God is kind to the Israelites as he frees them from slavery, sparing their first-born sons, and parting a massive body of water so they could go through – young, old, men, women and children. Not one is lost. (Exodus 1- 15).
God is kind to his people as he makes bitter water sweet so they do not die of thirst in the desert. He rains manna from heaven every day, which “tasted like wafers made from honey”, and brings quail in the evenings so they would not die of hunger. He is kind as he brings water from a rock. He is kind as he gives the people victory against the invading Amalekites. (Exodus 16 and 17).
He is kind as he meets with Moses, face to face, on Mount Sinai – protecting the Israelites from his glory, which could kill them – but helping his people to put their trust in the leader chosen for them by witnessing the dark cloud, thunder and lightening, trembling mountain, the trumpet blasts growing louder and louder … and Moses coming out of the cloud unscathed. (Exodus 19).
God is Kind – a post by @aladyinfrance
In the three months it took for the Israelites to cross the Red Sea and arrive in the desert at the foot of Mount Sinai, God showed nothing but goodness and loving kindness.
I’ve been thinking of God’s kindness lately. I’ve mentioned our plans to refinance a toxic loan and build a second story so that each kid will have his own room. We had one good loan at 3.5% and one toxic loan at 4.5% (where we pay only interest and none of the capital). We were excited that, with the low interest rates, we were able to get 2.0% to refinance with another bank, along with a separate loan for the construction at 2.5%. We started the process in September.
But because of a bank paper that would not come – an official paper from our old bank stating that our initial loan for the apartment was indeed transferred over to our current property – we were unable to transfer the loans and unable to start the work.
The new bank called us often to see where we stood. Our construction company began to give up on us as months went by and we had no news. Finally (I mentioned this in an earlier post), just when we were promised the paper, our banker collapsed at work and was hospitalised with no promise of returning. She was our only support so we were back at square one.
In that time, because of the delay, the new bank dropped its offer to 1.9%. Great! Except we still had no paper so we couldn’t take advantage of it. And then, just as the news announced that the interest rates were about to go up, I decided to look through every single paper we owned to see if I could find something that would suffice.
I was successful! And we got another appointment with the new bank, where we were given an even lower rate of 1.6% for our house loan, and 2.2% for the construction. All that waiting had paid off because we got an offer that was even better! I had been so mad at God because I felt forgotten. I felt like he wasn’t listening, and meanwhile he was just saying, “Wait. Trust me. I have something better in mind.”
I know about the 40 days Moses spent on Mount Sinai, where he was given The Ten Commandments. I know about the people growing tired of waiting, and throwing their jewellery into the fire to make a golden calf so they could fall down and worship. (Stoopid people).
But what I hadn’t realised was that Aaron and his two sons had gotten a lot closer to God than I initially thought. And so had SEVENTY of the elders of Israel.
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank. (Exodus 24:9-11)
They ATE and DRANK with God! They saw him! So what excuse, then, did they have when Moses was up in the mountain, communing with God, and they were down building an idol to worship? Seventy-three religious leaders and they couldn’t influence the people to stay faithful?
When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Exodus 32:19-24)
“As for ‘this fellow Moses …”
“… and out came this calf!”
Really? REALLY?
Our appointment with the bank, and all its good news, was on Thursday. All I kept thinking that day was, “God, you are so kind. You are so KIND to us.” My heart melted over his goodness towards us, his loving-kindness, even when I hadn’t trusted him.
On Friday – the very next day – was our appointment with the sous-préfecture, which is like a local consulate. I had grown tired of having to get residency cards and decided to shoot for French citizenship so I would have dual nationality. I prepared the papers in triplicate – the originals plus two photocopies. I put each in a clear folder, labeled “originals” “copie 1” “copie 2”. I wasn’t going to miss a thing!
It had taken some time, but I finally amassed the birth certificates for my three kids, myself, my husband, my mom and dad, our marriage. I got all the overseas docs officially translated. We collected our last 3 tax statements, along with all the documents proving continual residency in France, and communal life. We were ready!
But I didn’t get an apostille on my birth certificate – that raised, reflective, stamp of authentication that can only be attained through the Secretary of State from where you were born (and not from the place where you get your birth certificate). I didn’t get the apostille because the extensive, thorough website detailing everything I would need for naturalisation DID NOT SAY TO GET ONE.
Can you sense my frustration? I was – am – frustrated. Since all the birth certificates have to be dated within 3 months, we’re going to have to order them all again so that we have correctly dated copies by the time the apostille arrives in the mail. My friendliness evaporated, and it was a hard, angry face that I presented to the government worker. My diplomatic husband said, “It would be great if you could specify on the website that an apostille is needed for the applicant’s birth certificate.”
When we got outside, rejected papers in hand (in triplicate), all I could do was to swear in my head, repeatedly. @#$%&! @#$%&! @#$%&!
“I don’t even know if I want to become a citizen of this stupid country. Only in France would they reject you for not having something they didn’t even specify as necessary!”
Matthieu, who had gone through the green-card process in New York, just laughed and shook his head. “Trust me …”
I was so mad at God for frustrating my efforts, all I could do was curse. But while I was cursing (in my head), I was conscious that just one day earlier I had been praising him for his kindness. It took the Israelites 40 days to forget everything God had done for them.
It took me only one.
It was like swallowing bile, but I knew I needed to apologise to God for how quickly I had forgotten his goodness. In just one day I was already mad at him for not giving me what I thought I deserved. Later on, when reflecting on his kindness, I saw this scripture in a way I had never seen before because I always focused on the first part of the scripture and not the last.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:35-36).
He is kind to the ungrateful.
WOW. Ouch. Yeah, that would be me.
But even when all evidence seems to the contrary, God remains kind! His nature doesn’t change.
Thank God for that!
Droit d’auteur: spetenfia / 123RF Banque d’images
You write with such beauty and honesty.
Always.
Your words inspire me to be better.
Always.