Unexpected Ways - All Our Daily Bread Daily Devotionals for 2026

Read: 1 Kings 19:1-12 | Bible in a Year: Ecclesiastes 7-9; 2 Corinthians 13

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
John 14:9

In 1986, five-year-old Levan Merritt fell twenty feet into the gorilla enclosure of England's Jersey zoo. As parents and onlookers cried out for help, a full-grown male silverback, named Jambo, placed himself between the motionless boy and several other gorillas. Then he began to gently stroke the child's back. When Levan began to cry, Jambo led the other gorillas into their own enclosure as zoo-keepers and an ambulance driver came to the rescue. More than thirty years later Levan still talks about Jambo the gentle giant—his guardian angel who had acted in a shockingly unexpected way, changing his perception of gorillas forever.

Elijah may have expected God to act in certain ways, but the God of gods used a rock-shattering wind, a powerful earthquake, and raging fire to show His prophet how not to think of Him. Then He used a gentle whisper to show His heart and to express His presence (1 Kings 19:11-12).

Elijah had seen God's power before (18:38-39). But he didn't fully understand the One who wants to be known as more than the greatest and most fearsome of gods (19:10, 14).

Eventually, that quiet whisper found fullness of meaning in the powerful gentleness of Jesus, who said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Then He quietly allowed Himself to be nailed to a tree—an unexpected, compassionate act by the great God who loves us.

Father in heaven, please help us to find courage in Your whisper—and in the ways of Your Son. Have mercy on us for not seeing beyond Your power to a love we've barely begun to know.

God won't shout if we only need a whisper.

By Mart DeHaan