~ Revisiting Rosemary’s Fiver

I told the tale of the $5 gift that to me has become closer to a Million, how a friend gave me a five dollar note as a going away present “just in case”. At the time I didn’t think a lot about it but the lessons that have flowed from that gift have developed, refined, and extended my faith ever since.
The immediate lesson at the end of the week was that God is intimately involved in the “God business”. I had worked it out that I had made the arrangements and organized the finances to a “T” but He knew better and covered my arrogance, just enough to let me know that it was Rosemary’s fiver that got me through.
But that was only the first time that I had a lesson from Rosemary’s Fiver. I have the assurance that He will always see us through as a further lesson from this one incident. One of our Gods names is Jehovah Jireh, God our Provider on the day and many times since He has come through, often at the clinch but always just in time.
The scale of His involvement with His children was another lesson that grew out of Rosemary’s Fiver. If He had not arranged for that money to be pre-resourced then every lesson I have since received as a result of Rosemary’s love gift would have gone down the drain because it would have been my cleverness that saved the day. Because we have learnt this lesson a lot of our lives are modified by the issue of “God active in our lives and decisions” Just recently we were looking at bundling a car and caravan purchase, everything looked really positive and I was ready to let the thing ride or fail on a finance application. The thing was that Sue had little peace in her spirit; logically her mind said yes while she had no peace about it, needless to say we left the deal on the table and walked away.
I spoke earlier of arrogance; mine was the arrogance of youth, the sort of “I got it licked” attitude. There is however a “humbler arrogance” the sort that takes for granted that God is in something simple because we think it is a good idea. It very well may be a good idea but God indeed may not be in it. The only way that we can be positive is to involve Him in the project right from the beginning, rather than expect His blessing, after the fact. In a way it is not even arrogance that I am talking about. Often it is just presumption or even just not thinking ahead properly. But if we do not involve God from the beginning and right through the program then why should we expect Him to just go along with us?
Our Father longs to be involved intimately in our lives. When the Policeman in Norseman let me continue it was his pointed comment that if I had not had the letter to the mission board AND that Five Dollars he would have charged me with vagrancy was all it took to point out God’s provision for me.
He longs to give us “good” things and a good life. This comes about when we are involved intimately and invite Him into every aspect of our lives. This is not abrogating decision making to Him that would be making as nothing the intelligence He gave us at birth; rather it is using our intelligence to make decisions that are “God honouring” and a witness to those around us.
He loves us even when we blow it. I did not get grief about thinking I had it all together; the policeman’s comments merely gave me the realization of what God had already done, and a WOW reaction of thanks when I thought about it later. This is the nature of God, lovingly waiting in the wings, for us to remember Him and ask the critical questions that are right for each of us.