Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego - Singing in the Rain

Daniel 3:23-25 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly, O king." He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."

I didn't want to go back to work. It had been six years since my last baby was born and I hadn't been in the work force since I'd been pregnant with her. The time had come where, financially, it would be much less stressful if I started working again. It couldn't be a "career" job - my important time would still be with my family. I was still homeschooling and my husband worked full-time, so it couldn't be a day job. Before getting pregnant, I was in management at UPS, the graveyard shift. It looked like, once again, this was the only option for me. I prayed about this and asked God to guide me in this because I really did not enjoy working at UPS - it was physically hard and not a very friendly work environment. Then I saw the ad for FedEx. I reluctantly decided to go in for the 'group' interview. Many people showed up for this job. I thought I'd be hired on the spot - but this was a large group of people. We went through the training videos and paperwork sessions. In the end, they basically told the entire group they were only hiring as needed and they would keep everyone on file as an "on-call" person. I went home a little deflated, it was not what I expected. That evening, I received a call from Fed-Ex. After reading my file, because of my management experience with UPS, they wanted me to start the next evening. Jesus was there, it was all in His hands.

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell into that furnace, they had to be scared. Wondering what it would feel like, to be burned. But once the initial shock wore off, and they stood up, and they realized they weren't burning to death and that there handcuffs had burned off - what an awesome realization - Jesus was with them. It has been said that the reason the king looked back into the furnace, was because he heard singing. These boys were singing praises to God. The king never would've looked back, the reality was, the minute those boys fell into the furnace they would be dead - the king had no reason to continue hanging around - until he heard the singing. It also says that the king could see Jesus, it doesn't say that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego could.

So here's another realization: Jesus is always with us, whether we can see Him or not - we must know that He's always there. BUT, to be truly effective, we must rejoice in having this knowledge so that, like the king, others will look back and be able to see Him standing there with us.

I ended up loving my job at FedEx. They were nice people there and I hope I had an effect on some of them. A year later when I gave my two -weeks notice, they offered me a management position. Hopefully, they were able to see Jesus standing beside me.