Taking Things for Granted
by Tom Reed
As I write this, we as a city, nation and world are still dealing with the difficulties of the COVID pandemic. Life has changed, activities are altered, and even some ingrained habits have been disrupted. But as life’s activities have dramatically changed, I’ve had time to think about how I have allowed my past busy schedule to get in the way of what should be a God-centered view of life and His creation around me.
Looking back, I see how I have taken so many things for granted that should rightfully be seen as God’s blessings. I get up in the morning, flip a switch and there is light; I turn a valve and there is hot water; I open a door and there is safely-chilled food; I turn a key and the car starts—all of these absolute blessings are so easily ignored as we go through our day. But when life’s little rituals abruptly cease, it gives us pause to stop and think about what is really going on.
I firmly believe that one of the significant aspects of God’s salvation through Jesus is that the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, not only to the personal presence of God and His purposes, but also to God’s creation around us.
How often do we ignore God’s desire to have a personal relationship with us? Every human being shares about 99.9 percent of DNA with one another, but no two share the exact genetic make-up. Recent research has shown that not even identical twins have the exact same genetic sequence. It is the same with our fingerprints. As Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” God desires a personal, unique relationship with each of us; maybe that is why he made every human being unique.
And then there’s water. How we take water for granted! God created water as the key to physical life as we know it. In our solar system, earth is the only known water planet. Earth is just the right distance from the sun to allow water to exist in its liquid form. We take the presence of water for granted until we get thirsty. Any major city in the world will be abandoned in a week without a consistent source of drinking water. And yet, of the available water on the earth, 97 percent is salty while the remaining three percent is fresh; however, two-thirds of the fresh water is frozen at the poles. That doesn’t sound like very much fresh water for the world’s drinking supply, but God’s water cycle takes care of that. He evaporates water from the oceans as water vapor and clouds and turns around and rains that fresh water back onto the earth for our beneficial use.
We even take ice for granted. Ice as the solid form of water floats—most other substances are heavier in their solid form than their liquid form and sink. If ice was heavier than water, fish would have a hard time surviving!
Very simply put, we cannot physically survive without water. But how much attention do we pay to God’s many, many references of water in the Bible?
God uses our physical dependence on water as a metaphor to illustrate our spiritual dependence on Him. For example:
His Spirit: Isaiah 44:3 – “For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing upon your descendants.”
His Word: Isaiah 55: 10,11 - “For as the rain and snow come down from the heavens, and return not there again, but water the earth and make it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed for the sower, and bread for the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth: it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
His guidance: Isaiah 58:11 – “And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.”
His salvation through Jesus: John 4:14 – “But whoever takes a drink of the water I will give him, shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up within him unto eternal life.”
His abundant life: John 7:38 – “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, from his innermost being shall flow springs and rivers of living water.”
Taking things for granted; shutting my eyes to the miracles and blessings of God’s creation around me; putting God in a box so I can be comfortable in a “me-centered” instead of “God-centered” life—all these things go out the window when the Holy Spirit leads you to some mind-bending verses.
The latest word from the astronomy world is that the current estimate of the number of galaxies in the universe is around two trillion. And within each galaxy is an estimated average of 100 billion stars. You do the math. That’s a lot of stars!
But then Psalms 33:6 says: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth.”
Psalms 147:3-4: “He determines and counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names. Great is our Lord and of great power; His understanding is inexhaustible and boundless.”
Psalms 8:3-4: “When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
How do you begin to comprehend a majestic God like this? We see this incredible creation around us, and yet we get busy and fall into the trap of taking the Creator for granted. Maybe, as Brother Lawrence said, we need to “practice the presence of God.”
“This is my Father’s world,
He shines in all that’s fair,
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.”
Author Bio
Tom was born and raised in Oklahoma. He and his wife, Krista, met in the singles department at First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Tom and Krista joined Council Road in 1995, and they have two daughters and four grandchildren. Tom was a geologist with oil and gas firms in Oklahoma City until early retirement. He later served at CRBC as minister to senior adults until full retirement. Tom teaches a connection class at CRBC and serves on the board of directors for a Christ-centered, after-prison care program where he teaches and mentors. Tom and Krista always enjoy opportunities to travel and visit the mountains!