There is an old question that some people like to ponder. If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?
Let’s change that question around and ask it a little more like this: If God directs us to do something, and no one notices, has it done any good?
That’s a question we all have faced at one point or another. God directs us to put a little extra in the offering plate, and later the pastor complains about how little the congregation gives. We spend our Saturday morning slaving to clean the kids’ bathrooms, only to have them trashed before Sunday morning. We let chores go to visit frail parents in Elderly Care, only to find they don’t remember our last three visits.
Does anyone even notice what we’ve done?
Let’s look at David in 1 Chronicles 21:18. The Lord gives him a very unusual command.
“Set up an altar in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
Why not in the midst of a great city? Why not in the king’s own palace? Why, oh, why, did David’s altar have to go in a barn?
The answer is simple. God knew what that barn would one day become. Ornan’s threshing floor was exactly where the Temple would one day be built.
That little bit extra in the offering plate? It might be what buys the tract that brings a future evangelist to salvation. That clean bathroom? It keeps us from sitting in the emergency room and missing God's blessings on Sunday night. That parent that can’t remember our visits? You can be certain her caregivers do, and they will work harder to provide better care.
What about that tree in the forest? When it falls, the air is still pushed out of the way. The baby bird still tumbles to the forest floor. The lives of a hundred living creatures are torn asunder when that tree takes its tumble.
If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?
We can count on it.
Even when we don’t understand God’s purposes, he understands them, because he knows what he’s doing every time.
Copyright © 2014 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.K.6.13.vp