Seeing God’s Hand in the Details of our Lives

Have you ever browsed thirty minutes for something to watch only to fall back on your favorite show yet again? There’s something immensely comforting about rewatching the same shows or rereading the same books and knowing what’s coming. But as one psychologist points out, our very familiarity with these stories can also allow us to “detect and appreciate the details and subtleties of personal interactions we overlooked earlier.” Said differently, it’s not until you know where a story’s going that you can begin to appreciate certain details in the story that originally seemed insignificant. While I’ve certainly found that to be true regarding shows and novels, I’ve also found it to be true when it comes to reading the Bible. 

 

The more time I spend reading stories in Scripture, the more I notice certain details which were easy to overlook on earlier readings. I’m talking about seemingly throwaway details that turned out to be hugely important, details that clearly demonstrate how God was intimately involved in the lives of His people, even if it may have seemed otherwise to those same people at that time. 

For example, Joseph’s dreams of ruling over his brothers aroused their anger so much that they sold him into slavery to some Ishmaelites who happen to be passing by (Genesis 37:25–27). There’s also Ruth who just so happened to go off gleaning in a field owned by a man named Boaz who could reverse the fortunes of her and her mother-in-law, both of whom were widows (Ruth 2:3). And then there’s Esther—a Jew in exile who happened to be chosen as King Ahasuerus’s next queen (Esther 2:19–23).

 

Reading these stories, I’m struck by three things. The first is how God’s involvement in such minute details has huge effects. For example, Joseph being sold to a passing Ishmaelite party led to him becoming highly exalted in Egypt and saving countless lives during a famine. Ruth’s “chance” meeting with Boaz and their subsequent marriage produced King David a few generations later. And God used Queen Esther to save the Jews from annihilation in the Persian Empire. 

 

Second, I’m struck by how insignificant—even harmful!—these details probably seemed to these people as they experienced them. Being carted off as a slave, I imagine Joseph must have been lamenting his ill fortune. Ruth was just hoping to get some food. Esther knew that pleading for her own people could cost her her life. 

 

And finally, I’m struck by how the full significance of God’s involvement in these details was not fully apparent until later. When Joseph famously told his brothers “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good” (Genesis 50:20), it was from the vantage point of being second-in-command in Egypt and having saved many lives. In a similar way, when the early church declared that what happened to Jesus was God’s doing (Acts 4:27–28), Jesus’s tomb was unoccupied. They had seen Him again. They had watched Him ascend to heaven. These events recontextualized the crucifixion for them. 

 

Why is all this important? It’s important because our lives are full of details. Chores, errands, work, parenting. And we might deem these details to be insignificant, beyond the scope of God’s involvement. And yet Scripture is full of examples of God working through the ordinary details of people's lives to accomplish His purposes. These stories remind us that God is working, right now, in the details of our lives. 

But also, these stories encourage us to look at how God has been working in our lives up to now. Just as Joseph saw God’s involvement in his life by looking back, so too can we. I’ll often do this by taking a blessing in my life and work backwards, tracing the various decisions and events that led up to it. For example, considering my wife, I’ll think: How did I meet her? Who introduced us? And how did I meet that person? What decisions or events put me on a path that eventually led to our marriage? Not only is this fun to do, it’s an exercise in seeing God do for me what we see Him do in Scripture: intimately guiding the details of the lives of His people. 

 

Sometime today, take some time to do the same. Look backward on where God has brought you and trace the ways you’ve seen His involvement in details that, at the time, seemed anything but significant. Give Him thanks. And let these reminders, both from your own life and from the lives of people in Scripture, remind you that He will continue to be involved in your life’s details moving forward.