Bad days made good

Yesterday was one of those days. Odd and perplexing events pushed me in several directions, yet as I reflect on the day, God was definitely in it. My devotional guide had taken me to the story of Jacob’s dream where he saw a ladder extending to heaven with the messengers of God going up and down the steps. God spoke to him and renewed the covenant He’d made much earlier with Abraham. Today’s guide points to this verse…

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:16–17)

Yes, God was in that place. The devotional reading adds a poem about a priest with grand thoughts about his station in life. He dropped his high-sounding sermons from the church steeple on the heads of those below. When it was time to die, he cried out and asked God where He was. God told him that He was “down here among My people.”

Most often I think of God as high and lofty. Yet even though that is true, He also says…

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).

I’m not sure about the contrite part, but Jesus promises He will never leave me. That included yesterday. 

I woke very early. God was with me for He knew my day would require an extra hour or two. 

It started off badly. I needed my devotional files used on our vacation. They were on my flash drive, but when I tried to transfer them and all our photos to my desktop computer, something weird happened. All the files disappeared; the drive was empty. With great shock and disappointment, I prayed to God and asked Him to help. His still small voice told me to unplug the flash drive and put it into another USB port. They appeared and all was well; God was with me.

The next event was better. My hubby’s luggage had disappeared on the flight the day before. We prayed for its return. It arrived before nine. God answered that prayer and I rejoiced.

However, the morning began to deteriorate. I could not use my PC because updates to OS and software took several hours. Yet the Holy Spirit gave me patience and just the right amount of other chores to keep me from twiddling my thumbs waiting for that spinning wheel to disappear. Again, I sensed the presence of God. 

Then our furnace started doing weird things. I called the builder who sent their repair man who fiddled and thought he fixed it, but after he left, it was still not right. The builder then sent the furnace installer serviceman. He reeked of cheap cologne and had the worst know-it-all attitude I’ve ever experienced. Yikes. He talked and bragged and talked and talked.

But God was with me; I was polite, even gracious. This man disabled something and told me it was not his problem, to get an electrician. (Good thing it was not -40 outside!) I called the builder rep again. In the meantime, she had made some calls herself and told me that what he disabled was actually the fix needed — that item had been hooked up in error in the first place, likely by the same serviceman. We chuckled over this and again, I sensed God was with me.

The rest of the day was similar. Events were good or nasty, but in all of them, the Lord was with me, giving me assurance and a calm spirit. Without needing a dream to prove it, I can say that surely the Lord is in this place and I DO know it! 

Of course, He cares about the high and holy things, but He also cares about ordinary daily struggles. Without His presence, my day would have provoked annoyed frustration. Instead, He filled me with peace and even laughter. Walking with Jesus is precious — and also very practical.