Have you ever been caught up in the middle of a messy situation? I found myself in a mess this week. I baked a strawberry cake for my mom for her birthday, and I wanted it to be perfect. Well … the batter tasted great. I sprayed the pans, put them in the oven, and when they came out, the cake had fallen and stuck to the pans. I was a mess. The kitchen was a mess. The cake was a mess. Sometimes, life is messy like that. Everything looks like it is going well and is going to work out perfectly, but then something “falls” or “sticks” and throws a wrench in your plans.
This cake story reminds me of a story from the Bible about a father and son, Abraham, and Isaac (Genesis 22). Abraham received a promise from God that he would have a son in his old age, and when he finally did, God called Abraham to go up on a mountain and sacrifice his only son. As they were climbing the mountain, I imagine things getting pretty messy in Abraham’s mind knowing what was about to take place. However, what these two guys did not know was that the Lord was providing for them as He always had. Genesis 22: 13-14 states, “Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So, Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
In a similar way, the Lord provided for me on the night of the cake disaster as well. A sweet lady from church texted me saying that she had made me a strawberry cake on THE SAME NIGHT that I had royally messed up that same exact thing. The Lord showed up for Abraham in his mess, and He showed up for me in mine. This sweet lady was a blessing to me, and the ram was a blessing to Abraham and Isaac.
Psalm 119:105 states, “Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Because a lamp isn’t bright enough to see the whole path, we must trust the Lord and just take the next right step because that is all we know. However, the Lord can see the whole path and knows what comes at the end of it and every step along the way. So, when we are in the middle of a messy situation, we have to trust that He will provide as He always has and that His plan is always good (even if it doesn’t seem that way).
When discussing the Lord’s provision in a messy situation, I am also reminded of when Jesus calmed the storm in Matthew 8. Jesus and His disciples were out on a boat when a massive storm came rolling up around them. The disciples were freaking out, “but Jesus was sleeping.” He could rest in the middle of that messy situation because He knew the end of the story. We also know the end of our story in Jesus Christ. Even though we may not know the specific, we know that the Lord prevails and provides and that the Lord will return one day. And we can rest in knowing that His plan is greater than anything we could ever imagine.
Sometimes our mess is out in the open, like a fallen crumbly cake, and sometimes our mess is internal, like what was going on in Abraham’s head. But both messes are equally cared about in the eyes of Jesus. He cares deeply for His sons and daughters. He cares about your mess and is always working in the middle of it. In the middle of your grief, your depression, your stress, your mess… He is there, He is working, and He cares. These truths remind me of lyrics from a song that I want to leave you with today “Even when don’t see it, You’re working. Even when I don’t feel it, You’re working. You never stop; You never stop working.”
Kristie Brothers
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#kristiebrothersblogs
