The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him. Nahum 1:7.

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5 NKJV.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3. ESV.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:41.

I loved this in You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “Maybe I have been living much too fast, too restlessly, too feverishly, forgetting to pay attention to what is happening here and now, right under my nose. Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered in one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment. Just as no great travels are necessary to see the beauty of creation, so no great ecstasies are needed to discover the love of God. But you have to be still and wait so that you can realize that God is not in the earthquake, the storm, or the lightning, but in the gentle breeze with which He touches your back.”

Sitting in prayer after reading Scripture, as I focus on the problems in this world, even as I pray, I feel everything narrow down and become constricted, a trap enclosing me. And Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, reminds me He is here and with Him I enter into the spacious place of His love and His grace and His provision not just for me but for all of His children, dearly loved. And our chapter, Jonah 3, is so amazing because it shows us what is possible with God. We write people off…God never does. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened. v. 1-10.

Are there lessons here for you and me? We are so bound in this world, it becomes all we see. But there is so much more! All of creation speaks to the glory and majesty of Creator God who created! Can you imagine if you created, what it would look like? Can you know all that is needed to sustain and hold all of your creation? Could you have compassion on those you created? Jesus gave the parable of the vineyard owner entrusting his vineyard to those he put in place to work it, Mark 12:1-8. And everything in that parable came true in their history and was about to come true when they killed the Son of the vineyard owner. A parable, but it is true. The vineyard, their world, was all they could see. God sees so much more! What is truth? For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16…and this…Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. John 17:3. Can we know Creator God without letting Him teach us? Jonah didn’t want to do what God wanted him to do so he ran away and had to experience living inside a great fish for 3 days and nights. He thought he knew God but he didn’t want the people of Nineveh saved. Did he only want himself saved? Had his whole world narrowed and constricted to become a prison trapping him in his unlove? What then is our truth? Is our truth all we can see? There is so much more! Love that is real is possible because Creator God is love. And we can take His hand and let Him lead us forward to hope and understanding that is real. No narrow prison with Creator God…and when Jesus, the Son, went into the synagogue where He was raised, He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:16-21. They didn’t understand. Did they not want all the prisoners set free? Do we? Can we? Yes! It begins with the best journey you will ever take…with Creator God! One thing you will learn in this journey is: don’t underestimate Creator God! He is Truth.