“The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.”
~ Psalm 135:6
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel right after you thought that something calamitous was about to happen to you? How do you feel right after you had something calamitous happen to you? Do you feel really happy and relieved when after you thought that something calamitous was going to happen to you that that potential calamity did not happen? Do you feel really happy and relieved when after you had something calamitous happen to you that you are still okay and alive? While your grandpaa was driving on a highway in the mountains near Field, British Columbia, Canada, your grandpaa hit black ice. Your grandpaa was following the car that was being driven by the guy – Dan Weir, who was replacing your grandpaa as the Canadian South American Mission Executive Director. Your grandmaa was with your grandpaa in their car. Your grandmaa and grandpaa were on their way to Vancouver where they were booked with a booth to participate as representatives of Canada South America Mission in Vancouver’s annual weeklong event called Missionsfest. Being that it was a beautiful, sunny day, your grandpaa – as he was driving his car, was enjoying the majestic, snow covered mountains around him when . . . your grandpaa missed seeing the sign that is located near the top of the mountain that warns drivers of the possibility of black ice on the highway as the highway winds down the mountain. When your grandpaa hit the black ice – which was from snow that had melted and then froze in the shaded area of the mountain that he was driving down, your grandpaa was driving much faster than he should have been driving. Your grandpaa was trying to keep up with Dan. When your grandpaa hit the black ice, your grandpaa could feel his car slightly slide. When your grandpaa felt his car slide slightly, your grandpaa pushed down hard on the car’s brake. Your grandpaa can still see in his mind the highway curving ahead to the right and a line of trucks and cars coming up the highway in the opposite lane as your grandpaa’s car was sliding down the highway. All that your grandpaa could think of to do was to continue to push down on his car’s brakes as hard as he could. Your grandpaa desperately wanted his car to stop right then and there instead of having it continue to slide down the mountain for another quarter of a mile – where the highway was curving to the right after which . . . when your grandpaa pushed down hard on the brake, your grandpaa was steering slightly to his right. As your grandpaa’s car slid, it slid to the right until it glanced off the snow and ice encrusted guardrail that had been put there to keep a vehicle like your grandpaa’s car from going off the highway and tumbling down into a deep drop-off. Instead of your grandpaa’s car ending up where the highway curved to the right about a quarter of a mile ahead or instead of your grandpaa’s car ending up in the line of traffic that was coming up the mountain, your grandpaa’s car ended up against the guardrail with only a badly bent right tie rod and some teeth broken in the steering linkage.
After your grandpaa hit the black ice near Field, British Columbia and after your grandpaa hit the guardrail that damaged his car, how do you think that your grandpaa felt? Your grandpaa felt really bummed – then, as your grandpaa’s plan had been for he and your grandmaa to spend that night with a couple who they had gotten to know who lived close to Vancouver. Instead of spending a night with the couple who they had gotten to know and who they were looking forward to seeing again, your grandmaa and grandpaa had to spend the next two nights in a motel in Field, British Columbia while your grandpaa’s car was being fixed. Your grandpaa today knows that God could just as easily have predestined having your grandpaa’s car slide down the mountain highway all the way to the curve that was curving to the right and . . . or that He could have had your grandpaa’s car slide into the oncoming lanes and into a truck or car that was coming up the mountain and . . . but instead, through God having your grandpaa’s car hit a guardrail, God taught your grandpaa a lesson that he always needs to be alert to everything that is around him and to be especially alert to everything that is ahead of him because . . .
How do you think that God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, felt when they got back to their homes that were located in the city of Jerusalem after spending years of being exiled in Babylonia? Do you think that God’s specially chosen guys and gals were happy and relieved to get back to their homes that were located in the city of Jerusalem after spending years exiled in Babylonia or do you think that God’s specially chosen guys and gals were upset and mad at God for exiling them in Babylonia for years? Psalm 135 was written after God’s specially chosen guys and gals were allowed – after having been exiled in Babylonia for years, to go back to their homes that were located in the city of Jerusalem. Why do you think that God allowed or had His specially chosen guys and gals be exiled in Babylonia for years? When you do not do what your dad and/or ma tells you to do, what does your dad and/or ma do to you? Your grandpaa is quite sure that your dad and/or ma will punish you when you do not listen to either your dad or ma or to both your dad and ma. God ended up needing to punish His specially chosen guys and gals because they would not listen to Him. Verse 6 says, “The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” Your grandpaa knows that praising God is not easy to do after God has had him experience a calamity – such having an accident, but that is what God wants him to do. Your grandmaa and grandpaa pray that you will learn as your grow older that no matter whatever happens to you, that you will always praise God just as He was teaching His specially chosen guys and gals to do.
Psalm 135 (398)