Perfect Timing

Hmmm... What was that game... where you turned the crank that hit the shoe that kicked the bucket, sending a little metal ball rolling down rickety stairs and continuing down a curvy chute, to finally hit a spring that popped a yellow ball through a bathtub drain and onto a diving board, launching a poised plastic diver into a little tub and jarring the cage into a slow descent on your opponent’s little rodent?

Yep – has to be Mousetrap! And if you played Milton Bradley’s classic very many times, you soon discovered that all too often, something went wrong. You forgot to set the spring (a fact your opponent noted in silent glee), or the shoe kicked the bucket with such force that the metal ball jumped the stairs, or the diver somehow listed to the left and failed to jar the cage... and you could only vow through clenched teeth to set up a no-fail run at your next opportunity.

God never plays Mousetrap with His children. That is, He never sets things in motion and hopes they come out all right. He never sits with us beside the game board of life and wonders whether the timing will be right, whether a blessing will come too late to be of benefit, or a trial too early to be handled correctly.

At the age of twenty-eight, missionary Jim Elliot was murdered by the Auca Indians as he tried to bring them the gospel. From all appearances, something had gone terribly wrong. But that was first appearances. Jim’s wife, Elizabeth, returned to take the gospel to the Aucas, and many have since believed. In addition, many thousands, it is said, have gone to the mission fields as a result of Jim’s sacrificial example.

Somehow I think Jim would be pleased, but not shocked. He had already declared, “I am particularly conscious of the Christian’s right to expect events to be exactly timed for good” (Shadow of the Almighty).

That’s a comfort to me. I don’t have to worry about the timing of seemingly random happenings. Jesus was four days late at Lazarus’ tomb – but right on time for what He wanted to do. What He launches – or allows - in my life will be exactly timed for my good and His good purposes, too:

“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 NKJV). It’s not just a cliché – it’s the truth.