A student at Bible college told me that the four teachers she hated the most were the very four that understood, confronted, and eventually delivered her from a life-threatening spiritual problem.
I thought of her this morning when I read Acts 7. Stephen is recounting history to the Jewish Sanhedrin and reminded them, “This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.”
The person they despised and rejected became their deliverer.
It happened again, at least the despised and rejected part. When Jesus came, they rejected Him. In Acts 2, Peter told them: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
The person they hated and killed was their Lord and Messiah.
God has a way of taking what we think is the worst thing that could happen and turning it into a blessing. This requires some cooperation on our part, yet He can use anything redemptively. I can think of countless examples in my own life. Right now, we have a cancer going—and God is using it for good by giving my husband multiplied opportunities to talk to others about their eternal destiny.
We also have a bipolar happening. What will be the eventual outcome remains to be seen, but so far I’ve had to adjust my lifestyle (more simple), clean up the clutter (stop procrastinating), focus on better meal planning (she is a vegetarian), drop all insisting on having my way (she has a way of making me see my selfishness), and learn to keep my mouth shut (this girl is an adult, not a baby).
I’m also praying about everything, something God has been trying to teach me for years. I’m hugging more, complaining less, and feeling very needy in just ordinary conversation. This is a brilliant girl who challenges anything illogical or that is not clearly stated. I feel as if I am back in school learning how to properly communicate, and that is all good. I need it.
A third event culminated yesterday in the birth of our first great grandchild! I know, I am too young. So is her mother. However, God used this unplanned edition to bring together a child and her parents, to draw a relationship of caring out of a rift that seemed impossible, and to bring a responsible and mature attitude to a young woman who was heading in the wrong direction. God has a way of making lemonade out of lemons.
So if things happen that make me want to throw up my hands in dismay, or run and hide in fear, I need to think about this new baby, or our bipolar girl, or the life of Moses, or most important of all, how God redeemed the most unjust, horrible circumstance in history—the murder of His Son—and made it the most significant event that has ever happened.
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