Jesus in Unexpected Places

For those of you that have been checking my blog recently, I apologize for my absence.

I've been learning some hard lessons in recent days, due to illness. To my surprise, one of my teachers has been my two-year-old son, Noah.

Two weeks ago I suffered from a migraine for which I was unable to take any medication. I spent about twelve hours in the worst pain of my life, sick to my stomach and unable to sleep. I cried out to God in those desperate moments, asking Him to deliver me or give me the strength to get through. He chose the latter.

At the worst point, as I sat on the bathroom floor, Noah suddenly appeared in the doorway. He looked at me for a moment and then spoke.

"Okay, Mommy? Okay?"

"Mommy's sick." I answered. He disappeared. I assumed he had returned to his play, but several minutes later I heard him lumbering down the stairs and running back to the bathroom door. He held out a sucker that he had retrieved from my room. I had a bag of them I'd been using for nausea.

Later he returned again with my bottle of water.

It was a simple thing, but for some reason his acts of kindness stuck in my mind. How amazing is God that He can reveal His love through a little boy barely able to communicate? How timely are His reminders that He is there, He is in control and that He will pull us through anything He allows in our lives, no matter how impossible it may seem. And not only will we make it through, we will become better for the experience. As Romans says, our suffering creates in us perseverance, character, and hope.

So if you are like me, and you've been at the bottom in some way recently, whether emotionally, physically or otherwise, don't despair. Allow God to shape you in the midst of the fire. You'll be glad in the end.

And may God bring your Noah to you to remind you of His everlasting love.

Common Courtesy

I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets tired of the constant barrage of telemarketers trying to sell me something.

I was so tired of it I put my number on the do not call list. There is something in me that despises anyone telling me what I need to buy. The minute I hear that way-too-polite voice sounding as if I'm the most important person in the world I balk at the insincerity.

Somehow they find the loopholes. One particular man has been calling regularly for the past couple of weeks. Sometimes twice a day. I've been polite, I've told him that my husband handles that area and if he would like to talk to him he is home in the evenings. I've told him over and over again.

This morning, bright and early just as I was beginning homeschool with my daughter, he called again. Asked for me. Told me that he was calling back to let me know about a deal I just couldn't miss out on. I interrupted the spiel.

"I've told you several times now that you would have to talk to my husband, and that he's home in the evenings." I scolded him in a tone that let him know I was fed up. He apologized in his most insincere voice and said that he would call back later.

"Bye." I said rather abruptly and hung up.

The nerve. I thought as I returned to teaching. Why doesn't he just get the hint? What do I have to say to make him stop calling?

That's when I started to feel guilty. Did I just treat that human being the way Christ would have? Isn't that my job as His ambassador?

Telemarketers may be annoying. But they are still people. They are doing the job they've been given to do and probably not enjoying it very much. Especially when people like me get on the line.

I'm convicted today. I must do better. I can't allow the most basic common courtesy to escape me, let alone the command to love each and every person that crosses my path. Because Jesus did no less. And I have no right to belittle someone for whom He died. What a wasted opportunity.

Jesus, forgive my lack of love this morning with the man on the phone. Help me to shine Your light into a dark world, no matter what personal inconvenience to me. Help me see people the way You do. Amen.