Who has preceded Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine. (MEV)

If I had the option to title this devo, I think I’d call it, “Don’t Kill the Guinea Pigs.” A few weeks ago, my family had the opportunity to help my husband’s co-worker by caring for her guinea pigs while she was out of town. I am no stranger to having pets in my home, but there was a moment after she left that the magnitude of caring for these furry friends weighed on me. The “what if?” questions rolled through my head like some sort of odd check list I needed to think through before moving forward with life. Silly things like, “Can I leave them for a few hours? What if something happens to them while we’re gone? What if they die? What if one of my kids crushes one? What if they get loose and down into a floor vent never to be seen again?”  

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While I’m a tad embarrassed to share all that went on in my brain regarding guinea pigs, I share because I believe it's likely relatable. You see, those guinea pigs were not mine. My family and I were entrusted to be good stewards of pet care. The owner would come back and expect to find her guinea pigs alive and well, and if for any reason she did not find them this way, the responsibility for that fell on me.  

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Our Scripture today is found in Job, and if you have ever read through this book, at first glance it may seem as if God is picking on Job by allowing disaster to befall him all at once. Job’s losses are staggering. Chapter after chapter of this book his “friends” are examining why these things happened and ultimately implying he must be somehow deserving or responsible for all that has happened to him. Finally, in chapter 38, for the first time, God speaks. At first, God’s speech seems a little off topic, given the previous 37 chapters being all about Job; but God dives right in with a speech not at all about Job, but about who HE is.  

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God names some of the powerful things he made and emphasizes how much bigger and more powerful he is than the things he has made. These things he made are also greater and more powerful than Job. When we come upon verse 41:11, God takes a pause from naming specific things he made and reminds Job who he is by asking if there’s any who came before God. The answer is, of course, a resounding NO! Everything under heaven is God’s.  

On the surface, it may seem as if God is ignoring the pain and hardship Job is enduring. Make no mistake, the pain was real, and those losses would be excruciating to walk through; but, if we look a little harder, God is bringing Job peace in an impossible situation by reminding him who he is. All that Job lost wasn’t his; it was God’s. Job was a steward, and we should note that Job was a good steward, since the beginning of the book indicates God was pleased with him.  

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Psalm 24:1 reminds us that “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” We should think of all we have as what God has entrusted us with to care for. When we change our mindset to one of stewardship rather than ownership, there is a higher calling of responsibility. An owner will want their property back someday.  

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So, if God is the “owner” of the earth, and he has placed us to steward his property, we are to protect it and return it to him showing that we took special care of all he entrusted to us. Just as I felt the need to provide special attention and extra care to some furry little friends to return them alive and well, I can look at all I have in life as stewardship of what God has entrusted to me. I have been entrusted with four of God’s kids, who call me Mom, to raise in my home. They are mine in the sense that I carried them with my body and nurtured them as helpless babies, but they were clearly a gift from the Lord. He’s entrusted me to care for, nurture, and love them in such a way that they know their “owner.”  The good news is, while God has entrusted us with care of his property, he doesn’t leave us alone and wish us luck. He works in and through us to accomplish his purposes.  

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What have you been entrusted to care for? Like Job, would God consider you a good steward? How does this mindset of God as owner challenge you to be a better steward? I know I have some heart work to do in this regard. I pray for you too as we work to shift our hearts toward stewarding well all we have been given.

God, we thank you for your love and entrusting us with all we have. Help us to be good stewards of all you have provided for us to enjoy. Help us to view all we have as gifts from you. Amen.