SATELLITE
REFLECTIONS
Are
you tuned in? Are your receptors turned on?
My eyes and ears are miniature satellites absorbing signals from the
heavens. God may be sending me a message
in a sunset or in a movie on TV. It might come through a friend’s voice or the
sound of a soft rain. My ‘dish’ catches
an abundance of God’s grace when I concentrate on Him, especially with
Christian broadcasts.
Like
the robin perched amidst a flock of ordinary blackbirds on the light wires, my
life can sing a song of praise. “Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the
world, but let your behavior change, modeled by your new mind.” (Rom. 12:2)
I
must get rid of the ground clutter in order to zero in on God’s signal meant
for me. Distractions, like the wrong
kinds of TV programs or acquaintances, often keep me from receiving a clear
signal. “Do you not yet understand? Have
you no perception? Are your minds closed?”
(Mark 7:18, 19) When I focus on Jesus, he helps me tune out
other distractions. He becomes my
spiritual hearing aid to distinguish his Word in the gospel.
Sometimes
I pay for the type of programming I select.
In choosing a bad relationship, the price is lived out in emotional pain
and crippled spirituality. I have been
guilty of putting someone else before God.
When
moving away from family and friends, loneliness encouraged me to pray for a
Spiritual friend who would be on my wave-length. I met a lady, who had also been praying for a
new friend after the death of her husband.
The similarities in our lives were astonishing: same birth month; same hobbies and interests,
even both of us had scarlet fever as children
Although
we had different church backgrounds and two generations of age between us, we
shared a common love of Jesus. At times
we called each other, not knowing that the other needed a listening ear, but
the Master Program Director knew!
Reading
the Bible every day is what we call fine-tuning our wave-length. The Universe
is crowded with radio signals. What type
of recurring feed are we allowing to enter our satellite system? We must hear
the Word of God and live accordingly.
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” (Luke 11:27)
There
are no installation charges when we choose to get on God’s satellite. We already possess the equipment to tune into
the Master’s channel. Do we appreciate
God’s timing in our area of need? Yes, He knows the needs of his children. My new friend and I believe that He answered
our simultaneous prayer--..because we were listening.
EMPTY
POCKETS
“What’s
in your pocket?” “I have a pocketful of
change.” “Did you empty your
pockets?” You never know what will
surface in the laundry tub from a corner of someone’s pocket. “Look, there’s a dollar bill! “What’s that log, bouncing around the
whirlpool?”
Pockets
are an everyday subject of conversation. There are the pockets of Pelicans, who
use their bills to carry fish back to their young and squirrels who carry nuts in their cheeks to a safe storage place. How
about the built-in nursery in a kangaroo pouch or the valuable resource
discovered in a pocket of natural gas or oil?
Those pockets have a practical purpose, but pockets on clothes fashions
can be either serviceable or just plain decorative.
I
can’t turn my pockets inside out to empty them and they surely aren’t a
decoration because they are hidden, high and low, inside the
garment of my skin.