“The Writing is on the Wall”

Almost everyone has heard the expression, “The writing is on the wall.” I’ve never given its origins much thought until recently as I was reading the book of Daniel, Chapter 5. The Babylonian king, Belshazzar, after repeatedly ignoring God’s warnings and judgments, went so far as to mock the God of Heaven by having a wild drunken party using the gold cups that had been taken from God’s Temple in Jerusalem.

Suddenly, a hand – all by itself – appeared and began to writing on the wall. The guests, and especially the king, were terrified as the hand spelled out the king’s fate…and the king was killed that very same night.

My “Writing on the wall” experience happened about two weeks ago. For three days, I had been praying about the devastating earthquake that recently hit the desperately poor country of Haiti. In the past, before I was laid off from my job, I almost never hesitated sending sums of money to relief efforts after major disasters, in addition to giving God my regular tithes and offerings. But without a job and after having to sell my home, lose the equity I had hoped to recover, and moving into a small apartment, I hesitated because the size of the gift I felt God was asking me to send was so large. But then something amazing happened: God began “writing on the wall.” On the first of the three days I prayed about this, I asked God to do something I almost never ask of Him: to give me not just one, but three clear confirmations of His will because of the size of the gift and because I had no job. That first morning, God lead me straight to Psalm 46 which begins, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea…” (verses 1-2)

Wow. But still, I hesitated. The gift was far larger than what I often would send when I was working! So the next day, I prayed again. And God lead me to read the story of Nehemiah (Chapter 2). Here we read that Nehemiah is filled with grief over the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem and so, with fear and trembling, he asks the king of Persia, whom he serves, for all of the resources he would need to go to Jerusalem and rebuild it.

By then, I knew full well what God wanted me to do – but, unlike times past when I felt more financially secure, I still needed an extra measure of courage to send this gift. And yet God, in His amazing mercy, gave it to me. On the third day, after I had finished praying and reading my Bible, I went into my bedroom. I noticed a stack of bible verses lying haphazardly in one corner of my dresser. I had written them out on post-it notes over the years and had placed them on various walls and cabinet doors in my recently sold home to serve as reminders; I simply had not gotten around to putting them up on the walls of my new apartment. To my astonishment, on the very top of the pile was the verse James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Truly, the “writing was on the wall!” I immediately went to my computer and sent the funds. Looking back, I realized that not only had I almost risked failing to ‘look after orphans and widows in their distress’ but I nearly allowed the world, and its empty promises of security and self-fulfillment, to rob me of the joy of being a blessing to others! Praise God who is not only generous to us in His mercy, love, wisdom, and kindness…but even in His patience!

(the post-it of James 1:27 is now securely affixed to my computer monitor

Shadia Hrichi

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