The Most Remarkable of Ways

I just finished reading a book by Laura Lapins Willis called “Finding God in a Bag of Groceries.”  The book, recently written, is a collection of short stories which tell of experiences that Ms. Willis had while the director of a food pantry in rural Tennessee.  More than what we might think of in an urban setting, this pantry was a central point in the lives of many of those who lived in the rural Appalachian community.  In addition to food help, the pantry helped with things such as rent, utilities, fuel, and other necessities of life.

During her ten year tenure there, Ms. Willis became a friend, confidant, spiritual guide, and virtual family member to many in the community.  She truly rejoiced with those who rejoice and wept with those who weep.  And during her tenure there, she learned that God shows up in some of the most unexpected places, providing the comfort, peace, and love that is so desperately needed by us all.

Her closing comments in the book are telling.  “There are many stories I didn’t write about, stories without endings and stories that are too complicated to explain.  Isn’t that the way life often is?  Without and ending, complicated, and hard to explain.

But when we listen, through silence and through service, God puts the next step in front of us.  We don’t have to figure out the future.  We don’t’ have to fix anyone’s life, even our own.

Instead, we will pray, listen, give, and receive with beloved hands.  We will look for God in the simple and the surprising and remember that God will come to us, too, in the most remarkable ways.  Even in a bag of groceries.”

Ms. Willis has figured out something that most of us, even us Christians, have yet to discern; that our normal way of living…planning, scheming, doing, finagling, and agonizing…we don’t have to live that way.  We don’t have to have our lives planned out to the nth degree.  We don’t have to see what lies ahead.  We don’t even have to try to fix our own selves (as if we could do that anyway).

We do need to wait on God.  We do need to listen.  We do need to pray.  We do need to be open to the voice of God (in whatever form) as He shepherds, nudges, guides, cajoles, and loves us toward the Eternity He has prepared for us.  And we do need to know that He comes to us, indeed, in some of the most remarkable of ways.