Easter 5a - conclusion

NPR interviewed a farmer in Louisiana whose entire farm is now under water. “It’s a 12,000 acre lake” is how he described it. He was hoping for a bumper crop and after the spring planting told his wife that barring some unforeseen natural disaster this was the year they had been waiting for to set their financial house in order. The commentator asked if he had knocked on wood and he laughed. Then he said, “I’m pretty much of a micro manager when it comes to farming but this is out of my control. Times like this you just have to trust in a benevolent God who loves you.” Contrast that with the Save the Date folks who are counting on the rapture to whisk them away tomorrow while the vast majority of humans, including their own family members are left to fend for themselves while the world is destroyed after which they’ll spend eternity burning in hell. We’ll know by midnight tomorrow if they are right but I can’t help but believe it’s the farmer who is more faithful to the God I know in Jesus. “My times are in your hands” is how David sang it in Psalm 31. Stephen lived it even as he was being murdered, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit and don’t hold my death against them.” Peter’s people created by God’s mercy lived it in the marvelous light of “the Lord is good.” And it is only because our times are in the hands of a benevolent God who loves us that hearts remain untroubled even when your entire corn crop is under water.