God's Accuracy - Dave's Deep Thoughts

 

Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.

 

Usually when someone says,

you couldn't hit the side of a barn,

it's a negative comment.

But my question is....

what if they can?

I have a long driveway,

so I rarely see or notice "the tossers."

You know who I mean......

the newspaper people,

the waste disposal people,

the bulk trash people.

They come daily or weekly....

rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

And for their services,

I am very grateful.

In addition to being punctual,

they also have very good aim.

Sides of barns are no problem for these people.

Let me explain

I live on a farm property,

so conditions are often muddy.

Puddles remain for a long time

as the driveway is in low lying terrain.

Now the driveway is a standard asphalt driveway,

ten feet wide,

making it a very easy target for the tossers.

What is a far greater challenge,

is for the tosser to hit the 6 inch puddle

that is twelve feet from the road.

Bulls-eye!

I don't know how they do it with such accuracy.

Shaquille O'Neil would kill

to have such accuracy at the free throw line.

And yet they do,

while in a moving vehicle.

The Harlem Globetrotters

would be envious of such trick shots....

Olympic marksmen

would be drooling with envy.....

Carnival workers

would live in fear of such marksmen

approaching their tossing games.

If it's not a puddle,

they'll nail the top of a 6 foot snow drift.

One time,

they got it under a sheet of ice.

You might assume that I don't have a newspaper mailbox,

but you would be wrong.

For some reason,

the tossers would rather practice their tossing.

I have tried to read

water soaked box scores,

frozen obituaries.......

Dear Abby often has frostbite.

You would think a thin sheet of plastic wrap

would protect papyrus from the fury of nature........

you couldn't be further from the truth.

But it's not just the newspaper tossers.

They have nothing on the waste management tossers.

It's a plastic recycle container......

They pick it up.

Logic would say that they put it down.

Not so much.

My guess is that these tossers

have probably not studied aeronautical engineering.

If they did,

they would know that on windy days,

an air foil will launch a tossed plastic recycle bin

into the stratosphere,

thus causing it to land in far off pastures, ditches, & creek beds.

Livestock have found great joy in chewing on my recycle bin.

Joggers have added hurdling to their workouts to get past my property.

Neighbors have found my recycle bin/flotation device down stream.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful.

I really do appreciate the services that tossers provide.

Sometimes, I just wish that my trip to the end of the driveway

wouldn't feel like a game of "Where's Waldo?"

But I think I found the answer.

At Christmas I placed cookies in the newspaper mailbox

(that would be the normally empty box)

It snowed that day,

so I was prepared to find my paper under a drift.

To my surprise.....

there in the box was my newspaper,

all comfy, cozy, and wrapped in cellophane.

Alas, Christmas only comes once a year.

For the other 364 days, the tossers choose to toss.

As much as love my tossers,

I love my Lord even more....

for He doesn't wait for my small gifts of gratitude

before He begins to toss.

For He takes all my shortcomings,

all my failures, and all my imperfections,

and He tosses them right where they belong......

onto the cross.

And His accuracy is 100%

There is no need to search anymore,

for I know where to find what I am looking for.

And although I am sure the Lord

appreciates any acts of kindness that I give to Him,

He doesn't wait to deliver what I need to where I need it.

Rain, snow, sleet, hail...

nothing stops the faithfulness of God.

Each day, I have the choice of offering the Lord pleasing sacrifices,

not because I think it will cause God to hit the side of my spiritual barn,

but because I know He already has.

May you know the same faithful tosser.

As for my human tossers,

today is bulk trash day,

and I'm placing a refrigerator at the end of my driveway.

I'd better bake an extra large batch of cookies.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:23

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