13 Lessons #8 Privation and Preparation Providences

Oh, the days that fly south like so many in a flock of geese!

Thanksgiving Day, several years ago,  our company cancelled from sickness and unexpectedly we were outside playing tennis (attempting to, anyway—and yes it was cold and wet), when a huge flock of geese flew overhead honking and calling.  A majestic sight, perfect formation headed for warmer climates and chattering all the way.  We were charmed.  Amazingly, in the time we were there, 11 huge flocks flew overhead in the exact same path, long after the previous flock had passed out of sight.  It was wonder-ful!  All around us, so many things pass by our days that are full-of-wonder.  GK Chesterton, in his inimitable way, struck profound when he said “Alice must grow small if she is to be Alice in Wonderland”.  The smaller we grow, the more wonder creeps up all around us, overwhelms us, stalks our joys and sorrows.

One wonder-filled aspect of life is how God weaves the tapestry of our experiences for his purposes and our callings.  We see, so many times, how the very thing that seemed so lacking, was the thing He used to bring about His perfect providence.

When we consider our children and all that we want for them: all we want them to learn, to grow in, to understand, to be wise about, we are apt to wrap the lifetimes of several people around them in smothering expectation.  But God has a perfect purpose for them, a purpose unfolding inexorably every day.  If we lean hard into Christ and lay our petitions before the Throne with expectation of His doing wondrous things, we truly will be amazed at what He fashions out of the poor offerings we can craft for these young lives growing into maturity. 

Home schooling mothers so often feel the weight of all that they are not doing; all that their strength could not afford, all that didn’t happen in a year, all that one child got but another has not had opportunity; all that was distracted when another child was unwell in body or soul and took away the parents’ attention, or the mother was disabled for a time.  The list goes on and on, as long as there are unique and varied stories amongst us all. 

And, we as mothers are apt to put together an aggregate of all the women we know and admire, and then expect to be that aggregate in its perfect, radiant totality.  Especially if we home school.  Last night, one of the most lovely “older woman” examples I know, was mentioning a hard thing and she said she felt God encouraging her with this thought:  “You need to be who I have called you to be.”  (I will clarify that this is a far cry, in fact, quite opposite the prevailing crippling sentiment of “That’s just who I am and I’m not going to/can’t change”).  God’s calling on our personality, skills, strengths and weaknesses, have been given as His gift to our children as just what they need.  They have been put in our household for specific reasons, specific preparations, specific providences unfolding.

Lettie Cowman, in her marvelous biography of her husband Charles, which I quoted at length in the two previous posts ages ago (last week), points again and again to how God used both privation providences and preparation providences richly in the young life of her husband to prepare him specifically for an intense and fruitful ministry in Japan.  He ended up leading thousands in studying God’s Word, submitting to His Lordship, and raising up training facilities, during a time that Japan opened up tremendously to the gospel prior to the world wars. 

I remind myself time and again that the things which come into the lives of our children are meant, first and foremost, for their good and for His glory.  But also, they are specifically the means by which God is preparing them for the work that He has for them to do, the calling they are meant to fulfill and He lovingly weaves this with His own Hand, on which He has said He has engraved their names and remembers them more closely than a mother remembers her needy babe.  He is kind and good, and He knows all that they need far greater than even we whose attentions and love is constantly being lavished on them.  Surely we can trust Him to prepare them perfectly, especially if and when their hearts are submitted to Him and they themselves are seeking His utmost best with all their soul.  This tenderness of their hearts to Him, therefore, is the greatest need of the hour as they struggle with future decisions and present pressures.

One more thing I simply must point out.  Those geese we saw, by the hundreds, just merely knew they had to catch the wind current, flap their wings, and keep the pace between their comrades.  But unbeknownst to them they were following ancient instinct in perfect rhythm and perfect formation according to the plan God had set down for them at Creation.  Sometimes our “doing the next thing” simply, humbly, accomplishes far more than we expect it does, in keeping in us in rhythm and formation and heading for the destination God has planned for us since Creation, when He first knew our name and fashioned our days and those of our children.

**God mentions how He clothes the flowers of the field, and that His eye is on the sparrow.  The details of birds and blossoms continually show His infinite creative hand in details of crafting beauty unbelievably exquisite. How much more His infinite creative Hand in crafting His beauty into the lives of our--His--children when they love and trust Him.

*flower pics from Thistledown Cards