The Snowmen Left Behind

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activity, with many family members coming together to celebrate my dad’s upcoming 80th birthday. The plans to leave on Sunday were delayed because of snow and so we got to enjoy a couple of extra days with our daughter and our granddaughters.

While the men were out busy removing snow (part of our responsibility as landscapers), the women were at my house with ten of my eleven grandkids for much of that time. (We were missing that eleventh!)

It was a crazy, loud, and exhausting time. But it was also a wonderful, amazing time. What grandmother doesn’t love having her grandchildren together, watching them have fun and build memories together?

On Tuesday, as I walked into my house after dropping my daughter and her girls off at the airport, I sighed. It was just so…quiet.

As I cleaned up later, I spotted three little foam snowmen, leftover from the weekend. They sat there on the side of a little out-of-the-way table that was filled with other things.

I gently lifted them up and carried them out to my kitchen window and gave them a place of honor. They are a beautiful memory from a special weekend.

One of the things I can never get quite used to at this stage of my life is the “feast or famine” lifestyle. I go from crazy and loud to calm and silent in just a moment.

Back when it began, I really struggled. Sometimes I still do, like this past week. I feel so lonely when everyone goes home. It was extra hard this week, as my husband had to be out most evenings because the snow was deep enough to demand hauling out of tight areas and meant extra work for him that had to be done after places were closed. That meant I spent most evenings alone.

Those evenings got so long. But God has been teaching me this week (and, honestly, for a long time now) to appreciate the wonderful things about the crazy and the wonderful things about the calm.

Both are good. He has me in a place where I jump back and forth between them. This is where I am in my life right now. And it is okay.

This is such a small thing but, even in this, I need to practice leaning into the sovereignty of God. This is where God has me right here and right now. Being frustrated or sad or disappointed doesn’t do anything to change my circumstances.

With acceptance comes peace. It’s the only way to experience the joy and peace promised us as God’s beloved children.

For a long, long time, I just wanted to go back to my “mom” days. I loved being a mom. It was all I ever wanted to be. Now I get to enjoy being a grandma. But the adjustment took a long, long time. Occasionally, I still miss those busy mom days. But now, a few years out, I have learned to appreciate the quiet, as well. I have adjusted to the change in my life. It’s really amazing how we do adjust.

For you, leaning into God’s sovereignty is about something totally different. And perhaps much more life-altering. We struggle because we aren’t where we wanted to be. We aren’t where we thought we would be. We all have those areas of our lives. Many that we never talk about. And certainly don’t announce publicly.

Probably for all of us, God’s sovereignty can be hard to grasp when we ponder life’s biggest questions. We don’t really care for its implications. It makes us uncomfortable.

I am reading J.C. Ryle’s “Expository Thoughts on Luke” and in it this past week, he wrote about God’s Sovereignty. I want to share what he wrote here with you—

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Let us settle it in our minds that whether we like it or not, the sovereignty of God is a doctrine clearly revealed in the Bible, and a fact clearly to be seen in the world. Upon no other principle can we ever explain why some members of a family are converted and others live and die in sin, or why some quarters of the earth are enlightened by Christianity and others remain buried in heathenism. One account alone can be given of all this. All is ordered by the sovereign hand of God!

Let us pray for humility in respect to this deep teaching. Let us never doubt that at the last day the whole world shall be convinced that He who now does not give an account of all His doings has done all things well!

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God’s sovereignty is woven throughout all of the details of life. The big details of governments and world news down to the tiniest details of our lives.

A humble soul recognizes this and accepts it (although it can be a process to get there…).

The other day at my dad’s birthday party, I had a conversation with my uncle, who has been battling cancer. When I asked how he was doing, the first thing he said to me was how much God had changed him through it and he thanks God for it.

I immediately thought of Romans 8:28— And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

The one thing we know…the one thing we can be certain of…is that if we love God, then He will make sure every trial in our life is not wasted. All things will work together for good if we love Him.

This is not a promise to unbelievers. This is a promise to us—those who are redeemed children of God. And we can trust Him. But we first need to accept our circumstances and lean into His sovereignty.

I know my example above is so paltry and so very minor when compared to some of the trials you, my readers, are going through right at this moment. “Leaning in” may seem impossible for you right now. I encourage you to take the baby steps towards God in this time. If you can’t even pray then, as the father of the child cried out in Mark 9:24, cry out to God and ask Him to help your unbelief. He will answer.

Like I recently told a friend—I may need you to tell me the same thing sometime. I may be going through something and have lost sight of the truth. It happens to most of us at some point.

We need to gently and lovingly remind people of the truth of God’s Word. God has given us each other to encourage, lift up, and pray for one another. A true blessing.

For all of us, may we practice leaning into God’s sovereignty in the small and mundane circumstances of life so that we are more prepared when the bigger trials come.

We live in a fallen, sinful world. Many trials come for many different reasons. We can’t know God’s reasons nor His timing.

What we can know is that He loves us and that where we are right now is no accident, but, rather, sovereignly ordained by Him. And He will use whatever we are going through, whether big or small, for our good and His glory.