Trusting His Hand

Peace family, when was the last time you noticed the hand of God in your life? Are you struggling to trust Him in any particular area right now?

You might have already heard on the air about it, but I have been fostering an iguana for Long Way Home Adoptables! I’ve been calling him Knuckles, and living with him has been a completely new experience. Although I think his facial expressions might be even more disdainful than those of a house cat, I find him absolutely cute!

Did you know that iguanas can be a little high strung? After he came home with me, he was pretty stressed out. I’ve been keeping him in a large reptile tank in my nice, warm greenhouse, surrounded by lots of happy tropical plants, but sometimes when he sees me put my hand into the tank, he puffs his throat out or desperately tries to run away and dig at the corners of the tank. He has refused to eat almost anything for several days (although I did see him swallow a piece of strawberry and some cut up spinach on Wednesday), and he has never once eaten any of the expensive iguana chow pellets that have the ideal mix of nutrients that an iguana needs. What has been particularly sad to me though, and a little frustrating, is how distressed he often becomes whenever I am doing something to improve his quality of life: whether moving the tank up to a higher level on a tank stand, misting the tank with water (iguanas love and need high humidity,) putting fresh food and water into his bowls (and cleaning them out when he fouls them up, almost daily), changing the lamp out to a UV bulb in the day or a dark, heat-emitting bulb at night, or wheeling his tank closer to the sunshine instead of leaving it in the shadows (he actually loves the sunlight; he follows the beams of light inside of his tank, lies down and and sleeps).

Knuckles would be so much happier, if only he would trust me, trust that I care about him and his well-being, health, temperature, and humidity, trust that I know what he needs and even what he would just enjoy (!), and also, trust that I am not wanting to hurt him… and it occurred to me that all of us are a lot like Knuckles! God is often moving things in our lives that will end up being for the best, but it can be so hard to trust him and not have anxiety.

Peace family, I want to encourage you that God knows, cares about, and understands you infinitely more than I care about that little iguana! Let’s not be lizard-hearted today. Let’s do our best to trust His hand! Even if it’s hard, I challenge you to pray, and think of some small step forward where you can trust God better and relax a little more today. He knows what he’s up to!