When Heaven Interrupts
A dear friend of mine got me a version of this shirt for my birthday this year from an adorable Christian boutique store. I thought it was charming, given that you all know I was running around the backwoods of Ohio chasing eclipse totality that day. But I didn’t realize that this shirt would actually end up being more prophetic than expected!
(In hindsight I should have known that prophetic friends tend to be good at giving prophetic gifts!).
But fast forward to this past Friday night, as I was sitting in my living room after a long lovely day. I had taken my mother up to Frankenmuth for an early little Mother’s Day celebration, and then drove her back down to church for choir until we finally came home late that night.
Tifani had come over, and we sat around the living room chit chatting. I was browsing through news articles that were talking about the solar storm that was hitting our atmosphere with mild interest, not really believing what they were saying about the Aurora Borealis being visible anywhere near me. Suddenly my sister gets a text message from our friends near Washington Twp—their backyard was lit up in hues of purple and red.
I ran out of my front door in excitement, pulled out my phone and snapped a picture. The Aurora was in my backyard (and in yours too, dear reader)! I couldn’t contain my excitement, asked the girls if they wanted to go see it, all we had to do was drive further up north for a better view. Tifani was down, and that’s how at midnight on Friday the “heavenly things” interrupted our earthly things. We drove all the way up to Saginaw Bay that night, going into the wee hours of the morning.
Was it crazy? Yes. Did I have a packed day on Saturday that I needed to be awake for? Yes. Was it worth it?? Absolutely.
Just like Israel had to run out the doors on the day that the Lord showed up to take them out of Egypt and had no time to leaven their bread, so too did I run out the door in my hilarious gardening clogs—no time to lace up any shoes!
I know this is a bit of a humorous story, and not all of you are astronomy fans, but I think there’s a lesson to glean here.
God is a god of discipline and self-control. I genuinely believe that there is a godly blessing that comes from bringing order out of chaos, of being disciplined and steadfast in all that we do. Somewhere along the way, an internal clock joined itself with my spirit. I am always aware of the time. In the back of my head there is always a clock that ticks and reminds me of something else that I need to do, and how much time I need to do it, and when it’s time to move from one activity to the next. It’s been immensely useful in terms of my own productivity, and I think that those around me know that if I tell them I will do something, they trust me to do it and to do it in a timely fashion.
That being said, when we live in a world that’s governed by time and productivity, do we ever take a moment to appreciate the spontaneity that our God operates in? Are we aware of those moments when heaven wants to interrupt, but we’re too busy and distracted that we miss the opportunities?
Reading through the Scriptures, I am painfully aware of the fact that God does not operate according to our own timelines. In fact, it’s caused me a good deal of grief and heartache over the years. I see how the Lord promises Israel that he’ll take them out of Egypt. But Israel waits four hundred years for that to happen…and then in an He instant tells them “GO!”.
I see how Jesus as he walked on this earth never operated on the schedules or timelines of his disciples. Jairus, the synagogue leader, came to him and begged him to heal his daughter who was at death’s door, and Jesus while he’s on his way decides to stop and talk to a single woman in need of ministering.
Time was of the essence—that little girl was at death’s door, and that synagogue leader had a lot of authority and pull in the community. Yet Jesus operated on his own heavenly timing and, interrupts our own earthly urgency, to stop and heal the unclean woman with the issue of blood. In the meantime, that little girl ends up dying. And I can imagine that Jairus was angry and upset with Jesus—”Jesus couldn’t you have hurried up a little?! That woman’s been sick for 12 years, she can wait another day. You were headed in the right direction, but while you allowed yourself to be interrupted my own daughter died!”
Little did Jairus know that with this heavenly interruption, he got something more from Jesus than he ever bargained for. Jairus came to Jesus to ask for a healing…and instead he walks away with a resurrection. The resurrection of his precious daughter, from death to life. Not just a simple healing, but a testimony that pointed to the fact that the man who entered his house wasn’t just any man—it was the Messiah himself. Immanuel.
Why do I write this story? I write it because it’s a reminder to me that God works in the heavenly interruptions, and he wants us to operate our lives in such a way that we are always discerning and hearing his voice and his instruction. Who knows what one spontaneous conversation, one surprise opportunity, what one seemingly random but Holy Spirit-prompted event can lead to something significant and beautiful in our lives. Let’s not miss the heavenly interruptions because we’re too distracted by our earthly things.
In the case of my little midnight excursion, I really saw how God just loves to bring delight to his children. He loves it when we stop and marvel and appreciate him for who he is, just as much as he wants us to stop and do the work he tells us to do in that moment. Whatever the case might be,
“May heavenly things constantly interrupt our earthly things.”
Amen.
