THE GOODNESS OF GOD
March 9, 2021 5:52 PM
DANA R
Back in 2017 I took a class offered by a Christian women’s organization. The only thing that I remember about that class was a conversation I had with one woman in the group, who said “God is good or at least that is what the Bible says”. What struck me about her comment was that while she had head knowledge of the goodness of God, she had no heart knowledge of it.
I just wanted to cry when I heard that because I felt that she had truly not yet experienced the Lord’s goodness and loving-kindness. It’s something you just don’t forget because it’s so life changing. In fact, every time I experience His goodness, it just brings me to tears. This next testimony is a very recent example of when I experienced the goodness of God. But before I tell you about it, I need to backtrack a bit, so that it will make sense.
It all started when I moved from Ohio to Missouri into a rental house, sight unseen. That’s right – I leased it over the internet. So on moving day I was giddy with excitement to finally see my new home. When I turned the corner, there it was in all its glory on a hill with one of the steepest driveways I had ever seen. As I made the turn onto the driveway, the undercarriage of my car scraped the concrete almost halfway up the driveway.
A few days later on my walk around the block, I ran into the builder, who built all the houses in my subdivision. He asked me which house I lived in and I pointed at it. “Oh, the one with the defective driveway” he said. “Yes, that’s the one” I replied.
So out of sheer necessity I had to develop what I like to call the “drunk man’s swerve” in order to make it down the driveway without tearing up my car. This maneuver entailed a hard swerve to right, then a hard swerve to left, then exiting sideways at the bottom. Yes, I’m pretty sure the neighbors must have thought that I had a drinking problem when they first saw that little maneuver.
Okay so that is the backstory for what happened next. Three weeks ago I went to take my trash to the curb and unknowingly stepped on a patch of black ice. Suddenly my feet flew out from underneath me and I hit the driveway hard, landing flat on my back. After hobbling back to my house on the grass for traction, I realized that I wasn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future. The “drunk man’s swerve” was simply not going to work on black ice. Now this was a huge dilemma for me since I had a cat with an abscessed tooth that needed veterinary care.
A few days later a huge snowstorm hit, leaving 4 inches of snow on the ground overnight. The next morning I checked the weather and it was 11 degrees BELOW zero, which was unheard of in my small southern town. Then I checked my email and saw a message from the power company. It said that due to the unprecedented cold weather, they had reached maximum capacity and they would start controlled power outages immediately. Wait – what? Were they really going to deliberately cut power to a neighborhood of all electric houses in subzero temperatures? Surely not, I thought. Ten minutes later the power went out. Whoa!
So not only black ice, but black outs! Lucky for me they cut the power after I had my morning coffee, so I was sufficiently caffeinated to formulate a plan. I decided to set up my tent in the living room since a small space is easier to heat than a whole house. My thought was to hang out in there with my two cats. The body temperatures of cats run hotter than humans, so they would be my heat source. Unconventional maybe, but who cares about convention in a black out. Then I started covering my windows with cardboard, which helped immensely. Cardboard is an amazing insulator by the way. Then the three of us hunkered down in the tent.
Fortunately, the power came back on three hours later. But when I looked out the window, even more snow had fallen. Now we were up to maybe eight inches. How on earth would I ever get my poor kitty to the vet?
The next day I was absolutely determined to shovel the driveway. But in the first five minutes, I almost fell three times and that was on the flattest part of the driveway at the very top. Okay, so maybe I needed to reassess my options. So back inside I went.
Throughout the day I kept hoping and praying that my lawn guy, Carl (not his real name), would stop by to help me out. Once he showed up at my door unexpectedly wanting to shovel my driveway when it had ½ inch of snow on it. But now that I had eight inches of snow on black ice, he was nowhere to be found.
Later in the day, I looked out the window and saw the most amazing sight – my neighbor was shoveling my driveway! Now the remarkable thing about this is that Perry (not his real name) was upset with me over a misunderstanding we had a few months prior. So to see him put aside his feelings and reach out to help me when I needed help the most, was incredibly touching. I just knew that the Lord had softened his heart towards me.
I ran outside and thanked him profusely. While we were talking, he took a step or two and down he went! I said that it was just too dangerous for him to continue, but he insisted that it would be fine. So I went back inside.
A few minutes later I looked out again. This time Perry was on his knees shoveling my driveway. I couldn’t believe it. That’s right the man was ON HIS KNEES shoveling my driveway. Immediately I burst into tears, completely overwhelmed by the goodness of God.
Scriptures
ROMANS 2:4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
PSALM 100:5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
JAMES 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
PSALM 145:6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness. 7They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness.
PSALM 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.
ISAIAH 63:7 I will mention the loving kindnesses of the LORD And the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, According to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.
