The Fringes

What does the word “fringe” make you think of? Several years ago there was a TV show with that title, and the protagonists were governmental types seeking alternative answers: the paranormal. You might think of the strings that hang off a garment or a rug. You may feel that you live life on the fringe, the outer edge, not quite a part of things. You may think of fringe benefits.

The fringe is the outer edge of something, the limit, the margin. The fringe of a garment is often decorative, and whether on a scarf or a rug, the fringe is unnecessary. Without the fringe, that garment or rug would still be a garment or rug.

I began reading through the Bible in chronological order this year. In January, I read a portion of Job, where Job is speaking to Bildad. Bildad was one of his unhelpful friends, what we’ve come to refer to a Job’s Comforters.

In Chapter 26, Job responds, saying, ““You haven’t done these things”; implying God has. Then he starts listing some of the things God has done: hangs the earth in its place, knows all of the inhabitants of Sheol: “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways.”

Here is another meaning to the idea of fringe. This isn’t the decorative part of God’s way, although He never had to create the universe or us or anything else. But here the idea is that God’s ways are immense, and we cannot understand them. Even these things we can see and touch are the very outer edge of what He has done and is capable of doing.

Depending on where you stand today that might be either frightening or rather comforting. Whatever you face, God can provide over and above anything we can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:19-20 says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” This applies to all believers.

What is it that you are asking God to do today?