Bread On The Waters

Ecclesiastes 11:1 – Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.

I've always thought of today's verse in much the same terms as throwing a bottle with a message in it into the ocean, to see if and where someone would find it. And there's a spiritual analogy to that. Because of the sovereignty and providence of God, whenever we do something, however simple, we never know where the Lord will take it, or what effects our action will have. A case in point is a "simple" e-mail that I wrote on April 15, 1996 to Michael Farris after he had begun PCCWeb (the pre-cursor of PresbyCan) with a grant from the Experimental Fund. I suggested that a good feature to have on the new website would be Presbyterian Prayer Partnership. I wrote:

Although the whole file could be available for viewing or downloading, it should be possible to key in a date function so that "Today's prayer request" could pop up without being manually changed every day. Just thought I'd get your creative juices flowing!

Michael took up the challenge, and by May 3, he had it working. But he thought it looked too bare, and invited me to write some devotionals to go with it. Daily made its public debut two years ago today (though it seems like a lot longer!). Neither of us envisaged it becoming a virtually independent website on its own, with me as its editor. During that time over 630 different devotionals have been posted by over 70 writers. Thanks to the Lord and all who have made Daily such a success!

In the battle of life, God, our great Commander, stands as if atop the hill, gazing down on the skirmishes here below in the valley. With unrestricted vision, He sees the whole scope of life, and how to fit in what we're doing, right now, with His great scheme of things. We see only in part; we know only in part. Resolve today to trust His wisdom, who sees and knows all. Trust that the simple bread you cast on the waters today, will, in His providence, have an effect that you may only realize, in its entirety, later, perhaps when you get to heaven.

Prayer: Lord, help us to trust You with even the details of our life today, knowing that You are able to use the simplest act of obedience to build Your kingdom here on earth. Make us part of Your grand enterprise! In Jesus' name. Amen.

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