Daily Lesson for July 31, 2014

Today's lesson comes from Psalm 71 verse 15:

"My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge."

In the fall of 2000 I was contemplating going to seminary and gathering up my transcripts, letters of reference, and application fees for submission. The previous summer I had met some friends from the Midwest who had ministers from a certain Midwest seminary and because of them that seminary was at the top of my list.

As I was planning to make application, my great-aunt Opal suggested I go and visit a minister named Ted Dotts who had been a Methodist minister but was now serving in part-time capacity as an associate at her Baptist church. I called him and we met for lunch in the cafeteria of Covenant Hospital, where he was also on staff as a chaplain and ethicist.

As we talked I mentioned to him the seminary I was planning to go to and asked if he knew anything about it.  He said he had not and as he said it I remember there being  a subtlety in his face which I read to be a slight puzzlement or hesitancy.  More than the fact that he said he did not know of the school, it was that peculiar look in his face that unsettled me and told me to look at some other schools.  If it had not been for that peculiar look I would not have applied to the school I ended up going to, and therefore would not have met my wife Irie, and we would not have the beautiful and life-giving children we have now.  All because of that slight and peculiar look. (That's right kids, you owe your lives to the subtleness of Ted Dotts's eyebrow.)

They say history turns on small hinges; and so too do our lives.  How slight are movements of the Maestro's hands directing us along the path.  And how vast are they also - their numbers are as great and unknown as the stars in the sky.

The ancients had a word for this subtly divine orchestration - Providence. Today I thank the LORD for Providence.