You can feel it in the air! Whether you have a child or not, you know it’s upon us: school supply shopping! Adults and children alike navigate up and down the aisles of the department store of their choice, with lists in their hands, hoping to get the perfect folder color, pencil type, and clear glue sticks. People who never use lists in their lives, plow through the items marking them off with their highlighters. Some people like to wait until the last minute, but some of us head out as soon as the lists are posted in order to beat the crowds.
I can remember back about nine years ago. As an educator, I had shopped for myself and my classroom before, but that particular year I was shopping for my kindergarten student! As I was going through the list checking off pencils, markers, crayons, and more, I began to feel anxious. Was this lunch box good enough? Would her food stay cold? What am I going to send for her to drink? Is she going to sit and listen or get in trouble for talking? What are the best possible ways that I can set her up for success? All of these details raced through my mind. And then God brought to me a familiar passage, Genesis 1:1-2:4.
For many of us we have heard this story of creation. But, as I began the school supply shopping extravaganza, I started looking at creation in a way I hadn’t before. God is a planner. God cares about the details. God could have easily said the word and the entire world and all its parts came into existence at one time. But He didn’t. He took meticulous detail in creating the world in the order necessary for it to survive. He didn’t create animals before land or plants before water and light. He knew that details mattered. And He created a perfect world in which humans could live and survive. And because of His planning, when everything was complete, He rested.
“So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.” Genesis 2:1-3
Jesus speaks on this subject as part of His famous, Sermon on the Mount.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life–whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body, more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? So don’t worry about these things saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.” Matthew 6:25-32
I’ve noticed in my life I have trusted God with the big things: changing jobs, having kids, and surgery, but I sometimes fail to trust Him in the daily details. I should be able to trust Him with the routine and the typical. I should have been able to trust that God was going to take care of my Kindergartener whether she had the Frozen lunch box and the Ticonderoga pencils or not. And He has indeed been faithful, as now she is about to enter 8th grade and we are buying the TI-84 graphing calculator. Why would I question trusting Him in the small stuff of my life when He meticulously created a sustainable world? Why would I worry about the minor details when He has come through in major ways all throughout my lifetime? Don’t sweat the small stuff.
This blog was written by Amy Carrico: Author of Making the Moments Matter Blog
Last Updated on July 22, 2024
Cute idea. I would paint the background in navy, instead of green.