What Does Granola Have to Do with the Ends of the Earth?

Today I ate my bowl of granola three hours late. We had run out of milk, and I was waiting until Rose came home from the dairy with our weekly milk. But then I got busy cleaning up and starting the morning school. I forgot about granola until I tried to shred a bar of laundry soap for homemade soap and, after choking on the powder in the air, wore out completely after just a few minutes. That is when I remembered to eat the rest of my breakfast!

And then I thought I would get my Bible to read while I was eating and while the children were outside on break. 

I read Psalm 65, up to verse 5. And that is where I stopped. 

"By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, 

O God of our salvation,

You Who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off seas."

I had written a note by that verse, "April 1, 2016, PNG."

God had given me that verse as we were making plans to go to Papua New Guinea, three and a half years ago.

And it would be a good verse for plans that Jonathan is in the process of making all over again for another Mission Helps trip to an island of the sea, this time Grand Bahama, to help with repairing roofs of a church and homes after Hurricane Dorian.

Jonathan told me a few days ago that Harold Martin had called asking for a crew for roof repairs in Grand Bahama and saying the crew would have to stay in tents.

"So you probably wouldn't want to go this time," Jonathan said, as we both envisioned a group of about eight guys trying to survive in a couple of tents next to buildings they would be repairing.

I guess I will just be staying home again this time while he and perhaps two or three of our sons go along with him to "the ends of the earth, and of the far-off seas."

I wondered, in that moment of seeing that verse and the note beside it, what "the ends of the earth" meant for me personally.

I usually thought of the "ends of the earth" as somewhere far away, like Africa or China or PNG or the Bahamas.
 

But that would mean God is only far away, too.

Just because I am living here, in my home in America, and having to stay home while others go far away, does that mean God can't be my confidence, too?

I've been struggling through teaching Timmy and Danny geometry about an hour a day.

We are learning some things about logic, Venn diagrams, and about valid and invalid conclusions based on given statements. In a day or two, we'll be learning about the inverse and converse of statements, and learning whether or not they work.

So--if the ends of the earth include Africa, China and Bahamas, does it necessarily follow that the Lucas ranch in Colorado is not included? 

Not necessarily. 

In fact, not at all.

The Lucas ranch can be and is a part of the "ends of the earth" whose confidence is in God.

So when I am facing one burden on top of another, 

I can still know that based on God's Word, I can have confidence in God. 

This morning, in weakness from forgetfulness and with my eyebrows twitching from stress, I can look up to Him and remember that even though I am the one who stays home while the others go hunting next week or off on another adventure in the Caribbean,

even though I stay home teaching subjects I can hardly figure out myself,

God can be my confidence.

"We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy temple," the Psalmist said in the same Psalm.

In my end of the earth in Colorado, wherever and whenever I am lonely and disappointed and overwhelmed, I can find refuge in God's house--

in the secret of His presence whether that be on an island of the Caribbean or in the four walls of my very own home, surrounded by children and geometry books!