Thrilling Guest Thursday: The Urban Hermit

This week's contributor remains anonymous,

yet the words she shares bring awe to our hearts

as she glorifies our Creator Father and His mysterious ways.

 

God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Ephesians 1:9-10 NLT

 

As a grandmother, I often find myself creating surprises for my little ones. I delight in the gift, but the real purpose is the delight I watch them express when they are caught by surprise and gifted with something to enjoy.

My sister shared an email with me that listed some of the amazing surprises that our Heavenly Father has prepared for us. I've copied out the lists of ways that our Father gifts us. Hopefully, you'll find it as amazing as I do.

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs....
- the eggs of a potato bug hatch in 7 days;
- those of the canary in 14 days;
- those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
- the eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days.
Notice that they all are divisible by seven: the number of days in a week -- and the number that is used in the Bible to represent perfection.

God's wisdom is seen in the creation of an elephant. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on only two legs. He gifted it with four fulcrums so that it can rise easily from the ground.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first. A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first. Even though no explanation is given, I'm sure there's a reason that shows the Lord's wisdom in these examples as in all of His works of creation!

It's certainly revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.

- Watermelons each have an even number of stripes on the rind.
- Oranges have an even number of segments.
- Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
- Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
- Every bunch of bananas has an even number of bananas, on its lowest row, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row has an odd number.
- All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold -- all even numbers.

- The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day. Linnaeus, the great botanist once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soils, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

All of this makes me aware that God is constantly thinking of us, surprising us, providing for us. If He puts this much planning into His animals, and fruits of the field, which only last a season, then consider how complex and loving are the Holy Arrangements he makes for each of us. And though I don't always see the pattern, I can trust that my life, and the lives of those I love, are ordered by our Lord in a beautiful way for His glory.

All Praise and all Thanksgiving to our Wonderful, Loving, Amazing Creator Father.

May you be richly aware of His many blessings this day, and all the days of your life. Let us pray for each other.

The Urban Hermit