The other day I sat down for some lunch on our new side patio, you know the one with the pavers I put in last fall. It is nice to sit down for just a moment in the sun, while eating a sandwich. As I looked down at the pavers I noticed a stream of ants walking, no really scurrying, between the pavers. They were moving along, at a pretty good clip, for ant, to what ever place they had to go.
I dropped a piece of bread thinking it would be nice for them to not have to travel so far looking for food and they could take some back to their nest. A couple of the ants stopped to taste this new morsel, but most just kept trucking along to their destination. I thought, why don’t they stop and enjoy this tasty morsel or at least take some of it home.
Most of the ants seemed so intent on their goal they couldn’t take time to enjoy this special offering I gave them. They continued to scurry on without stopping or even noticing this special treat.
This is just like us sometimes, isn’t it? We get so caught up in our task at hand that we can’t stop to notice those special opportunities just handed to us, even when those opportunities would make life so much better and easier for us.
God gives us special opportunities periodically to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, a rainbow or sunset, or for those early ones, a sunrise. Sometimes the opportunity may be a chance to offer someone, who is having a hard day, a kind word. Sometimes it is to help someone pick up the groceries they just dropped.
Last week I saw a young woman at the post office, who didn’t have quite enough money to pay for her package pickup. Then a man in line behind here pulled out his wallet and gave her a five dollar bill. He told her to take it so she could pay for her package. He told her it was okay to accept this from him. Her relief at being able to get the package was a dramatic change from the distress on her face just a moment earlier.
This man saw an opportunity. It wasn’t something which immediately benefited him, but the smile and change of that woman’s posture warmed everybody’s heart, all those who were standing in line with me, including, I am sure, his.
What opportunities are out there for you? The ants couldn’t be swayed to divert their attention, even if it was more beneficial for them, but then we aren’t ants are we?
Let us keep our eyes open to recognize those special gifts God gives us and if we use those gifts we will be living in the kingdom between Sundays.
Watching and hopefully living, between Sundays with you,
Pastor Randy
