In a movie I watched recently, the housekeeper had promised the family to make a mushroom stew for their dinner. She was starting out to the woods to pick fresh mushrooms when a young woman staying with the family grabbed her basket and walked off with it, saying, I’d love to pick mushrooms! I’ve never done it, but it must be fun, and how hard could it be?”

The housekeeper knew that there were poisonous as well as good mushrooms in the woods, but she did not protest, and allowed the young woman to take her basket to gather the mushrooms.

The story meandered on with other characters until near the end as the family gathered for dinner to enjoy the mushroom stew. When the visitor announced that she had picked the mushrooms, everyone except the housekeeper dropped his or her spoon. “You let her pick the mushrooms?” demanded the host.
“Oh, do you really think I would use those for the stew?” answered the housekeeper. “I went to the market and bought fresh ones. They’re quite good this time of year”. Disaster was averted and everyone agreed that the stew delicious. The housekeeper’s discretion in allowing the young visitor to pick the mushrooms unattended prevented an awkward encounter with the family’s guest.

I wonder how many times our God has gone before or around us to protect us from our own selves: “The Lord will keep you from all harm- He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore “ (Psalm 121: 7-8).

Sometimes our lives become so “linear”, that is, calendar connected, that our relationship with a timeless eternal God becomes blurred, indistinct; and we turn away. The Bible shows us that the limits we live, with while known our God, are not his limits for us: “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

The housekeeper knew the guest’s mind and the state of the mushrooms in the woods, the needs of the family, and her own desire to serve the stew. She knew, also, that she could meet both needs and desires by her non-confrontational action.

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). In the same sermon Jesus tells us: “Everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7)

Frustrations mount in our world but the Lord holds out his peaceful hand to each of us.

Love in Him, Prue

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