God’s providence is often unnoticed, it often developed in insignificant incidents, and sometimes it is even unwanted.   Yet we marvel at how our “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.”

God’s name may be rare in the books of Ruth and Esther, yet His hand is as present as in any other book.  Upon the death of her sons, Naomi told her daughters in law “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house.  May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt kindly with the dead and with me” (Ruth 1:8).  It seemed to return to family was the only option.  Yet, sacrificial and dedicated love (Ruth 1:16-17) resulted in a sacrificing and dedicated kinsmen redeemer (Ruth 3:12).  While His hand was unseen to man, God was working behind the scenes to bring about the birth of a great king (Ruth 4:17) and the King of Kings (Luke 3:23 & 32).  God made it work.

Matthew’s Gospel records God unseen hand manifesting itself in fulfilled Messianic prophecies.  The virgin birth promised in Isaiah 7:14 is fulfilled in Matthew 1:22-23).  The promise of the birth in Bethlehem of the Great Shepherd who will redeem the remnant of God’s people in Micah 5:2 is fulfilled in Matthew 2:5-6.  God made it work. 

Our lives are filled with random visits of obligation, surprise, joy, pain, suffering, rejoicing, learning, forgetting, hopelessness, revival, birth, death, separation, and restoration.  In all these things we feel helpless, lost, and at the mercy of time, chance, and circumstance.

But know this: “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).  Keep in mind that “if God be for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).  God will make it work.