Searching for Donkeys

Have you ever noticed that God seems to do His most amazing works in your life when you least expect it?

While reading 1 Samuel 9 last night, I tried to imagine myself in Saul's sandals. His father had a donkey that had wandered away, so Saul and a servant had been sent to search for it. Three days had passed and they couldn't find the donkey anywhere. Saul was ready to head home, realizing his father would start to worry about them going missing instead, when the servant told him that a respected man of God was in the city they were next to. They figured they had one silver coin left to give as an offering so that this seer could tell them in which direction to find the donkey. Long story short, they don't even recognize Samuel, the man of God, who tells them before they say a word about it, not to worry about the donkey and to come to a special banquet with him. Samuel then proceeds to seat Saul at the highest position of the table and place the choice portion of meat in front of him. Samuel tells Saul, so that all can hear, that this piece was specifically reserved for him to eat before all the people at this solemn event.

Can't you hear Saul now? “Excuse me, what?!? I was just looking for a donkey! I'm sorry you must be mistaken, I'm from a small clan within the Benjaminites. You know, the smallest tribe?” I can just imagine the confusion on his face as these important men stared at him while Samuel made those grand proclamations. If he had know about Candid Camera, he would have sworn he was being filmed.

I started thinking, how many times am I so obsessed with “looking for my donkey” that I leave the banquet? God doesn't work in the way we expect Him to. God says to us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways... For as heaven is higher than earth, So My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” We need to keep our eyes open to what God is placing before us. Not why or how. Why do we often want to tell God no thank you because whatever it is just doesn't make sense?

Let's not worry about the donkey. God got him home too.