God is in the Details

“Give all your worries and cares to God for He cares about you.” I Peter 5:7 (NLT)

Longer passages that support the truth that God cares about the details of our lives: Matthew 6:25-34 and Matthew 10:29-31.

Whatever you enjoy, any top-notch experience has an element of attention to detail. A lover of cars is interested in the specifics of the engine and other aspects that make a car perform well. A quilter notices all the fine stitching and the ways fabric was selected, cut, and put together to make it a one-of-a-kind creation. A food connoisseur appreciates unique seasonings and the way a chef brings ingredients together to completely delight the palate. A person who enjoys architecture or interior design notices how the architect or designer brings textures and lines together to create spaciousness and atmosphere. The flower gardener selects plants based on color, height, fullness, blooming times and climate to create a symphony of vegetation that works together to cause the observer to stop and drink in its beauty.

An author uses words to paint mental pictures to convey a thought or story, communicating with their readers and connecting as human beings. A songwriter structures their notes and lyrics to work together to touch something deep inside the listener, affecting their mood and maybe even causing one to dance. An artist uses color and art mediums to express what they see, feel, or experience in ways that touch our souls, evoking a feeling about the painting. The examples go on and on. Truly, it is the details used by the creator that matter to the person who is experiencing these creations, whether they are aware of it or not.

Today I had an experience of KNOWING that God is in the details. Actually, I would have said that I already KNEW that God is in the details in a head knowledge sort of way, but this was different. I had prayed for God to show me what He wanted me to do with my unstructured Monday and I was open to whatever that would be. I had nothing on the schedule, and even though I had a “list”, none of it HAD to be done. On the list was a note to return something to a friend who lives in Palmer, so I asked if I could stop by for a minute to return the item to her. She invited me to stay for tea if I could, and I accepted the invitation. We chatted merrily for quite a while. She made the most delicious cookies, and we sat down to drink our tea and further our visit.

The information we shared was personal and not for print in the newspaper, BUT, the part that is shareable is how we discovered that God is involved in the nitty gritty details of our lives in this moment and how impactful that is for both of us. We talked at ping pong volley speed and joked about how we had five conversations going at once between the two of us, but all conversational roads led to our main conclusion: God cares about our lives, including the details.

As she walked me to my car, we swapped a few stories from our past. One was how God helped her miraculously find a special lost pearl earring in the snow in Anchorage a day after she had been traipsing all over the city while wearing the new jewelry her husband had bought for her. It sparked my memory from years ago of how God had helped my husband’s lost wedding ring turn up on a camper’s toe after it was lost while swimming in the lake a week prior. Not that we always find our lost items—God is not a genie in a bottle for us to rub and make our wishes come true—but God hears our requests for His divine intervention and answers in ways that show us He is involved in the details of our seemingly small issues.

As I shut my car door and waved goodbye, I turned on the engine. The radio had been left on and the very first sentence I heard being sung was “God is in the details”. My eyes widened to their fullest and I sat there for a minute stunned by what I was hearing. I then jumped out of the car to share the song with my friend, but she had already turned the corner and gone inside. I hopped back in the car and videoed the rest of the song on the radio so I could send it to her phone. The coincidence was just too much to be a coincidence. It was a miracle of God intervening in my day (and hers) to let us know how much He cares about the small things in our lives, not just the big things.

I thought I would share this experience with you because I know it is also true for others. God cares about your life. The details. The lost things. The hard things. The things that are important to you. Even though some things never get found, hard things don’t always get easier, and important things are not always resolved as we would like them to be, He cares and He longs for you to bring those things to Him. Ask for His involvement and for Him to show you what He has for you in that particular area of your life.

God is the master of details. He is the creator of the wildly detailed universe. The shaper of both the tiniest creature and most majestic animal. The designer of the most intricate flower and the tallest tree. The architect of the mountains around us. The author of the Divine Story. He started your story by giving you life and He offers to co-author it with you. Check out this song I was referring to earlier called “God is in the Story” by Katy Nichole & Big Daddy Weave. It captured my attention as I listened to its message. Probably none of us like all the chapters in our “book,” but we can look for what He can do with those unpleasant parts of our life if we give Him permission to enter into our story. He can take brokenness and strife and make something beautiful with it. He’s that good at the details because He’s the caring, powerful Master of Arts in composing lives of meaning, purpose, and beauty, weaving eternal significance into our temporal days and years.