When tragedy or calamity strikes us or when our plans lie in smoking ruins, the sense of futility and loss comes like an unwelcome neighbor to knock on our door. In the words or Robert Burns
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Those thoughts came to me yesterday as I passed by our church. There in the midst of another snow and ice storm was a squirrel, who stopped by to satisfy himself on the remainders he could find from the missions fund-raising banquet. All his provisions of nuts are now exhausted and he survives only on whatever crust of bread he can find. His little plans for survival seem so tiny up against the realities of our long harsh Winter: yet God is caring for his needs.
Though our own eyes may strain to look ahead past the Winter storms that are all around us and wonder when the end of our struggles will come. Though we long to see the opening of the daffodils but see only a bleak snowy landscape, God still remembers us and sees the Spring ahead. Though we may feel like Robert Burn’s little mouse, we need not throw our hopes to the winds. God cares for us and values our single tiny life more than you know.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Mark 8:36
The value God places on the life of a single soul is more than the whole world taken together. A single life weighs more on God’s scales with all earth’s riches, all its natural wonders, and all its amazing creatures.For one single tiny life, Jesus paid the high price of His precious blood. God remembers. God cares. God alone can set the exchange rate of heaven for the value of a single soul.
When we walk near to the Lord He becomes that place for us to be hidden in Him. His presence surrounds us and provides a shield so the enemy cannot know where to find us. That is not to say we won’t sometimes pass through difficulty, but that when suffering passes close our hearts can be safely sheltered in Him
