Many Christians struggle with the concept of divine providence. We understand that the period of miracles served a specific purpose which has now passed. Through His Word, God continues to testify and confirm His historic saving acts.

While God no longer utilizes supernatural acts performed by human hands, we believe He still works in our world. Verses like Gen. 50:20 and Rom. 8:28 plainly teach us to expect God’s providential care.

As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people. (BSB)

And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. (BSB)

When my grandmother was a child (she was the third of eleven surviving children), her family did not own an automobile. With no other means of transportation, my great-grandmother Marie rode a horse to worship services. Since she couldn’t haul them, she left the children, including my grandmother, with my great-grandfather Ricey, who refused to attend.

In early 1942, the family went West because Great-Grandma Marie had tuberculosis. They initially settled in Garden City, Kansas, where Ricey worked the wheat harvest. Afterward, they went to Colorado to work the peach harvest. Finally, they migrated to Wyoming. Ricey couldn’t find suitable work in Wyoming. Marie’s lungs had cleared, so they returned to Kentucky around the first of October.

The travels west meant the family now had a truck. When they returned to Kentucky, Ricey drove them all to worship. While Marie and the children went inside, Ricey visited with other husbands under the trees. In hindsight, one of the reasons my grandmother was able to attend church as a child was that her mother suffered from tuberculosis. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face, indeed!

Clay Leonard