Some things are just not supposed to happen. Sooner or later you will have a flat tire. Sooner or later your AC will quit on you. Sooner or later the washer will stop washing and the dryer will stop drying. None of these things are pleasant, but they all happen to everyone. When it happens, you groan and then get on with the business of life. But some things are just not supposed to happen.
I was putting some things in the refrigerator the other day. Usually the door swings shut by itself, but this time, as I twisted to get the next item, it swung all the way open. Then it quietly fell off its hinges and tumbled shelf side down, dumping pickles, olives, ketchup, three kinds of mustard, Worcestershire and soy sauces, homemade jelly, butter, cream cheese, and my super special ordered-from-California eye medicine onto the floor, leaving the rest of the refrigerator wide open and humming. For a moment I just stood there, stunned. We have been through several refrigerators—a couple of cheap ones that came with the apartment or trailer we were renting at the time, and a couple of secondhand ones. But this one was a recommended model we bought new. Never have we had a refrigerator door fall off, not even the inexpensive or used ones. Refrigerator doors do not fall off.
Don’t you know that is how God feels at times? We can find several passages where he laments our actions, saying, “This is not supposed to happen,” at least in substance, if not verbatim. James 3:10 is a prime example: Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not so to be. James tells us we should not bless God and then curse man because when we curse a man made in the image of God, we might as well be cursing God. Yikes! That puts another spin on it, doesn’t it? Understand, we are not talking about using four letter words here, but about maliciously wishing evil upon a person. We are not supposed to do it--not even to other drivers! And James acts like we ought to know this without being told: we should not be cursing men!
Unfortunately, we do not know, or willfully ignore, many such things. We should know God is our Creator and worship him, but for some reason that is hotly debated even among intelligent people. We should know God’s law; he has made it available and easy enough to understand. But even in the church we have “seasoned” Christians who cannot find their way from Acts to Habakkuk without getting lost somewhere in Ephesians, and who think John wrote several “Revelations.”
I wonder if God does what I did the other morning, stand there in shock, staring at a door-less refrigerator, with my mouth hanging open, thinking, “What? That just doesn’t happen.” Unfortunately, it does. You wonder if God is really all that surprised any more. Tell you what, let’s work on a real surprise for him—let’s make sure we don’t do any of those things from now on.
The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider, Isa 1:3.
Yes, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah, Jer 8:7.
Dene Ward
I was putting some things in the refrigerator the other day. Usually the door swings shut by itself, but this time, as I twisted to get the next item, it swung all the way open. Then it quietly fell off its hinges and tumbled shelf side down, dumping pickles, olives, ketchup, three kinds of mustard, Worcestershire and soy sauces, homemade jelly, butter, cream cheese, and my super special ordered-from-California eye medicine onto the floor, leaving the rest of the refrigerator wide open and humming. For a moment I just stood there, stunned. We have been through several refrigerators—a couple of cheap ones that came with the apartment or trailer we were renting at the time, and a couple of secondhand ones. But this one was a recommended model we bought new. Never have we had a refrigerator door fall off, not even the inexpensive or used ones. Refrigerator doors do not fall off.
Don’t you know that is how God feels at times? We can find several passages where he laments our actions, saying, “This is not supposed to happen,” at least in substance, if not verbatim. James 3:10 is a prime example: Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not so to be. James tells us we should not bless God and then curse man because when we curse a man made in the image of God, we might as well be cursing God. Yikes! That puts another spin on it, doesn’t it? Understand, we are not talking about using four letter words here, but about maliciously wishing evil upon a person. We are not supposed to do it--not even to other drivers! And James acts like we ought to know this without being told: we should not be cursing men!
Unfortunately, we do not know, or willfully ignore, many such things. We should know God is our Creator and worship him, but for some reason that is hotly debated even among intelligent people. We should know God’s law; he has made it available and easy enough to understand. But even in the church we have “seasoned” Christians who cannot find their way from Acts to Habakkuk without getting lost somewhere in Ephesians, and who think John wrote several “Revelations.”
I wonder if God does what I did the other morning, stand there in shock, staring at a door-less refrigerator, with my mouth hanging open, thinking, “What? That just doesn’t happen.” Unfortunately, it does. You wonder if God is really all that surprised any more. Tell you what, let’s work on a real surprise for him—let’s make sure we don’t do any of those things from now on.
The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not consider, Isa 1:3.
Yes, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah, Jer 8:7.
Dene Ward
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