I left work in in a hurry on April 5th. My 18th wedding anniversary was upon me and I was eager to get home to my wonderful wife. A quick stop on the way home to get some flowers for her first, and then I would be on my way. As I drove, my mind began to consider where we would go for supper that night. Mostly I was thinking about what I would order, and what would please me the most. I am working only a short 15-minute drive from home, and before I knew it, I was at the last stop sign just a ¼ mile from our house. As my head turned back and forth watching for oncoming traffic, my eye caught sight of some bright yellow daffodils planted by a roadside memorial. Immediately I felt a wave of shame wash over me. I had forgotten to stop and get flowers. For the next few seconds I sat there and debated whether it would be worth the “work” of driving back into town, which is just a few miles away, or whether I should just continue home and try to excuse myself about forgetting to show my love to her.
This is the way we are with our Lord. We can have the best of intentions. We desire to serve him. We desire to show our love to him, but we fall far short. We get distracted by other things in this world. We can even begin to reason with ourselves and excuse our inattentiveness. Most of the time I chalk it up to being busy at work and raising a family, but often it really is just my desire to serve self that takes hold, and I live only in search of what might satisfy me. In doing so, I forget that He is all that is needed to satisfy. Moses makes the appeal to the Lord in the 90th Psalm verse 14: “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” We need to be reminded that it is his mercy and his mercy alone that satisfies us . I like how Moses asks for the mercy “early”. This should be the first thing we turn to before all else. From his mercy flows joy unceasing.
As I headed into town to get some flowers, I breathed out a sigh of thanks to God for having those flowers on the side of the road to catch my eye. Just as I often forget the Lover of my soul, I had forgotten for a few moments the woman that I cherish more than anything else in this natural world.
I have learned that what we think are often just coincidences are really not. Thus I found it interesting that these flowers that caught my eye would have been planted by a roadside cross. A memorial placed by the family of someone lost in an accidental death. There is another cross that we see as we travel through life. This empty cross however is a memorial for a purposeful death. Christ was born for the express purpose of going to that cross for you and I. He suffered unimaginable pain in our behalf and took upon himself the sin of the entire world. In doing so he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (Colossians 2;14).
Let us thank and praise him for his unspeakable mercies toward us. not that we are not allowed to speak of them, but that we can not find the words that would do it justice.
Hans Lampinen
Submitted by Pastor Stan
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