I was just looking at the story in Luke's gospel of the woman at Nain—a poor
widow whose only son had just died. Jesus showed up right as the funeral
procession was headed outside the town for the burial.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. (Luke 7:13-14 ESV)
Fortunate that the Lord showed up just then, right? What a lucky break for the dead guy
and his mom, huh?
Not really. Not luck, but providence. Providence means that God is absolutely in control of everything, and works His will through all things. "God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions" (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.11).
It wasn’t luck that brought Jesus to the little town of
Nain. He walked 20 miles from Capernaum to arrive just in time to heal the
heartbreak of a lonely widow by raising her son from the dead.
Christ shows up at just the right time and in just the right
place to work His will and touch broken people with His grace.
- He comes in the heat of the day to a well in Samaria, a place any other Jew would have tried to avoid. The Savior is there, not to draw water, but to draw a sinful woman to salvation. (John 4:1-42)
- He leads His disciples into a ferocious storm on the Sea of Galilee, and their perilous journey was for the sake of a demonized man on the other shore. (Luke 8:28-39 - I wrote about it in Rescue Mission.)
- Only eight days from the cross, Jesus is en route to Jerusalem. But He spends precious hours in the bustling marketplace town of Jericho to intervene in the life of a corrupt little man named Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).
I don’t know where you are in your spiritual journey, or
even what prompted you to read this blog. But I do know that what is at work in your life and mine is not luck, but the provident grace of our compassionate Christ, whose plans for us are exercised with infinite wisdom and limitless power.
