Daily Jewel

by Pastor J>T. Carnell, McAlester, OK
Sept. 30. 2011

“Remember Who is Waiting for You!”
“Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home!” – Proverbs 8:34 (New Living Translation)

Waiting (like listening) for a number of people is not their best quality! Remember this phrase, “Wait upon the Lord?” Those words used to carry a great deal of significance some years ago but today—well—we are in far too much of a hurry to even consider what this phrase even means. Our not learning to be patient (whether it is with ourselves, others, or for God) is kind of like not paying attention to the “fine print” and then regretting it when the contract comes due and we’ve lost out! Here is a very important question and one that I want you to consider very carefully: are you waiting for something to happen in your life before giving yourself entirely to God? Are you waiting for someone else to change before you accept them? And this may be the most important one—are you waiting to change some things in your life before you think God will accept you? DON’T!! in any of these cases! I recently read a story about an experience a woman had on a short flight from Tucson to Phoenix. Across the aisle from her sat a young woman and her baby, both dressed in white pinafores. The baby had a little pink bow where there would eventually be hair. The mother was smiling, as the baby kept saying "Dada," every time someone walked down the aisle. The mother said her Daddy was waiting for them after they had been gone for a few days. She was so adorable – quiet – that all passengers enjoyed watching her. Unfortunately, there was a lot of turbulence, making the flight extremely rough, which of course was hard on the baby. But the mother had some fruit and a little Thermos with orange juice in it. Every time the baby cried the mother fed her a little bit more orange juice and a little more fruit. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, the turbulence seemed to spread from the air around the plane right down to that baby’s gastro-intestinal system, and pretty much all of the fruit that had gone down came up. However, the process of coming up was considerably messier than the process of going down had been. It also seemed to have increased in volume tremendously between the going down and the coming up, so that not only were the baby and the mother pretty much covered in it, but so were several of the passengers within a significant radius of the baby, including the woman who was telling the story. Fortunately for the mortified mother, the passengers were gracious and tried to help her and tell her it was OK. After all what could she do about it?? The baby was crying, and she looked awful. Even though they didn’t cry, her fellow passengers looked – and smelled – pretty awful, too. The mother was so sorry about it. As soon as they landed, the baby was fine and returned to calling: "Dada, Dada." The rest of the passengers didn’t recover quite so quickly, being covered as they were in pre-digested fruit. The woman telling the story said, “I had on a suit, and I was trying to decide whether to burn it or just cut off the sleeve. It was really bad.” Waiting for the plane was a young man who had to be “Dada.” He was wearing white slacks, a white shirt, and he carried white flowers. Now what do you think that clean Daddy all dressed in white did when he saw his baby who had that sticky, smelly stuff all over her clothes and her face and her hair? He ran to the young mother, who handed the baby over pretty quickly so she could go get cleaned up. That Daddy picked up that baby, and he hugged her and he kissed her and he stroked her hair. As he held her close, he said, "Daddy’s baby’s come home. Daddy’s baby’s come home." All the way to the luggage claim area, he never stopped kissing that baby and welcoming her back home. The woman (in the story) thought, “Where did I ever get the idea that my Father God is less loving than a young daddy in white slacks and white shirt with white flowers in his hand?” Life can be messy to say the very least! We mess up—our friends mess up. And what do we do in return? Aren’t you glad the Father overlooks our messes and loves us anyway? He is always waiting to hear from you—to see you at His House!! And He will accept you just as you are! So what are you waiting for?
Pastor J. T. Carnell