In the Kerith Ravine

I like those ravens. Maybe they do have a sinister side (blame that partly on Edgar Allan Poe), but as we heard Sunday, their supply division has a commendable reputation built by flying twice-daily meat-and-bread missions to the prophet Elijah.

The meat I can understand. Maybe they overpowered a flock of quail or something. But where did they get the bread? Was it day-old leftovers thrown out the back door of the nearest Giant Eagle (ooh, would the ravens have the courage to raid a store by that name)? Did manna rain down once again as in the days of Moses? Or was there somewhere a young Israelite wife pulling her hair out over the frequent disappearance of her delicious barley loaves?

We just don’t know. The details are missing. What we do know is why it all happened, and kept happening, day after day after day.

God’s orders. He ordered Elijah to the brook and He ordered the ravens to feed him there. Just like He ordered the Light to appear and the earth to take shape out of chaos. Just like He ordered Noah to build an ark and Moses to stretch his hand out over the Red Sea.

Now, you and I are not Old Testament heroes. There’s not a Moses or Elijah among us, and no FACer is likely to be called on to save our country (although it could happen). Still, the lessons in the Bible are there for our benefit, and what we learn about God in the Big Picture is still true in our Little Picture. And we’ve all got our chaos and Red Seas and Kerith Ravines.

So why should we think He is done ordering things for His children? That when good meets evil and we are caught in the crossfire, we’re on our own? That when we get in a predicament for doing what we understood Him to want, we’re dead meat (and the ravens are circling, not supplying)? That when life takes an unexpected turn, He’s somehow racing to adjust, just as we are?

I am still singing and celebrating the song we sang together Sunday morning – Twila Paris’ “God is in Control”: God is in control, We believe that His children will not be forsaken; God is in control, We will choose to remember and never be shaken…”

By about the third day in the Kerith Ravine, that’s the song Elijah was probably singing. And God would love to hear us joining in from our own little personal ravines and famines and hiding places. God’s got orders for our situation. We’re not forsaken! We won’t be shaken! God is in control!!