The world has changed again. Seemingly overnight coronavirus cases began skyrocketing in our tucked away nook of the South Texas coast. Masks wearing is now mandated by the state. And social distancing is here to stay, at least for a while. Was it really only three weeks ago that we had fewer than 100 cases per day? How is it possible for the world to change this fast?
As anxiety rises the words of Proverbs 3 overflow in my heart.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.”
-Proverbs 3:5-6
Recently I reread one of my favorite books, The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom. The book details her firsthand experience hiding Jews in her home during the Nazi Germany occupation of The Netherlands. Corrie and her family were followers of Jesus who truly lived out Jesus’ commands to love God and love others. They opened their home to Jews who needed a safe place with little regard for their own safety and protection. Their participation in the underground Resistance eventually landed her entire family in prison and Corrie and her sister in a concentration camp.
One particular story stands out. Early in her participation in the Resistance after her world changed literally overnight, Corrie needed to obtain ration cards for the Jews they were helping. The only way to buy food during the occupation was with ration cards, and Jews were not issued ration cards. She needed a contact who could provide the coveted cards. After the name of a man she knew who worked in the Food Office came to mind, Corrie headed to meet with him. She prayed before she began the conversation, “Lord, if it is not safe to confide in Fred, stop this conversation now before it is too late” (The Hiding Place, 96). Fred helped willingly over and over again.
This is but one example. Each page of The Hiding Place drips with stories like this one- stories of Corrie and her family trusting God to lead and guide them and stories of how God in fact leads them and provides through the darkest of times.
Proverbs 3:5 & 6 remind us to trust in the Lord, with all our hearts, with every fiber of our being. Trust in the Lord even when the days are dark and a disease rages out of control. Trust in the Lord to guide and lead us knowing he sees the way forward even when to us the path seems murky at best. Nothing in our current situation is a surprise to God. None of this is outside of God’s purview. God is sovereign, and he reigns over all creation. No matter what mountain falls into the midst of the sea or which storm ravages the land.
Today, may we trust in the Lord, and let him guide us in all our ways. Let his ways be our ways, his words our words, his love our love. May we have courage to embrace the path set before us and all that it entails with the knowledge that we worship the one, true God whose love and sovereignty have no end and who guides and leads those who trust in him.
