trying to see

I was reading this passage in Jonah the other day about the things God “prepared” for Jonah. I found it eye-opening and would love to hear your thoughts.

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened that when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said “It is better for me to die than to live”.

Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!” But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left. (Jonah 4:6-11)

I wonder sometimes what it is the Lord has “prepared” for me solely for the purpose of revealing something about His character to me. I’ve got my eyes open.  It’s so easy to focus in on my own comfort and desires and settle there. This passage is making me reevaluate the last year of my life through the lens of “were any of these things that rocked my comfort prepared for me so I’d understand something deeper?”.

A friend reminded me of this scene from Evan Almighty

I wonder how often that happens. How about you? Any of you seen God lately in the things surrounding you that He’s “prepared”?