Making Room

My books were delivered after spending two days making room in my overflowing storage closet. It took some doing to find a spot for the 30 heavy boxes. Ann and I huffed and puffed, experienced stiff and sore muscles for a couple days, but got the job done. Now I'm spending evening hours autographing books for upcoming events. You can check them out on my website (www.sallybair.com).

Making room reminds me that we all need to make room in our hearts and lives for Christ. Since He's the provider of all good things, including His salvation and acceptance and love, it shouldn't be too hard. But we humans tend to make such things difficult for ourselves. We tend to cling to stuff and things that overflow in the closet of our minds and hearts, when we should be cleaning house!

May you call on the Holy Spirit to help you clean house.

I welcome your comments.

ETERNAL PERSPECTIVES
by Sally Bair

Digging Deep

A hummingbird got its beak stuck in my window screen one day. With difficulty it managed to free itself, thankfully. I suppose it was after the red candy in a bowl setting on my table. I’ve heard of some hummers that even mistake red hats and clothing for flowers.

I enjoy watching hummers in my backyard as they flit from blossom to blossom. Sometimes the nectar is stored so deeply, the hummer nearly buries itself in the blossom.

Anything valuable is worth digging deeply for, like precious metals and gems that lie hidden beneath the surface of the earth. Wisdom does not come easily, either. We must dig deeply in the experiences of ourselves and others to gain it.

Unfortunately, sometimes we dig deeply for the wrong thing, thinking it holds value for us. Our “value-ometer” goes haywire and we end up like the poor hummingbird who got itself in a fix because it zoomed in on the counterfeit. Many things could apply to our tendency to settle for a cheap imitation. I think particularly of food (and drink), which has too many of us reaching deeply in the bags and boxes and bottles of goodies that are sweetened with harmful sugars and other substances. This is only one example where we can easily go wrong.

Jesus talked a lot about the riches of His kingdom. He told the parable of the woman who swept her house clean and searched carefully until she found her lost coin. Her joy spread to her neighbors for having found that one piece of money. Another parable tells about a man who lost one sheep out of a hundred, yet he went after the one and joyfully told his friends when he found it.

Treasures of any kind are worth the hunt. Yet the joy we receive in finding a treasure doesn’t compare to the joy God and His angels express when one soul opens up to Him. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10) There is cause for celebration on the part of God, the treasure hunter, and on the part of those who count Him as their new treasure.
All of us should seek the most valuable treasure of all—Christ who gives us salvation from our sins and eternal life.

Lord, help us keep our eyes on You through Your Word and prayer so we won’t be tempted, like the hummingbird, to mistake the counterfeit for our true treasure. In Jesus’ name, amen.