"'God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" - Hebrews 13:5b
She didn't do anything wrong as I look back on it, but let me tell it from the perspective I had when I was four maybe five years old.
We were in the Kroger grocery store in Kingsport, TN. My mom was pushing the shopping cart, my baby sister was in the seat of the shopping cart, and me, well, I was following the shopping cart around, at least, until she left me.
I'm sure that it was I, who wandered off, or who maybe got mesmerized by all that sweetened cereal: Cap'n Crunch, Lucky Charms, Boo-Berry, and Cocoa Puffs.
Whatever the reason, all I know is I came to my senses and realized that she was gone; my mom was gone.
And I freaked out.
I can almost still feel the panic-adrenaline that was rushing through my veins. I started to yell "Mom! Mom! Mom!" And I distinctly remember feeling like I was in a fog in a tunnel that created an echo chamber. Nothing in the world existed except me and my lostness and seemingly miles and miles of grocery aisles. And yet as big and fast as my adrenaline rush was, it seemed as if I was going at an equally slow-motion as I raced from one empty aisle to another, looking for my mother at the Kroger grocery store in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Looking back, the whole sequence felt as if it were a scene that could've been played out by Randy "Mommy's Little Piggy" Parker in the movie "A Christmas Story." It all felt so bizarre.
After all, I was lost and left and forsaken.
And then just like that, poof, tadahhhh, she was right there. Out of thin air. There was my mom. I hadn't seen her in hours (or so it felt). And yet she said something about having been right there the whole time and that it was all okay.
In the end, all I knew was that the feeling of being lost and left and forsaken was a feeling that I never wanted to experience again.
Which is why I give thanks for God's promise 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you' (Hebrews 13:5b).
Because just like in the Kroger, if I'm feeling lost and left and forsaken in the world, then it's probably not because my mom or my God has left me. It's probably because I wandered off, or maybe I got mesmerized by all that sweetened stuff: wantin' to be the Cap'n (Crunch) of my own life, hopin' to get Lucky (and Charms) in some lottery, tryin' to be so (Boo-)Berrrrrrrry important, and gettin' all (Cocoa) Puffs-up in my head because I think that I know everything.
As the old saying goes, "if you're feeling far, far away from God, then guess who probably moved!"
After all, "'God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you'" (Hebrews 13:5b). And you can take that promise to the bank.
And it probably wouldn't hurt to take it to the Kroger grocery store too.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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