God is in the Details

Two thousand years ago in Capernaum, the temple tax collectors approach the disciple Peter and ask if his teacher pays the temple tax required of each male over 20 years of age (Matt. 17:24-27). The fee is two drachmas, about the equivalent of two days wages. Peter replies, “Yes, he does.” Later that day, when Peter enters the house, Jesus speaks first, knowing about Peter’s conversation. He instructs Peter on his status as a member of the spiritual royalty (the sons of the “king” are exempt from paying the temple tax). “But so that we may not offend them (the tax collectors and the Jewish traditions), go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch, open its mouth, and you will find a four drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

I don’t know about you, but that gives me chills. The world seems so random right now, you can step into a bus that blows up, the plane can go down, a sniper can walk into your kid’s high school.

Then I remember that the hairs of my head are numbered (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7), and that Jesus knew exactly where the best catch of fish could be had (Luke 5:6, John 21:6). I recall that the stars are numbered and named (Psalms 147:4), and that He knows when a sparrow falls from the sky (Matthew 10:29).

I still remember the morning I received an email from Scott and Carol Kellermann, medical missionaries with the Episcopal Church in Uganda. They were working among the Batwa Pygmy people, who had been recently displaced from their ancestral home in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in favor of the gorillas. The Batwa needed milk cows to feed their newly weaned children a solution of milk, oil, and sugar until they would be healthy and mature enough to survive on the regular Pygmy diet, but cows are hard to come by in rural Uganda.

That particular morning, Carol was thinking about cows (goats do not give enough milk). How will she get some cows for her own children? Who will care for them? Where will they stay? What if they get sick? Animals in the bush are far from veterinarians. Just as Carol turned this over in her mind, she heard a knock on her door. It was August, the man who sold them the land for their home in Uganda. He proposed to build a shed and pen for two milk cows if Scott and Carol could help with materials. August wanted to feed, house, and milk the cows. He had located two Friesian cows that gave abundant milk. He would bring the milk to the hospital each day, and each day he would donate up to 20 liters. He would arrange to get the cows and bring them to the village, several days’ journey in rural Uganda.

Carol askeds “Why do you want to do this?”

August answered, “I want to help the children.”

God is in the details.