During the warm summer nights here in Southern California, a group of very dedicated volunteers and artists join together and perform a show called “Pageant of the Masters”. It’s an amazing show where live cast members are inserted into famous paintings and sculptures creating what they call a living tableau. Its nearly impossible to figure out where the live person ends and the painting begins – even with fancy binoculars! At one point in the performance, they actually allow the audience to see how the magic works; the actor in their odd looking makeup and stiff costumes walk to their place in front of the backdrop and strike their well rehearsed pose. You can tell it isn’t the original painting until…..the lights suddenly shift and change and there is no longer just someone standing in front of a backdrop! The actor has now morphed into the painting as though he’d been there all along!
It makes me think about my life as a Christian and child of God and how it is played out on the world stage. I have a part in God’s ultimate plan for humanity, even though it’s just a tiny one. At times I find myself wondering how I fit into His master plan. It feels like there are so many more important things going on – hunger, homelessness, inequality, wars, suffering – that I can’t possibly make an impact or a difference. How is God using me to carry out His will and purposes?
We don’t know what God is doing behind the scenes preparing those involved to carry out his plans. So many examples, both in the Old and New Testaments, make me wonder what went on behind the scenes that paved the way for God to work His miracles. For example, we don’t know anything about:
Rebecca coming to the well – what made her so willing to go along with a stranger to marry a stranger? Had God already spoken to her like he did to Mary when she was going to give birth to Jesus?
Jesus’ last supper – he told his disciples to go to the home of someone that already had the room set up. We don’t know what transpired to make that room ready. And the donkey that Jesus had them bring for him to ride into Jerusalem. The owner of the animal seemed ready to give his donkey to strangers, as if he already had been told Jesus would need it.
There is one time in the Old Testament that I feel God pulls back the curtain, just a bit, and lets us see an example of His working for us, setting the scene, even when we aren’t aware.
In 2 Kings 4:8-37, we find the story of Elisha and the woman from Shunmem. She was a wealthy woman who had provided room and board to the prophet Elisha whenever he came to her town. One day Elisha asked her what he could do for her to repay her kindness. She told him she already had everything she needed and was just happy to be able to help Elisha in his ministry. Elisha and his assistant talked about it more and realized she didn’t have any children of her own. So Elisha let her know that by the next year, she would have a son. She does but soon the child dies. God works an amazing miracle through Elisha and brings her small son back to life.
The next time we meet the woman, in 2 Kings 8:1-6, it’s seven years after her young son was brought back to life by God through Elisha. She has returned to her homeland and needs the king’s permission to get her property back so she can go back home. Now I would say that the little I know about the culture in those days makes this next part kind of shocking. The woman went to see the king. The woman! Women were simply a man’s property back then. They didn’t have much say in anything. So how did this woman come to be able to stand before the king and ask for her home and belongings back?
God lets us in on a little of His behind the scenes work. Just as she arrives to speak to the king, Elisha’s assistant is telling the king stories of all the great things Elisha has done. And guess who’s story he is just getting ready to tell when she walks in?
I have to imagine that if the king had not been told about her son being raised from the dead and then seeing her with his own eyes, there is no way she would have been able to not only retrieve all that belonged to her, but receive a back payment of what she would have made from all the harvests that occurred while she was gone! I wonder if she was frightened before she went in front of the king. Or if she was afraid that her request would never be agreed to or would seem silly and trivial to a mighty king.
We don’t often get to see what God has put in place to complete His will. We don’t get to see the behind the scenes preparation and planning. But don’t you agree that there are times you just KNOW that God has done something amazing when something happens that, from a human point of view, really shouldn’t have occurred?
For me, her story is an encouraging view of what God is doing for me. It inspires me to believe that I should never be afraid to step out in faith to do or say the hard stuff that I know will bring glory to Him. I’m going to be ready and believe that God is patiently working behind the scenes – setting the stage, getting the players prepared, making sure that everything is in place – so that when the lights come up the painting of my life will look exactly the way He created it to look! How awesome is that!
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11
Beautifully said Deanna!
Thank you!