My daughter-in-law, Amy, had surgery last Thursday, and because of the nature of the surgery, the Army authorized emergency leave for my son, Toby, who flew home from Korea. Then Amy’s mom, Joanne, and I drove out from Ohio to help Toby with the three little ones – ages 4, 5, and 6. They live in Kansas.
The surgery went well, and Amy is now recovering at home. She can’t do any lifting and she tires incredibly easily, but she is doing remarkably well. Well, two nights ago the five year old wanted her daddy to sleep with her, so I bunked with Amy.
Amy was telling me that Fort Riley has had a lot of break-ins lately. Then she asked me if Toby locked the van. I didn’t know. So she said, “I’m going to make sure the van’s locked.” Amy slipped down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the front door to make sure their van was locked.
A minute later, her cell phone rang. Scrambling to the other side of the bed, I answered her phone. It was Toby. “Mom, are you and Amy in bed? Cause I heard the front door open.” But he was thinking, Someone’s breaking into the house. Joanne’s a goner.
Now, Joanne was downstairs on the sofa. In a light sleep, she awakened and saw someone moving around in the dark. She was thinking, Oh, my, I’d better lie real still. Someone’s creeping around the house. We must have an intruder.
I told Toby that it was Amy, double checking to make sure the van was locked. Amy re-entered the house and started back up the stairs. Passing Kyndall’s room, she heard Toby talking to someone. Then she heard me talking as she neared her room. She quickly came to the conclusion that Toby and I were talking to each other on the phone and wondered why. She entered her bedroom just as I hung up her cell phone.
The next day when we were recounting the imagined fright from the night before, we all had a good laugh. Amy said, “Boy, it’s a good thing that Toby didn’t go for his gun. I would have been a goner.”
That situation reminds me of God’s omniscience. He always knows what’s going on in and around us, even when we don’t, so we can place our complete trust in Him. Amy and I knew what was happening. We both understood what was going on. Toby and Joanne weren’t aware of our conversation, so their knowledge was limited. Toby heard the front door creak open and Joanne saw the shadows of someone moving in the dark. They had nothing to fear; nothing to worry about. But they didn’t know that.
So often, we as Christians don’t see what God is doing behind the scenes and we don’t know what’s going on. We don’t have all the facts or all the information we’d like to have pertaining to our situations. But God does. He knows. And He’s got everything under control. That’s why the Bible says “fear not” over and over again. It’s recorded 63 times.