Reflecting on God's Sovereignty

If you have been around Grace Notes long enough, you probably know that my usual blogging schedule is one post a week, on Wednesdays.  You also might know that this week was my first week of the year to not release a post on Wednesday.  Well, I have a couple reasons for this that I’d like to share.  This post is from my heart to yours. :)

  This summer I am taking a 6-week Old Testament college class worth 3 credits, and I am loving it.  Who knew that studying books like Numbers and Chronicles could be so energizing?  There are so many great takeaways that stand out to me, and one of them is the theme of God’s sovereignty.  Starting from Genesis 3:15, we see that God has a plan to send a Redeemer to conquer sin and restore the fallen creation.  Each book to follow points clearly to the need for a Messiah.  The books are miraculously unified, spanning centuries of time, but all working to piece together the bigger picture.  God is in control of every single detail, using them all for His greater purpose.

  The astounding thing is, God didn’t just fulfill His promise to send a Messiah and then let His creation take it from there; He is still at work among us, saving souls, shepherding His people, and ordaining events that bring Him glory.  God is a part of every intricate detail of your life and mine.

  My oldest brother recently moved 2 hours away to begin a new job, and Wednesday was his birthday.  My whole family hadn’t been down to see him yet (he drives up on the weekends), so we decided we’d all make the drive for his birthday and have dinner with him.  I rode in a vehicle with two of my other brothers and my grandma.  Normally I would let the eldest person sit in the passenger seat, but I called shotgun because of carsickness.

  All was going well, until we were about 5 minutes out for our destination.  My brother was driving the speed limit, going through an intersection on a green light like you would expect, and a car pulled out in front of him.  A moment later there was the deafening crunch of metal colliding, and our vehicle came to an immediate halt.  A blast of smoke shot through the car, and for a millisecond I had absolute peace before realizing that I was, in fact, staring at an airbag, and was very much alive on this earth.

  The first words I heard in my daze were “Grace!  Are you okay?  Are you okay?”  Stunned, I choked out, “I’m fine—I’m fine,” but immediately reached to touch my face.  As we collected ourselves, the stench of the deflating airbags combined with the 90-degree temperature hit, causing all four of us to suddenly want to vacate the vehicle as soon as humanly possible.  The passenger door would not open, so I climbed over the driver seat as modestly as I could in my knee-length dress.

  The driver and passenger of the other vehicle were unscathed, as well as my grandma and younger brother.  My face was cut and the seatbelt left some marks, and my brother was bruised and marked on his arms and legs; both his thumb and my nose swelled considerably, but we passed on medical attention.  We are still dealing with some soreness and pain, but overall I am shocked at how well my body handled the blow.

  Despite a jarring experience, immediately I saw blessing after blessing fall into place.  Yes, it was a miserable situation that no one asked for, but it was also an incredible display of God’s absolute sovereignty and goodness.

  What if my brother hadn’t slammed on the breaks and swerved?  We might not have been here… and neither would the passenger of the other vehicle.

  What if my brother was speeding?  We probably would have died.

  What if there had been other cars coming?  We all would have been smashed.

  What if we didn’t have dash cam footage?  The fault would have been assigned unjustly.

  What if my grandma was in the passenger seat?  The airbag probably would have broken her glasses and injured her eyes.

  What if the air bags hadn’t gone off?  We might have been killed, or at least experienced concussions.

  What if my eldest brother wasn’t working his job remotely?  He wouldn’t have been able to transport us back home and be able to stay the rest of the week.

  What if my brother’s car hadn’t been recalled for the airbags to be switched out, when it was discovered several years ago that the airbags might disperse metal shards?  We might would have been seriously injured or killed by metal debris.

  Upon examining the wreck, it was clear that God had blessed us immensely; it could have been incredibly worse.

  To cap things off, by the time we finally got to dinner several hours behind schedule, the restaurant stayed open late just for us, and we made it back home (safely) before midnight.

  Alright, story time’s over. :)

  Originally I was planning on writing up a quick blog post before bed after returning from dinner, but because we were home so late, I chose to wait.  Plus, I wanted to share of God’s goodness in our lives through this situation.

  I don’t say all of this because I think it was the most momentous occasion of my life or it was a huge deal.  Although both cars were totaled, the damage was rather minimal overall, being mostly condensed to the specific area of impact.  I say this because I truly believe with all my heart that God was sovereign and good, and He ordained the tiniest details that protected us from a potentially fatal situation.

  A little side note: an acquaintance of mine was also in a wreck late Wednesday evening, but his car was smashed in just about every place—except the driver’s seat.  When I looked at his situation in light of my own, the truth of God’s sovereignty became overwhelming.  While we may have been near to death, he was at heaven’s door.  Where else can you attribute his safety, apart from the sheer goodness of God?!

  I am reminded of the passage which says that God numbers each hair of our head.  Recently I’ve been experiencing a lot of hair loss due to an extreme vitamin deficiency.  When I look at how much hair I am loosing, I find it remarkable that God is keeping track of it all!  I tried for one day to count the hairs I was losing, and I quickly gave up the tedious work.  Whew!  How thoughtful is my Father in heaven, if He keeps a perfect record of my lost hairs?

  Then I think, if God keeps track of my hair, how much more does He keep track of my life?  He is beside me every second of the day.  I am convinced that God protects our lives in numerous ways that we will never know of until we reach heaven; this car wreck was just an apparent display of His protection.  He is sovereign over all.  We are the most blessed in the world to be able to call Christ ours! 

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” –Matthew 10:30