For what profit is it to a man if he gained the whole world and lose his soul? Or what will a man give n exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:25
This year our daughter-in-law asked if she could host Easter and have lunch at her house. For the first time in probably 7 years we went somewhere else for Easter and all I had to do was to make the bread, fix a salad and bring a dessert. Our son smoked the pulled pork ribs and ham while our daughter made some vegetables and a bread pudding for dessert. Bailey, our daughter-in-law went all out, buying some china and even made the cloth napkins into bunny ears. It was really nice not to carry the bulk of Easter dinner this year once I let go of the tradition of “grandmother” hosting Easter. When I asked about the egg hunt, our daughter-in law and daughter said they even had that taken care of. As soon as we arrived after church, the girls excitedly showed me all the eggs they were going to hunt and the youngest one went to a nearby box and pulled out a golden egg and proceeded to tell me that it was the ultimate prize and how it important it was to find it because it had something special in it. After a wonderful lunch, Bailey and Jacelyn went outside and hid the eggs while the girls chatted excitedly, our grandson is just 19 months old and did not understand the excitement. When we finally went outside, it took him a few minutes and then he finally caught on and filled his bucket about half full, stopping to open each egg and taste some of the candy. At first the girls frantically picked up every egg they could see, and K.R. had to go back into the house to get a bag because her bucket was full. Then the girls started walking by the eggs, leaving eggs scattered all over the yard. As I stood there wondering why they were not picking them up, one of the girls asked me if I could help her find the golden egg. I walked around the yard with them looking in every tree and bush and we did not find the golden egg. Finally, Bailey pulled the golden egg out of her pocket and said they did not hide it because there were three kids hunting for it and it did not seem fair for just one to get something special. After they girls realized that there was not a prize egg, they went back and picked up all the eggs around the yard. The kids had a great time and each of them found more than enough eggs while we just enjoyed watching them have fun. In the days that followed, I kept thinking about the kids and the fun they had. As I replayed the egg hunt in my mind, I felt the Lord begin to compare the kids’ egg to our adult behavior. It is so easy to get so wrapped up in finding or accomplishing something that we walk pass the blessings God has so abundantly placed all around us. I understand that it is important to have a goal like buying a home and to work toward that goal, making some small sacrifices and even working overtime to save the money for a down payment. But if we are not careful, we give up the precious years we are allotted to enjoy our small children working a second job to accomplish that goal. Or maybe we do not celebrate holidays and take vacations because we want to meet our goal and when the kids are grown, we realize we were so focused on the goal that we did not create a lifetime of memories for them to look back on. It is not all about the gifts or money, but when our family talks about the “good old days it usually revolves around the time we spent together as a family. Having your own home is an honorable thing to have especially as we age and face retirement knowing the house is ours and we have a place to live from now on. There are women in the bible who had to share their husbands with another woman, and it seems like the one that was most loved was always barren. Even though she had her husband’s heart and was given a bigger blessing like Rachel (Jacob’s wife) and Hannah (Elkanah’s wife and Samuel’s mother), their desire to find the “golden egg of having a child led them extreme behavior. (I cannot imagine the stress of sharing my husbands love and bed with another woman, and to have that woman effortlessly get the children my heart longed for. No wonder Paul clarified that marriage is between one man and one woman.) Rachel, the one Jacob worked 14 years for her hand in marriage, was so desperate, she brought a third woman into her marriage by giving Jacob her hand maid to have children for her with. Hannah was given a double portion of all that Elkanah had and when she went on their trip to the temple. She was so distraught her husband noticed her heavy heart and told her he loved her the most. She refused to eat and went to the temple to pray and her heart so longed for a child that she sounded drunk to Eli when she prayed. (Hannah did the right thing and took her concern to the Lord!) Look at Samson, he could have chosen any Israelite single woman to be his wife, but he had to have a Philistine woman. The Philistines oppressed the Israelites for years during that time in their history. He was not going to stop until he married her (even though God was clear that they should not marry someone who served any other God but Him.) and she ended up betraying him and marrying his best man. They hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to look at the end of their story and point fingers at the wrong decisions they made, if we are all honest, there is probably at least one time in our life, that we let the glitter of the “golden” egg blind us to the blessings God has placed all around our feet and we walk by them or even walk over them.
A person’s soul is their mind, will emotions and affections, and we are cautioned here that we could get all the world has to offer and lose yourself in the process. Maybe you take every shift at work to prove you are the right person for the promotion and end up training the person who they promoted over you. Or you think that one more college degree will prove I am somebody and we just spend our life getting one degree after another, ending up with more degrees than a thermometer. Sometimes the desire to be in the “in crowd,” we compromise our conviction and become someone who we do not even recognize. While we are chasing the allusive dream or goal, we carelessly walk all over the people God has blessed us to have. Or we have so dictated telling God how to make our life worth living that we refuse to enjoy the small things that make give life meaning. (I do not know about you, but sometimes it is the small things that turn into some of my biggest treasures.) You all know the story of the person trapped n a roof in flood and God sent a boat to pick them up then a helicopter and when the waters overtook him, he got to heaven mad because God did not rescue him. I wonder how many things I have not appreciated in my lifetime and what blessings I have walked over not understanding the goodness of God, but am leaning on my own understanding instead. Zechariah 4:10 asks “For who has despised the day of small things?” While the things we deem insignificant may end up being the difference between a full satisfied life and a life endlessly searching. Song of Solomon warns us “The little foxes that spoil the vines for our vines have tender grapes.” I wonder how many times we abort the new thing that God is trying to do the in our lives to bless us because we think they are not worth picking up, looking for the next big opportunity or achievement. Maybe God chose to send the answer to your prayer through a person you have unforgiveness toward so you reject the answer. Or maybe we are like Naaman in 2 Kings 5 and God tells us to do something we think is beneath us like dipping 7 times in the muddy river, and we are angry because “Someone” did not do what we wanted them to do and tells us to get in the mud instead. Had Naaman not obeyed the voice of God, he would have never been healed. Those around him encouraged him repeatedly to be obedient. Will you be honest with God and ask Him if your “golden egg” is in His plan for you? Will you allow Him to show you the priorities that you have in the wrong order. Will you ask Him to open your eyes to the blessings that He has surrounded you with that you have handled carelessly? Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:18 that “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” We serve a good God who wants to bless us, and I do not want to miss any of the blessings He sends my way searching for something He does not deem significant.
Cathy Nesmith