"You Forgot"

It was a sunny, sleepy afternoon and Elaine and I lay down for a nap.  This is not an uncommon occurrence on weekends when I am on call.  Even doctors get tired...

At some point, during our attempted snooze, a dark figure in a trench coat surreptitiously wandered down the hallway to our bedroom door.  It looked both ways and then crouched down, slipping a scrap of paper beneath the door before darting back down the hallway to begin studying about birds again.

So it was that half an hour later, Elaine discovered on the floor of our bedroom a cryptic message, written in pencil.  "You said 'I would make cookies on Sunday' YOU FORGOT"

That was all.

Of course, Elaine hadn't forgotten, she had just decided that such a project could wait until after a nap, but Vince was sure that she had.  He had waited enough of the afternoon for the promised cookies to appear and when they didn't, it was time to take matters into his own hands.

In the course, of time, Vince did get his cookies.  Chocolate chip they were, gluten-free, and tasty enough to satisfy an eight-year old's appetite for sweets.

The Bible is full of promises as well.  Some are good, promises of strength and victory, and some are promises of coming judgment.  It is awfully easy to read those and believe that God has forgotten at least some of what He has promised.

Second Peter says that "The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

In the midst of discouragement, it is tempting to thing that God remembers us no more.  That He doesn't care and that we are on our own, swimming against a current that threatens to sweep us over a waterfall that would make Niagra look like Hindostan Falls. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

God is faithful.  He doesn't forget His promises and when He says things like "I will never leave you or forsake you," that's just what He means.

If there is one important thing, it is to remember that God has a plan and that nothing can shake that plan for you and me.  And nothing will shake Him up or make His plans for us come to naught.  That's awfully comforting when it feels like things are falling apart.

Or when chocolate chip cookies don't appear at the right time on a Sunday afternoon.