Snowball fights on the motorway

When two stretches of motorway near Wigan were closed due to snow, news came in of snowmen being built and friendly snowball fights taking place on the actual carriageways as stranded motorists awaited help. Events like that seem bizarre, as normally no vehicle is allowed to stop and no pedestrian may walk on a motorway. Usually, on these through routes, drivers keep determinedly within their little boxes, and certainly do not socialise with each other! But on that rare day the usual course of life was turned topsy-turvy.

I love it when the Bible in its poetry sees nature acting in ways never expected in the general run of things. There is a lovely little psalm (114) about what it was like for the waters of the Red Sea and the River Jordan to part and let God's emigrating people cross:

When Israel came out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Judah became God's sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
the mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
Why was it, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
you mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water. (NIV)

Isaiah talks in similar style about strange happenings in the days of the Messiah:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them (Isaiah 5:6).

In all these Bible passages the writers teach us a lesson that they know full well but we all too often overlook. We assume that nature carries on in predictable ways that we can record, analyse and then control. We forget that nature is God's creation and He can change the course of it when He pleases. The apostle Peter criticises those who scoff that everything carries merrily on just as it has done since the beginning and that God never intervenes. in fact He judged the earth once at the Genesis Flood and will do so again at the day of judgement.

To those who like to keep everything as it is and deprive others of hope, this is bad news. As for those who have committed their case to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is music to their ears. The Great Reversal is on its way, and will empower the powerless.

Action Replay

There seems to be quite a tie-up between the daily Bible reading notes I use, Our Daily Bread, and the city of Liverpool. Last year some of us went to listen to Bill Crowder, an ODB staff member, who was leading a day conference in a church over Liverpool way. It turns out that Bill is a fan of Liverpool Football Club!

This came through in one of his meditations, though Bill is by no means one of those preachers who keep referring to football in an effort to show they are “one of the lads”. He is a serious Bible student and teacher and he puts his love of the sport at the service of communicating the Saviour.

He starts with the Bible – always the right place to start. “These things I have written to you,” says John in his first letter, “who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). His point is that the Christian who has placed his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ has, you might say, won the game already, because eternal life in heaven is open to all believers.

“I love watching soccer,” he writes, using the American term for the game, “and I am a fan of the Liverpool Football Club in England’s Premier League. When the Reds are playing, it is an anxiety-filled experience for me. Because one goal or one misplay can change the game’s outcome, I feel a constant tension as I watch. That is part of what makes the games enjoyable. Recently, though, I saw a tape-delayed replay of one of Liverpool’s games. I was surprised how much calmer I felt seeing the replay. Why? Because I already knew the outcome, and as a result I was able to relax and enjoy the action.

“Life is often like observing live sporting events. There are shocks and surprises, frustrations and fears, because we are unsure of the outcome.”

I say a hearty "Amen" to Bill's words. How many decisions would be easier, how much mental anguish we would be spared, if only we knew how situations we face were going to turn out in the end! God alone knows the outcome; past, present and future are all present to Him. However, He thinks it wisest that we should not see everything that will happen. As a well-known hymn puts it,

What if tomorrow’s cares were here

without its rest?

I’d rather He unlocked the day,

and, as the hours swing open, say,

‘My will is best, My will is best.’

- Joseph Parker, 1830-1902

“Followers of Christ can draw comfort, however,” continues Crowder, “from the fact that though many of life’s situations are uncertain, our eternal outcome is settled by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross … Life may present us with surprises along the way, but because of Christ’s work we can have peace. He has already settled our eternal outcome.”