“I was at Big Box Wholesale Club yesterday afternoon,” Stan commented one morning, “and I had one of those experiences where you don’t know what’s going to happen, but you’re glad you were there.”
“What was that all about?” I asked
“I had finished my shopping,” Stan replied, “and I was in the food court having one of those chocolate ice cream sundaes.”
“Something wrong with it? Is that what happened?”
“Oh, no,” Stan said. “It was fabulous; tasted great and the price was right! What happened is that I was sitting there all by myself enjoying the treat and thinking about something I had read earlier in the Book of Psalms. That’s when it happened.”
“What?”
“A woman I had never seen before,” he replied, “came up and said in a real cranky voice, ‘What are you smiling about? What about me do you think is so funny?’”
“Wow!” I said. “What’d you think about that?”
“Well,” Stan replied, “to be honest, my first response was pretty negative. I thought why is this cranky person bothering me when I hadn’t even noticed her?”
“Did you have a second thought?” I asked.
“I did,” Stan said. “And I’m thankful to say that thought was, ‘Why did God bring this person before me? What did He have for me in this instance?’”
“So,” I said, “did you say anything to this woman?”
“I told her I was sorry if I had done anything to offend her, but that I was smiling not about her or anything about her, but about something I had read in the Bible.”
“How did she take that?” I asked.
“Frankly,” Stan said, “I was shocked. This woman seemed to melt before my eyes. She asked what I had read that made me smile, saying maybe it would make her smile too.”
Continuing, he added, “I told her that I had read about meditating on God and thinking about all the glorious things about Him, and that doing so made me smile.”
“Then what?”
“This woman said that she was having a tough day, actually a tough life. She apologized for her own reaction to me, thanked me for what I had shared with her, told me to keep on smiling, and said that she really needed to hear what I had to say!”
“So,” I said, “do you think it will make a difference in her life?”
“I pray and hope so,” Stan replied, “but that’s not up to me. It’s up to God. My role is to get myself out of His way so He can manifest Himself through the Holy Spirit. If I do that, He will take it from there!”
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Bible verses to consider:
On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wonderful works, I will meditate. Psalm 145:5.
Make me understand the way of Thy precepts, so I will meditate on Thy wonders. Psalm 119:27.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for the difference it makes in my life to meditate on you and on the wondrous splendor of you and your works. I confess that too often I do not take the time to mediate in that way and, as a result, I am not prepared to share with others all of the wonder you have for me and for them to see. Please, Father, help me in following every step of your lead to mediate on you, on your word, on your voice, and on your creation so I draw ever closer to you in a deepening knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of who you are so I can make that known to others. Thank you I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Think on this: Have you come to know the wonder of God in the sense of having accepted His free and gracious gift of life with Him, nor only for eternal purposes, but also for your time remaining on this side of eternity? If no, why? If you are a Christian, do you regularly spend time meditating on the wonder of God, the wonder of His creation, His word, His voice, and all there is about Him to contemplate? If no, why? If you sense the need for change in taking time for such mediation on God, how is that going to happen? Is that what you want? Why or why not?
Waiting for the Train 