It Just So Happened

# 108 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 9:3-6 “Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said to his son Saul, "Please, take one of the servants with you, and arise, go and look for the donkeys." 4 So he passed through the mountains of Ephraim and through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they were not there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find them. 5 When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, "Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us." 6 And he said to him, "Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there; perhaps he can show us the way that we should go." (1 Sam 9:3-6) The “land of Zuph,” was Samuel's stomping grounds, please note how God got their paths to cross at just the right time. It just so happened that Kish's donkeys decide to take off, and it just so happened that Saul and the servant search high and low for the donkey's to no avail. And it just so happened that they ended their search in Samuel's neck of the woods. And it just so happened that this meeting occurred on a day when Samuel was carrying out a sacrifice to the Lord. What luck huh? This whole episode and others like it, where God uses animals to assist Him in carrying out His business should be well noted by us even today. God's timing in the affairs of men is never thwarted. His will on earth is always carried out as spoken in heaven. This is called God's Providence. His Providence is beautifully illustrated in Rev 4:6,7 by the four living creatures who are in the midst of and around His throne. They are “full of eyes front and back” and they are God's agents, who see all that needs to be seen, and dispatch whatever is needed in God's creation to carry out His will according to His perfect timing. Nothing “just so happens,” when it comes to the unfolding of God's will on earth. May this knowledge and illustration as found in this account of Saul and the donkey's serve as a reminder to us today, and may it strengthen our faith, during those times of waiting and frustrating delays in our own lives.