The other day I decided I wanted to donate blood. It's on my list of things I want to do before I die, so I thought I would go ahead and check it off of the bucket list. I wasn't nervous, and I actually had a great time getting stuck with the biggest needle I have ever seen aimed at my body. I'm sure that has something to do with my future profession, though I might need an unbiased person to verify that last statement. As I was sitting there, losing what kind of felt like all my blood, I was thinking about the person who will one day receive it. What are they like? Why will they need this blood? Do they know about the blood that was shed 2,000 years ago just for them? Does this person like Elvis Presley? I wonder if they like the color red? I mean, what would you be thinking about as you're bleeding into a tube that's connected to a plastic bag that will one day be going into another person's body? Intense, I know. The concept is so simple: Bleed a little and save a life. I just had to show up, sit there, and the techs did the rest of the work. It was so amazing to think that the little effort I put into this endeavor will eventually have a big impact on someone's life later on—maybe even whether they live or die. So theoretically…I saved a life.
I was gone most of the evening, and when I got home later that night Jackie told me that Joe (my pet bunny that I talked about in the previous blog post) died. I was absolutely crushed. I couldn't understand why. I had put so much effort into his well being and I took excellent care of him. I was very disturbed by his death, and I began questioning God again, like I always do. Why Joe? Why do I care about this stupid bunny so much? Why does this matter? And God, being the awesome God He is, reminded me so very nicely of the lesson I wonder if I will ever learn. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." God knows what He was doing, and I need to trust that He's got it covered—and He doesn't need my help. Death puts me in my place and helps me realize that I have absolutely no control over what happens…ultimately, God decides how the cookie crumbles, or when the bunny dies, whichever you prefer. I know Joe wasn't a person, but he meant a lot to me….and he died.
So what am I trying to get at with this blog post? Basically, you go from one extreme to the other; my day started out with giving someone life and ended with death of something I cared about. To me that's pretty crazy. It's like the warning on a hair dryer: Do not operate while in the shower—it's just ridiculous. God's timing and his purpose are not ridiculous though, and it says so in
Ecclesiastes
chapter
3
verses
1
and
11. "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."
To sum it all up, God is so awesome that my puny little brain can't even begin to understand why he does things the way he does. And my very last verse for the day is
Ecclesiastes 3:2, "A time to be born, and a time to die…."
