God’s Shade in Our Discomfort
“Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.”
— Jonah 4:6
In our discomfort, God provides us shade. If you know the story of Jonah, you know it’s not a narrative of neat obedience or perfect faith. Jonah ran from God’s command to go to Nineveh. He boarded a ship headed the opposite direction, trying to escape the call that God weighed on his heart. When a storm rose, he was thrown into the sea and swallowed by a big fish—only to be carried right to the very place he was running from. Side bar, let me tell ya’, if God commissions you to it, He will move you to it. Even after that miraculous deliverance, through the most unconventional transportation system, Jonah’s heart was still resistant.
And yet, despite Jonah’s disobedience, God provided shade. This reality moved me because it shows us something about the nature of God. Even in our stubbornness, even in our disobedience, even when we sit under the hot sun of our own making, God still appoints shade. God sees our discomfort. He knows our discomfort. He understands our discomfort. He is best equipped to cover us from our discomfort. Matter of fact, He is the only one who can provide us shade from our discomfort. When I reflected on this verse, I saw how God gently uncovered His Word to see my own heart to remember all the times He provided shade in my life. Those times of when I was weary, uncertain, or walking in my own plans rather than His.
One moment, in particular, stands out. Allow me to witness. In the fall and winter of 2024, Jay and I decided to list our home for sale. What started with excitement soon turned into discouragement. Weeks became months, and the house sat with a handful of interests, but had no movement. With our third baby, Camila, on the way, our capacity was already stretched thin. Eventually, we decided to take the listing down and wait until spring 2025—after Camila was born. But God had His own timing.
In January, we continued to pack what we could before Camila’s arrival. Jay and I prayed every night as we shared our grievances/stress of moving with a newborn—how the thought of showings, schedules, and strangers being in our home would be chaotic. We were tired, yet trusted that God would see the weight we carried and bring a buyer shortly after we to relist. Then, toward the end of January, our realtor reached out with unexpected news: a buyer had found our home—even though it had been off the market for a month. Not just a casual inquiry, but a real buyer, with a real offer, and a real plan to move in by the end of February. We sat in disbelief. God had appointed shade over our family. A cool, breezy, perfectly sized shade to allow my family to nest for our coming newborn.
We had done nothing to make it happen—no new listings, no extra efforts—yet the Lord moved in the stillness; he moved in our grumbling. The buyer worked around our family’s needs, honored our timeline, and made the process simple. By the time my due date arrived, we had a signed offer, and the burden of relisting and showing the house was gone. I remember sitting on our bed one quiet night, surrounded by boxes, with only our bed left in the room. The toddlers were asleep, and Camila, still so tiny, rested in my arms. Jay sat beside me, and I turned to him and said, “God did this. He heard our grumbling and our grievances—and He sent a buyer right to us. And not just any buyer, but one who shares our faith and values. We are so undeserving.”
When I reread Jonah, it was illuminated to me how 4:6, became more than words on a page—it was real in my life. “God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.” It’s one thing to read that God Word, but it’s another thing entirely to live through His faithfulness found in the Word of God. And that’s who He is, faithful.
The shade doesn’t always come in grand gestures like the splitting of the Red Sea. Sometimes, it’s simple and quiet—the roof over your head, the meal that fills your stomach after a long day, the gas in your car that somehow stretches another week, the friend who checks in at the right time.
Each day, we have the chance to acknowledge the ways God shades us from discomfort—to see how His grace slips into the mundane circumstances of our lives. My friends have told me I’m “unreasonably positive.” But the truth is, I’ve seen too much of God’s goodness not to be. When I look at my life—my husband, my children, my home, my salvation—I see nothing that I’ve earned and everything that He’s given. I am undeserving of everything—even the hair that still grows on my head, a subtle reminder that God restores what I’ve lost. So yes, I choose to see the silver lining in every circumstance. Because behind everything, there’s a faithful God who appoints shade even when we least deserve it. God provides the shade in our discomfort, even when we’re disobedient. And when He does, I pray we sit beneath it with gratitude, knowing it was never by our doing, but always by His mercy and grace.
Whatever discomfort you’re sitting under today, trust that God sees you. He understands the heat that beats down on your heart because He sat through the most excruciating discomfort on the cross. God is preparing a shade for you—sometimes in the most unexpected ways that is unimaginable to our minds. Jay and I asked for the provision of a home buyer as soon as we relisted, but God said, “I can do you one better and I’ll give you a buyer before you even relist.”
Perhaps today is the perfect time to pause and reflect. Where has God appointed shade over your life—those quiet, undeserved mercies that softened your discomfort? I pray you will find gratitude in the midst of reflecting on His grace. His grace is not just a story we read in the Word of God—it’s the living, breathing reality that we get to experience if we just take the time to pause and reflect.
CY