Acts 12:12-19

Acts 12:12-19
English Standard Version (ESV)

  You have to wonder if Herod didn't suspect that something miraculous was going on.  Peter had disappeared from under lock and key, and there was no good explanation  He had the sentries put to death, as though punishing them might ease his mind about who was at fault, but surely he had to wonder if there was a more powerful force, if God was at work in the world, building his church, person by person.
  So often there are things that happen in the world that present us with a choice -- how are we going to interpret them?  Are we going to trust that God is at work, leaning in and wondering how we can join in with what God is doing?  Or do we choose to sit back and assume that something else is going on, maybe a simpler explanation?  If we choose to believe that God is at work, then I think that crafts a mindset within us, one that is always looking for evidence of God's handiwork, a spirit that is ready to follow, willing to trust.  We'll have to take things on faith, but it will shape us into the kind of people always wondering how God is at work in the world and in our lives and in our relationships, and I think that's the kind of person I want to be.