He Ruleth in All His Creation
Editor’s Note: This is a story I wish I had written. Not only is it touching but it is a powerful reminder of what our Israel nations could be if we would only align ourselves with God Almighty. In his analogy of the little girl’s dilemma to the mammoth problems facing our nations today, Mr. Mott demonstrates how God is in control of every detail, no matter how minute.
In the seventeenth century the English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton, as he sat under an apple tree, observed the falling of an apple. Some say it hit him on the head! From this small and unimportant incident he worked out the law of gravity which operates throughout the universe. This discovery and the understanding of how the law works is the basis of much scientific achievement right up to our modern day. The force that controlled the insignificant fall of the apple also controls the orbits of the planets and the rolling of the worlds.
We might draw the correct conclusion that even the smallest evidence which we ourselves observe of God’s control of events, and of spiritual Power over material resistance, reveals a Law, a Divine Law, which controls world-wide trends and the rise and fall of empires. We then see that small experiences of personal salvation spring from the same Divine Source as does the more earth shaking redemption of nations. These all spring from the Higher Intelligence which rules over all. Each indication, small though it may be, of God’s omnipotence is important. It is a falling apple indicating a Divine Power far above the human. And so it is that by relatively unimportant events we come to know the limitless Power of the omnipresent, omnipotent God of Israel.
The following little true story illustrates and proves to the receptive thought the great fact of God’s control of His universe right down to the smallest detail. It proves that God is on the field, although He seems invisible, enforcing His Law of love and justice.
A few years after the First World War a little Christian Widow supported her two young daughters, one an invalid in a wheel-chair. The other little girl was a pupil in a nearby Christian Sunday School. Their life was not easy, and this child was forced by events to learn how to reach out to God in times of trouble. In small ways she proved that even in the face of contrary evidence, still the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Homes at that time were heated by wood and coal burning furnaces, and the little mother had arranged for a load of mill ends to be delivered for firewood, So, as pre-arranged, on a crisp autumn day along the back lane came a big truck load of wood cut in stove lengths. The little Sunday School girl went out to the lane. She explained to the truck driver that they were just a woman and two little girls alone, and she asked him if he would just toss the wood over the back fence to make it easier for them.
“No, I won’t throw it over the fence,” said the surly driver. “I’ll throw it in the lane. You can throw it over the back fence into the yard yourselves.” It was a problem, but the little Christian Sunday School girl had learned what to do in time of trouble. She reached out to her loving Father in heaven. She knew that God ruleth in all His creation. She knew and affirmed that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Her eye was single, fixed on her loving, protecting God, ever near.
The driver defiantly unloaded the wood in the lane. Then he glanced at the time — but his wrist watch was gone from his wrist. “It must be under the pile of wood,” said the little Christian girl. Angrily the driver started to move the wood, looking for his watch. A stick at a time he threw it over the fence, into the back yard. When he finally came to the last armful, there lay his watch! The little girl in her prayer to God had it right — power does indeed belong to God and not to mortal man. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He ruleth throughout His creation. His rule is universal, covering and including small and great.
All too often we humans imagine ourselves to be in charge of events — we have not yet attained the depth of understanding, God’s Truth, grasped so easily by the little Sunday School girl, with signs following. Her eye was single, fixed on God, not on the human problem. It makes us consider our own attitudes toward God and our fellow men. Especially when we find to our consternation that we cannot cope with the mammoth problems of our times and the seemingly overpowering, dominating forces of evil.
Let us then turn back to the omnipotent God of Israel and to the Christ Truth, just as the little girl did so naturally and effectively. We can turn with confidence to the Power that governs the stars is their courses, and also enforces the lawful delivery of a load of fire wood.
