What's Eating You?
God is funny. He actually cracks me up. Or maybe I should say that my relationship with Him is funny and cracks me up. He takes the oddest experiences of my life and constantly uses them to teach me a lesson. Even if it’s the same one – He keeps doing it over and over. He’s just so cool!
I had an experience watching my 2½ year old niece a few weekends ago. It was dinner time, and as usual, her first response was “no.” Of course we were sitting down to eat because she had previously indicated that she was hungry! I mean it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced interacting with a child that young. My son is 17, and as a baby he ate everything in sight. Now granted, he may have not wanted to feed himself, but he ATE (haha). So all of this was new to me. I really had to dig deep for ways to get this child fed. Honestly, my imagination was shot.
But kids? Kids are FULL of imagination! My niece was always talking about this imaginary bee buzzing around the room, the car or wherever we were. She would point out the imaginary bee and we would have to say “Shoo fly! Shoo bee!” and the game would continue until she was convinced it was gone.
Anyway, as she was running around the room avoiding the peanut butter and raisin sandwich (one of her favorites) I had made, I even took a small bite to show her that I was willing to eat too and the sandwich was ‘oh sooooo delicious.’ Raisins in a peanut butter sandwich are not up my alley, but I was willing to try anything at that point.
Then, I thought about the bee.
I asked her “Where is the bee?” She stopped and looked around the room trying to find it. “The bee is in your belly and needs to eat,” I told her. BINGO! To my surprise she ran right over and started happily eating. Even when I got distracted, forgetting to give her more, she would prompt me by saying “the bee wants another bite.” I was so happy and proud that I had, at least for this meal, cracked the code for her to finish the entire sandwich!
As I turned my thoughts toward writing another devotional later in the week, I remembered the bee.
Can you identify things that you need to shoo away? What’s buzzing around, distracting you from what you should actually be doing?
Even more, if you want to imagine that the ‘bee’ is now lodged within, what needs feeding? Are there parts of you that need nourishing? How often do you think God is like I was, sustenance in His hands waiting for us to open the door to sup…with Him?
Revelations 3:20 (let’s not even talk about the irony of 320 here!) states, “Now pay attention; I am standing at the door and knocking. If any of you hear My voice and open the door, then I will come in to visit with you and to share a meal at your table, and you will be with Me.” (The Voice)
It’s that simple. We let Him in and He will be “with us” and us with Him. It doesn’t matter where we are. He’s there. And until you open the door, you’ll continue have no idea what’s in store. After all, it could be your favorite meal! I Corinthians 2:9 (The Message) assures us that “No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—What God has arranged for those who love Him.”
His grace is sufficient in those moments that we’d rather ‘run around and not eat.’ He simply waits… on us. It’s only during this intimate time of supping with God that He can reveal, even if it's just a little, the first steps toward our purpose. What He’s preparing for you and me. He can nourish the places that are lacking and bring sustenance to the empty coves of your soul. You can be hurting beyond belief. Or your life can appear to be falling apart. As long as you let Him in, He is THERE.
He can and will replenish you…
And just like most of us after a good meal, you can REST in Him. Go ahead and let the ‘itis’ take over… He’s not going anywhere.