In the mid-1990s, I was fortunate enough to have Sonny Tamkin build me home. He gave it a sturdy cinder block and brick foundation and constructed the living space of 2 x 4s, plywood, and drywall on top of 2 x 12 floor joists and topped it off with custom spruce trusses, sheeting, and shingles. Since then, we’ve been able to do some renovations and expansions but the original house remains sturdy and secure as the structural components continue to do the job for which they were designed.
Thankfully, the housing industry in the valley is beginning to pick up again but few of us stop to ponder where all the supplies originate. While we visited last week about the bricks, where does all the lumber come from that frames our homes and underlies our floors? How about the gypsum in our drywall and the granite or other composites in our countertops? 
As I reflected on these questions recently, it occurred to me that long before I considered building a home, and even years before I was ever born, God was at work preparing for me. He had already planted fir and spruce trees in a forest somewhere that He knew would eventually end up framing my home. He already planted the oaks that would become cabinets in our kitchen to hold our dishes. Somewhere in several forests, He was watering the trees that would provide our shelter and our furniture.
Even earlier, either during Creation or the Flood, He sculpted the hill on which our home sits overlooking the central valley providing stunning views of the Massanutten Mountain. Do you think it’s possible He was thinking of Nancy and me when He planted those trees and fashioned that hill? Do you think He thought of you when He buried the rock that would one day be your cinderblocks or the clay that now encircles your home in its bricks? Do you think He smiled as He thought of you living on the patch of land you now occupy?
Long before we were ever on earth, God was already at work preparing the places and the resources necessary for our existence and enjoyment. We often take such provision for granted but it’s important to stop and ponder it occasionally that we might recognize His goodness, love, and mercy.
In the Bible, God is often credited with providing for His people. In fact, the writers also highlight the fact that He sends rain on the just and unjust and that He grows food for the good as well as the evil.
By the time I read the newspaper each evening, I’ve already enjoyed three good meals, heat or cooling (depending on the season), good health, ample water, and good friendships. In addition, I’ve also enjoyed many other daily blessings that most of us take for granted. We should not. Each of these provisions has been supplied to us by a God who loves and cares for us deeply. Although He is often robbed of the credit He alone deserves for all of this, His people ought to thank and praise Him for it regularly.
It’s also comforting to know that before Jesus went back to the Father, He told His followers He was going to prepare a place for them. He’s been working on that for the past 2,000 years so we can only imagine how glorious and grand it will be!
More importantly, He also promised to return and take His followers to be with Him forever! But that promise is only for those who love and acknowledge Him now. Although God provides equally for believers and non-believers in the current world, He has revealed that His eternal Kingdom will only be inhabited by those who receive the grace and forgiveness His Son died to provide. If we reject Jesus, His Father will not receive us into glory.
Thankfully, the forgiveness Jesus provides is exactly like His rain, equally available to us all. We only have to open our hearts to receive it. Among all the other bountiful gifts God gives, this is His greatest and most wonderful but it is also one that we must choose to accept. If you never have, do so today that you might not only know His abundant blessings and provisions in this life, but most importantly, in the eternal life to come!
Enjoying His provisions, George