This weekend is an important anniversary for me…
Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and it was on a hot Saturday afternoon in July many years ago that I went to the Chesapeake Bay with my sister, Kathy… and you know the story… dove into shallow water, and broke my neck. And so, this Saturday, I will pull out my mother’s crab cake recipe, and (how can I put this), we’ll celebrate 44 years since my diving accident with a delicious crab cake dinner. I think I told you already that it was a crab that saved my life that day – I was floating face-down in the water, and Kathy had her back turned to me; she was waist-deep in water near the shoreline and she didn’t even know I was in trouble. Just as she started to leave the water to walk up onto the beach, a crab bit her toe and, of course, it startled her enough to cause her to turn around in the water and yell to me to watch out for the crabs. And that was when she spotted something that alarmed her…
Now, I’ve never made much of this before, and I don't think I've shared it very often, but you see, just the night before I had colored my hair Nice and Easy Midnight Summer blonde. I kind of overdid it that Friday night with that bottle of peroxide.… and my hair (when I woke up Saturday morning and looked in the mirror), my hair was really, really blonde. Yikes, almost white! I was not happy and was almost embarrassed to go to the beach. But little did I know… never would I have imagined how our sovereign God would use even a bottle of Nice and Easy hair color. Because when Kathy turned to call to me, immediately she was able to spot me because she saw that white hair floating on the surface of the water. Later we discussed it… had I not colored my hair, my mousy shade of dirty blonde would have easily blended in with the murky water… and Kathy told me much later, “Joni, I don’t think I would have seen you. It was that white hair that grabbed my attention.”
So there you have it. This is why I'm celebrating this Saturday. Ken and I and my family will be celebrating the wonderful complexities of the sovereignty of God. He is in control of not only the big things in our world, but his overarching decrees embrace every tiny detail of our lives. Zechariah 4:10 says, “Who despises the day of small things?” Well, I tell you what, not me! I'm convinced of the wonderfully comforting truth that all things, everything – all the small things -- fit because our wise and all-powerful God is in charge of even the tiniest of details. And this is why I can thank Him. Ephesians 5:20 tells me that I should always be giving “… thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I like that part “for everything.” Yes, for His protection and provision, yes for having my sister close by to rescue me, yes for a crab that bit her toe, but also, yes that He prompted me the night before to color my hair – God used an innocuous, silly thing like a bottle of peroxide that Saturday, and I thank Him for it.
I hope you’ll join me and my husband this weekend in celebrating the sovereignty of God in your life. Don’t despise the day of small things. Give thanks for all things, everything… even the terribly painful things. Because God is sovereign; God is in control. Hey, one more thing: you can join the celebration by posting a comment on my blog today – and you know what, I’m going to put up my mother’s crab cake recipe, how about that, too. I'll be looking forward to hearing from you today on Joni’s Corner at joniandfriends.org. And give thanks to the Lord for great and small things!
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