The Air We Breathe: Seeing God’s Providence in Daily Life
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The providence of God is all around us; we just don’t realize it most of the time. When you see the sun rise in the east and set in the west, you are seeing God’s providence in action. When we take a breath of air, we do so by God’s providence for he supplies the oxygen we need to live. The breeze that cools us, the rain that brings us water, and the trees that give us protection from the elements are all gifts to us from God’s hand. Indeed, God provides all we have to work, sleep, eat, and play—to live life. Without God’s providence in his rule over all, the world would cease to exist.
We see God’s providence in both creation and community.
God provides for us not only by earthly elements but also by people. Whether by the products they make, the food they grow, the services they provide, God makes good use of people’s endeavors to bless us. God also provides for us in the love and support others give us in both times of joy and times of sadness, and it is especially in the hard times that we need God’s providence.
After my son died in 2006 I knew I needed to go on for the sake of my husband and children, but I didn’t think I would make it. Yet, God provided for my family in so many ways during those dark days via the kind acts of others.
There was a revolving door of loving people coming and going from our home for a long time, bringing meals, taking care of our family’s needs, supporting us in any way they could think of, doing whatever they could to keep us breathing until we could survive on our own.
It was our sisters and brothers in Christ who held up our family the most. Someone was always stopping by, giving us the strength to live a few more hours. Women sat with me while I cried on their shoulders, walked with me, shopped for me, and prayed for me, and one friend would take me to a grocery store in a different community, giving me the privacy I needed as I slowly learned how to do the normal activities of life again.
People listened to my fears, my anger, my doubts, and my indescribable pain. They were there for our family in the darkest of times and loved us through them all. We survived, even amid such unfathomable grief, because of God’s provision for us.
God’s greatest provision is found in Jesus Christ.
As sinful creatures we tend to focus on what we don’t have and what we wish we did have, and yet there is so much we do have because of God’s grace. It’s good to pause and take a breath, feel the sun or cold on our cheeks, gaze upon nature in its beauty and variety, and rejoice in all that God generously provides for us in his goodness, power, and wisdom. And may we always remember the greatest act of God’s loving providence in his sovereign plan—salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.
This article is adapted from “The Air We Breathe” from Beautiful Christian Life’s November 2022 newsletter “God’s Providence.”
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Le Ann Trees is a writer, editor, speaker, wife, mom, and grandma. She is the former managing editor of White Horse Inn’s Core Christianity website and Bible studies and the former dean of women for Westminster Seminary California from where she also earned a Master of Arts in Theological Studies in 2014. Le Ann is managing editor of Beautiful Christian Life.
