Piercing Faithfulness by Emily MacLeod
Earrings... You might be thinking, what does God have to do with your earrings, Emily!?
God is all knowing and all powerful but is also relational and desires a deep, intricate relationship with us. The longer I have walked in relationship with God, the more I desire to hear His voice and ask Him about the simple little things in life.
For Christmas this year, my mom gifted me a set of earrings. I had been eyeing them in my most favorite store for a few months before. These two striking earrings had many small gems encircling the main crystal stone and simply just made me extra happy. In other words, these earrings were precious and valuable to me not only because of their intricate beauty but also because they are a little reminder of my Mama’s unconditional love.
Naturally, I started wearing them all the time and decided to wear them on our family trip to Canada. By the end of our first flight to Canada, I realized one of my earrings and its back was missing. I started frantically searching for the earring beneath my seat, in front of my seat to the side, in my clothes… it was nowhere to be found. I mentioned the lost earring to the stewardess. She and I stayed behind after the plane emptied out to search for this earring, but we didn’t find it. The pilot was anxiously waiting for me giving me glares to exit the plane. Reluctantly, I surrendered my search and left. Walking off the plane, I specifically prayed, “God thank you for bringing that earring back to me.”
“I trust that if you want me to have them, I will.”
“God, if you think that someone else should have it or if there’s a reason why you wanted it left on that plane (although I don’t understand why), I trust that you have the best plan.” The second international plane ride, I still couldn’t shake the idea that I had lost my earrings so I kept looking through all the purses, backpacks, clothes and everything we had, and, still nothing.
Finally, my family and I arrived at my grandparents’ home in Canada. I walked through the front door and immediately felt a rush of peace and comfort looking at my grandmother’s Norwegian fjord painting on the wall and smelling my Papa’s pot roast he had just prepared for us for dinner. I felt my tense body, exhausted from the endless hours of traveling and not used to the cold Canadian weather, instantly relax with the warmth of their home and loving family. I’m home. We sat down altogether for a family dinner reunited after 6 months of not seeing each other. My dad gave thanks for the food and for our safe arrival amidst flight cancellations, delays, and snow storms. After we said, “Amen,” my grandfather bent over and grabbed a small object off his cream carpet and states, “Before we eat, has anyone lost an earring!?” I could not believe my eyes. My grandfather who had NOT travelled with us nor had even known about the distress I was feeling about my loss of beautiful gem stone earring naively asked about an earring I had lost TWO countries before on the first of two flights. And the back of the earring was ON IT. I have racked my brain with all the possibilities as to how it could have gotten there. If it had fallen into my clothes the whole time I don’t know how the earring with back on it ended up perfectly in tact on my grandparent’s floor.
All I could do was give thanks and praise to Jesus because I knew He was the one who heard my simple, what seemed insignificant prayer and brought my earring to me through the most unlikely person and circumstance.
If He cares so much about my small, insignificant earrings, can you imagine how much more He cares about every single area of our lives?! What we care about, He cares about all the more. Trust and know He’s got it all worked out. Sometimes we may expect God to work in a certain way but sometimes all He wants is our trust that He will bring things to us in His creative, most brilliant way. He desires our trust and faith because He who promised is faithful.
I hope you’re encouraged today and I pray God shows you His faithfulness like you have never even experienced before this week!
Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”