Many years ago, the sight of nature strengthened the faith of a poor seamstress from Stuttgart. She had to vacate her apartment and, not knowing where to go, was overcome with worry. As she walked up an old road, she suddenly saw an empty but beautifully shaped, colorful snail shell at her feet. “Oh,” she thought, “the God who builds little houses for snails can also provide me, His child, with a place to live!” She picked up the snail shell and placed it on her dresser at home. In the evening, she attended Bible study. After the study, an acquaintance came to her and told her the good news: “Helena, I know of a suitable little room for you!”
It was perfect: quiet and sunny, owned by friendly people, and located in the middle of her customer base. The seamstress rented the room the next day and lived happily for many years in this little home that God had given her. But she could never part with the snail shell because it had once reminded her of God’s goodness and wisdom in her time of need, and it would continue to remind her of that.
Jesus also directed people’s attention to nature in order to teach them to trust in God: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow…” (Matthew 6:26, 28). Have you noticed all this and still are worried? Are we not much more than the birds, much more than the lilies, much more than the snails?
God cares for our physical life, which is fleeting and lasts only a short time. But isn’t the soul worth more than the body? If He cares for the lesser, should He not care even more for the greater?
Just as many people are plagued by anxiety and worries in their earthly existence, countless others feel tormented in their souls. Uncertainty torments them. They are faced with emptiness. All attempts to appease their conscience fail; the gaping void resurfaces again and again. The thought of death is terrifying.
Is this the care that God has provided for your soul, which exists eternally? Oh no, and again no! “Your heavenly Father feeds them!” The mistake lies solely in the fact that you have run away from your heavenly Father, as in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. What a miserable life that was! And in the father’s house there was abundance! The truth is, if your soul suffers deprivation, you no longer have a heavenly Father. It is not that the Father sent you away—you left Him of your own accord.
The first woman, Eve, thought it would be good to do what God did not want her to do. She believed that there must be some mysterious wisdom behind it, some hidden pleasure, and that not having it would be a great loss. But God was right. On the day she left Him, that is, the day she disobeyed Him, she was to die. That indeed became the fate of her soul.
A soul that has departed from the Father is dead in sin. Only in Him is preservation or nourishment. Worldly lust kills it. Disobedience to God’s good will kills it, therefore the terrible and hopeless condition of those who have abandoned their connection with the heavenly Father.
“It will never get better in the soul until one comes to the Father.” – The Father gives, according to Isaiah 61:3, “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” There the misery ends; there one becomes youthful again like the singing birds on green, blossoming branches. The terror of death has vanished; blissful assurance dwells in the heart.
The path to this is simple so that even the uneducated and the children can find it. Christ died for everyone. His death is the path to the Father. His death wiped away sins. Once our sins are wiped away, we are immediately back in the Father’s house, in the glorious, great family of God. And day by day, we experience the sweet nourishment of the soul with heavenly gifts. “Your heavenly Father feeds them!”
However, only those who are willing to be cleansed will be cleansed of sin. Those who want to remain in the mire of sin will not experience cleansing. Just as one cannot be washed in the mire, so one cannot be cleansed in sin. Christ came to cleanse us from our sins, and He expects us to allow ourselves to be completely cleansed and rejoice in the experience of such a wonderful deed. Peter speaks of the cleansed person who becomes defiled again, who regains a love for the world, like a pig that rolls in the mud again after being washed (2 Peter 2:22).
But thank God, you will constantly be nourished and constantly remain in union with God unless you run away again on your own accord like Eve. Nowhere else can your soul find nourishment except with God, as Jesus says: “Your heavenly Father feeds them.”
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