“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
to bring rain on a land where no man is,
on the desert in which there is no man,
to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?”
Job 38:25-27
This morning, these words impressed on my heart God’s evident care for the earth, regardless of whether or not it affects us directly. His faithfulness to creation isn’t about us…it’s about Him. It’s about His character.
In Ezekiel 36:8-11, God speaks to the mountains, saying, “But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown…And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”
It’s a beautiful promise, isn’t it? Assurance to the mountains of Israel that their Creator will be faithful and desolation will not last forever. Does He not speak the same assurances to our heart? Our Lord cares for creation because He is a faithful Creator. And He cares for His children because He is a faithful Father.
In Matthew 6:25-30, Jesus—the image of our invisible God and the exact imprint of His nature—tells us, “Do not be anxious about your life…Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field…will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
His care for creation is meant to point us to His faithfulness to us. So that we won’t worry. So that we won’t doubt. So that we won’t be needlessly afraid. So that when we pray to Him, we trust that He hears us and will answer in perfect love. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11)
Our heavenly Father sees us and He will provide. He will be faithful. In every circumstance. However big or small of a need, He is here and He will come through. And none of it is based on what we bring to the equation. It’s all about our Lord. Faithfulness is part of who He is, and He will never go against it because He never changes.
So we can have confidence no matter what we face or where we are in the waiting. We can simply rest and delight in Him. Our God is for us, just as He was for the mountains of Israel. We can hold fast to His promises which stand forever, firmly trusting in His covenant to us as stated in Jeremiah 32:40-41: “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.”
In Pleasant Places 