SCRIPTURE: Romans 9:2 (CEB) - larger reading Romans 9:1-5
I have great
sadness and constant pain in my heart.
STORY:
Joseph M. Stowell shares the following story: We were on our
annual Christmas trek to Chicago. Each year we brought our family to spend time
with Grandpa and Grandma and visit the museums. This year we decided to finish
our Christmas shopping at suburban Woodfield Mall. In the midst of all the fun
and excitement, one of us noticed that little three-and-a-half- year-old
Matthew was gone. Terror immediately struck our hearts. We had heard the horror
stories: little children kidnapped in malls, rushed to a rest room, donned in
different clothes and altered hairstyle, and then swiftly smuggled out, never
to be seen again...We split up, each taking an assigned location. Mine was the
parking lot. I'll never forget that night--kicking through the newly fallen
snow, calling out his name at the top of my lungs. I felt like an abject fool,
yet my concern for his safety outweighed all other feelings.
Unsuccessful, I trudged back to our meeting point. My wife,
Martie, had not found him, nor had my mother. And then my dad appeared, holding
little Matthew by the hand. Our hearts leapt for joy. Interestingly enough,
Matthew was untraumatized. He hadn't been crying. To him, there had been no
problem. I asked my father where he had found him. "The candy
counter," he replied. "You should have seen him. His eyes came just about
as high as the candy. He held his little hands behind his back and moved his
head back and forth, surveying all the luscious options." Matthew didn't
look lost. He didn't know he was lost. He was oblivious to the phenomenal
danger he was in. This is a candy-counter culture, where people who don't look
lost and don't know they're lost live for consumption.
OBSERVATION:
“Great pain in his
heart” writes Paul, for the least, the last, and the lost. Probably for a
people or tribe or nation of people that didn’t know that they were the least,
the last or the lost. They might have been like Matthew in Mr. Stowell’s story
– lost, but didn’t know it. Does it make the pain easier to handle if the
person(s) don’t know that they are lost? Absolutely not. Does it make it easier
for us who carry the pain of their lostness? Absolutely not.
And yet, we try to
live as if it doesn’t matter. Hey, we think, it is their fault that they are
lost. Why should it bother me? It should matter because they matter to God.
Period… end of story. Even if they refuse to be reconciled … should it matter?
What do you think? Again, it matters to God… enough said.
Should it bother us
enough that we lose sleep over them? What do you think? Should it bother us
enough that we won’t stop until they come back to the fold? What do you think?
That constant pain
is the Spirit of God troubling the waters of our soul. And, God will continue
to stir the pot until we start doing something. And the story continues… until
all God’s people come back to him.
PRAYER:
Do not allow me to
rest until your children are brought back home!
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