“God loves a mess.”

A thought by Larry Osborne (2015-04-01) from his book, Thriving in Babylon: Why Hope, Humility, and Wisdom Matter in a Godless Culture (Kindle Location 1228). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Do you read the Bible?  Over in the book of Daniel there were at least two messes.  One was when three followers of God were thrown in a fiery furnace because they didn’t bow down to an idol.  They came out of that without the smell of smoke.  They came out alive.  But that was a mess.

Another mess was when Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den because he prayed to God.  But there was no problem.  He came out alive.  But that was a mess.

There was also a mess over in Exodus where the children of Israel had been leaving Egypt where they had been slaves.  Through a lot of different happenings the leader let them go so they could go to a land that God had promised.  God had worked that all out and he then brought them to the Red Sea and they had mountains on two sides and Pharaoh, the leader of the Egyptians had changed his mind and he was coming for them to take them back.  The truth was the scripture said that God had changed Pharaoh’s mind.  You see God loves a mess. 

Here is how Larry tells the story, “Then God stirred the heart of Pharaoh to set out with his army to recapture the slaves he’d just let go. Trapped against the water and the mountains, the Israelites appeared to be easy prey. When they realized what was happening, they panicked. They cried out to the Lord in despair and accused Moses of bringing them out to the desert to die.  It never dawned on them that God might be setting up another great miracle or a final judgment upon Pharaoh and his army. They were so dialed in on what God was not doing at the moment that they forgot everything he’d done in the past. It was as if the hard drive of their memories had been wiped clean. Now it’s easy to rip on their lack of faith and mock their forgetfulness. It’s hard to believe they could panic so quickly after being delivered so powerfully. But if we’re honest, we’re prone to do the same thing.”

And then back to Daniel.  Larry says, “God calls us to trust him to provide all that we need when we need it. My guess is that if Daniel and his friends had known all they would encounter, their hearts would have melted. It had to be nerve-racking enough just to watch the Babylonians advance on Jerusalem. But had they known the rest of the story— that the city and temple would be sacked, that they’d be taken captive, carried off to Babylon, castrated, forced to study the occult, given new names honoring demon gods, tossed into a fiery furnace, thrown to hungry lions, and forced to interpret a dream without being told what the dream was— they would have collapsed in terror. I doubt they could have imagined there would be any way they could survive all of that. Yet God showed up in each situation in miraculous and unexpected ways. And at the end of the day, he made sure they not only survived but that they thrived. It’s still the same today. If we claim to be followers of Jesus, there’s never a good reason for panic. God loves a mess. After all, it takes a mess to have a miracle.”

So let’s get with it and remember how big our God is.  And remember that “God loves a mess.  After all, it takes a mess to have a miracle.”

So what miracle do you need from God?