God has a specific order that things happen in: His order. If the flower bowed after it dried, it would crumble apart. If the flower and seeds came before the fruit, what would the point of the plant be?
I spend a lot of time trying to make sense of His order, but typically only when it comes to me and my life. I’ll excitedly admire His order in Creation and in other people’s lives, but when it comes to what He wants to do in me, I turn into a full-blown investigator and try to figure out His method before He wants me to see it.
A song that has been ministering to me recently delivered this beautiful conviction to my heart this morning. As it told of God’s wonderful generosity, it had the recipe for receiving spelled out in a different way - a deeper way.
And, as I’m sure you could guess, I have been approaching it backward.
My investigation is accomplished through action. I look for things, listen for things, and contemplate things. When I do so, my eyes search about frantically instead of looking where they should be. My hands are typically clenched in distress or frustration, most often because I just can’t seem to figure it out. Certainly, my heart is not open at any point in this “necessary” action; how could it be when I have already decided I know what is needed?
The truth of the matter is that I can’t receive when my heart is closed off, when my hands are not open, and when I am looking elsewhere. The lyrics to this song have it right:
Open your heart, open your hands, open your eyelids.
I cannot see the goodness of God with my own eyes if I do not receive it. I cannot receive what He has for me if my hands are not open. I cannot open my hands if I do not open my heart first. Heart, hands, eyes. That is His order.
And to that, I die to myself, I bow in reverence, and I wait…heart, hands, and eyes as He wishes.