Goodness!

A happy thing happened yesterday. My daughter spent her day flying across the country to get to her momma. She has come for a visit. Did I mention that that was a happy thing? Very! Sarah began her journey at three in the morning, driving for hours to LAX. Then she flew into New Orleans, waited a while, and then flew some more. She landed at six-something in the evening. Luggage was slow, and she arrived home just a few minutes before I did. She had lost three hours in the process, but waited up until Jim got home from a youth activity so that she could see him. Then she crashed. One of the ladies at church said that she knew that I would be up all night talking to her. I told her that wasn't gonna happen tonight. I want her fresh tomorrow. And besides, it's not like we have a lot of catching up to do. We almost always talk on the phone twice a day. And so, this morning, my very first thought when I opened my eyes, even before being aware of what day of the week it was, or even that the Lord had given me another day, was: Sarah's here! Woohoo! I was still lying in bed, determined to stay there as long as I could. It was only four-something. I didn't want to wake anyone. I'm an early riser. Have I mentioned that lately? :) And I thought, as I lay there, how incredibly good the Lord is to me. Writing out Sarah's Story several weeks ago made me acutely aware again of that very fact. That God is so very good to me. Psalms 31:19 - "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!" Psalms 34:8 - "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Psalm 118:1 - "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever." Hmm. It's interesting, as I look over these verses that I love. Verses about the goodness of God, lumped together to be read in one fell swoop. This we know-- that God is good. He is good all the time. It is an absolute. And NOTHING can affect who God is. God is good! But God showering His goodness down on us-- now perhaps that is something different. We call that God blessing us. And for that, we see conditions. The common theme for this goodness of God to be known to man as revealed in these verses is this: His goodness to us is not received because of anything that we have done in and of ourselves. It cannot be earned by 'doing'. It is in the trusting of Him! The first two verses clearly tell us that, and if you go back and read all of Psalm 118 you'll see the same admonishment. Trust! Trust in Him! Wow! This is such good stuff. I should have started writing years ago. It seems that in writing, God speaks to me so clearly. God is so good to me and blesses me as He does because I trust Him. That's it! Nothing that I've done to earn it. No service to Him, or gesture to please Him. No sacrifice that I make. No good work. Nothing in my hand. It all goes back to 2 Corinthians 12:9 again. Nothing of me. It's just because I trust Him. All Him. My weakness and brokenness. His amazing strength. Just me, lost in abiding in Him. Trusting completely in Him. Total dependence. Just trusting Him. And oh, how I do! He has taught me to trust Him! This may not help anyone but me today. It is certainly not where I intended to go. But God is so very good to me!