can go pick one up ... but then circumstances change and he can pick one up ... and then he comes and has it installed in an hour!!  Thank you, Lord, for being a God of details - especially on THIS day.

Why this day?  Because I am preaching at a funeral today.  As we go on about our lives, this family is grieving the loss of a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, a sister, a friend.  Life goes on, but not without tears.  I understand what they are feeling.  Eighteen years ago today my father left this world to enter the presence of God in heaven.  He was buried on my birthday, September 9th, 1994.  But there is a message that brings hope - the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  The God of details promised to send a Savior and through all the details, the prophecies, the annunciations of His birth, His life, His ministry, His crucifixion ... and His RESURRECTION ... those details were fulfilled to the letter.  And now, those who know Him as Savior and Lord HAVE eternal life.  Nothing escapes God's view.  Nothing ... nothing escapes God's view.  He loves His children and His children love Him.  He can be trusted, even when we don't understand.

So I received a phone call from a young man and his wife who were expecting triplets.  Last Sunday Justin and Amber shared their excitement in front of our church family and also shared that there was a potential risk for two of the babies.  We gathered around them and we prayed and we entrusted the babies to the Lord's care and we prayed for healing and we prayed for His will to be done - that He would receive glory.  They were going to Ann Arbor today for an appointment with a specialist and a possible surgery to "fix" the problem.  In the phone call I received a short time ago Justin shared that the two babies had not survived.  The third baby appears to be doing well.  So we continue to pray ... to the God of details ... ALL the details.

We believe what the Bible says, that this God works ALL things together for good to those who love Him.  But there's more to that verse:  " ... who are CALLED according to HIS purpose."  So what IS God's purpose - in this?  We don't know - yet.  "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9).  The debate about when life begins is more than a political game.  Life begins at conception.  LIFE begins at conception.  LIFE, physical and spiritual life BEGINS, is real, at CONCEPTION!!  And God's promise ... the God of the details ... HIS promise, to believers ... to HIS children, is that His angels watch over their children and should their lives end before they confess Jesus or reject Him, before they can learn and grow or make that choice, they are WITH HIM.

My father is there.  My mother is there.  The wife and mother and grandmother and great-grandmother whose body we laid in a grave today is there.  And two babies, precious in the sight of the God of details, are there ... in His presence.  The God of all the details doesn't make mistakes.  We don't need to understand because we wouldn't need faith if we could understand it all.

It has been quite a day.  I am so thankful that I know the God of details ... all the details.  I hope, I pray, that you do, too.