God In the Anonymous

"The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.  Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:  'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has annointed me to preach...He has sent me to proclaim freedom...recovery of sight...release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor'" Luke 4:17-19.

When Jesus stood up in the synagogue to read He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.  These scrolls totaled 24 feet in length, and comprised of 17 different sheets of parchment paper rolled up.  The scroll contained 54 columns of text in total, making it most likely awkward to handle at best.  But as Jesus arose, it is written that 'he found the place where it is written.'  I can just picture our Savior unrolling the words of Isaiah and this verse having the divine Light of God shining down, highlighting God's call upon the life of Jesus.  There is was...written in ink...the call upon His life.  No need to flip through the pages and spread them all out.  No need to clear space to scan over the 17 in order to find the verses He was looking for.  The Divine had bookmarked it with His invisible finger. 

My grandmother journaled for over 62 years as she walked with God.  She put these in binders marking them by the calendar year they chronicled.  She had been called by God to write a book on spiritual journaling and had done 98% of the work creating the book.  At age 99, she lived in an assisted living facility, and had brought random years of her journals to keep in her room.  There was no order to the journals that stacked up on her bookshelf.  I felt that God was calling me to finish her book and have it published so I went to her to discuss this possibility.  With her blessing, she allowed me to go through her journals.  I reached for the top journal and within ten minutes my eyes fell upon an entry she had written:

'I must get back to the business at hand, that is the writing of my book.  God assures me that He will send someone to do the work of publishing, etc... I rest on Him.'  Out of 62 years of journaling, the providence of God had placed that journal in that room, on top of that shelf and allowed it to fall open to the confirmation of the call upon my life.  God used the process of finishing her book to call me to my ministry...writing and sharing His word through application.

I once read that coincidences are nothing more than God acting in the anonymous.  That day God zeroed in on the message He wanted to send me, and lit the way for discovery.  Each of us has a call that God has made on our lives to further His kingdom and fulfil our own spiritual destiny.  The more spiritually focused we are on Him, the better discernment we will be able to make for our callings.