God in Control

THINK OF THE BABIES January, 1990 The green hills that flanked the freeway sped by as we drove our way to Martinez.  Stuart, a member of the church Don pastored, was driving. He was so kind in offering to take me there.  The drive seemed to take forever. Now and then, I would see cows sluggishly moving about in the sun or horses resting under the shade of a tree along the freeway. Clumps of spreading trees sometimes appeared, breaking the green spread of the hills.  I stared out the window while talking to Stuart. I think he knew I needed to take long pauses during our conversation.  The reality of my husband being in jail hadn’t quite sunk in. I’ve never visited anyone in jail. I felt strange. It had been several days since Don surrendered to the Martinez county jail; the last time Kristy, Matthew, and I saw him as he began his 25-day sentence. It seemed so unreal.  I wanted the children to see their Dad go through this painful...

HER QUIET STRENGTH I was in second grade. For our homework, our teacher made us collect pictures of the different occupations – nurse, teacher, postman, police officer, fireman. I was able to find pictures of everything but that of a police officer.  I clipped them from magazines we had at home. However, I could not find one of a police officer. I was in a panic. I couldn’t give an incomplete homework to my teacher. I cried as I asked my mother what I would do.  She offered to draw a picture of a police officer. I thought that was an excellent solution. After dinner and she had done her chores, she sat down at the table and started drawing. It was taking her so long, so I decided to go to bed.  When I got up the following morning, my mother’s drawing was among the rest of the pictures I had clipped. It looked like a very stiff police officer and was not a very good picture. I could see where there were many erasures and redrawing of lines. I could only h...

When I read the Old Testament stories of God’s dealings with the Israelites and New Testament Gospel accounts of God’s deeds, my usual takeaway is that God has everything in control. Don used to have a bumper sticker that said, “The Lord knows the hairs in your head including your wig.” Let’s take the story of David. The Bible records that David picked up 5 stones for His anti-Goliath weapon. (I Samuel 17:40).  Why bother about this little detail? Or, in the New Testament, John 21:10 tells how 7 disciples went back to fishing. One night when they couldn’t catch anything, Jesus appeared to them, told them to cast their nets. They caught 153 large fish. Of what consequence is the number of fish they caught?  About 10 years ago, Don pastored a little church across the Bay about 25 miles from our home in San Francisco. As we got ready for church, Don cut himself badly while shaving. He started to bleed. He was taking a blood thinner at the time and we knew that it wo...