He Makes a Way

Going to an arcade while on vacation is something I’ve enjoyed since I was a young girl. My father introduced me to pinball when I was small enough to need a stool to reach the pull that releases a ball, and I could barely reach the buttons on either side. The ones that cause the levers to come up and save the ball and keep it in play. Matter of fact, I remember he would sometimes have to pull the spring back for me because I wasn’t strong enough, and he would manage the side buttons because I wasn’t fast enough. But once that ball was loosed, and it started bouncing and darting and shooting across the landscape of whatever themed machine we had found, there was nothing so wonderfully mesmerizing as the sights and sounds created by that imminently doomed metal ball.

As I grew older, of course, I learned to take on the challenge of keeping that ball in motion and developing strategy based on a particular machine and its unique design. Even today, winning an extra game or even an extra ball is still worthy of high fives and a little victory two-step. Now, lest you think I spend all my free time playing arcade games, let me reassure you that it’s a rare treat, reserved for vacations and the birthdays of young children.

A pinball is at the mercy of gravity and the traps designed to shorten its stay in the game. It takes a clever player with good hand-eye coordination to keep a ball in play for a long period of time; but, eventually, the ball “dies.”

I trust that you’ve never felt like a pinball, bounced here and there and rushing to an inevitable end. Maybe that feeling happens to all of us at some point or another along the way, when we feel at the mercy of things beyond our control. A sure remedy is time in the presence of our heavenly Father. Remembering He is God, and He is good. He is sovereign, and there is no thing happening in our world today that is beyond His purview. There is no circumstance unfolding in your life that is beyond His authority.

I need to know that I am hidden in Christ. I need to know that I can shelter under the wings of the Most Hight. I need to know that He can transform me into the image He planned for me, so that I resemble the One who was willing to lay down His life. I need to know that He can make a way where there is no way that I can see.

I encourage you to read again the first chapter of the book of Ephesians. Make a list of the things He has done for those who believe, and ponder how your living corresponds. Make another list of the attributes and characteristics of God, and write a psalm of praise to Him who is above all and who fills all in all.

Let us remember: all His promises are true, and He dispenses to His children out of the riches of His glory and grace.

Until next week, fellow so-journer, follow the way of His extravagant love and walk humbly in the power of His might.