{"id":37433,"date":"2021-05-21T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/when-gods-hand-is-invisible\/"},"modified":"2021-05-21T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T12:32:00","slug":"when-gods-hand-is-invisible","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/when-gods-hand-is-invisible\/","title":{"rendered":"When God\u2019s Hand Is Invisible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sandra McCracken writes in CT magazine:<\/p>\n\n

\n

A few years ago, I sat on the front porch of an old farmhouse in Vermont … with two friends. Above us, at the corner of the house, hung a hummingbird feeder. Tiny winged visitors stopped by intermittently to eavesdrop while sipping nectar from the glass globe.<\/p>\n

Hummingbird wings move at about 50 beats per second. But when they (hover), hummingbirds can appear completely motionless. A miracle of fitness and form, God made these creatures to be a delicate display of paradox: They are still and active at the same time.<\/p>\n

These birds are a moving metaphor for the kind of trust that God outlines in Isaiah 30:15: “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence” (CSB). When I think of God’s grace at play in my own life, my most successful moments happen when I hold steady at the center. Confidence is not found in productivity, but in quietness of heart.<\/p>\n

Our plans are not like his plans. As the hummingbird moves, his wings are invisible to us. So too the work of God is often hard to see in the moment, but nevertheless something remarkable is happening. This is what the Lord says: “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it?” (Isa. 43:19).<\/p>\n

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