One night my little brother, sister and I were coming home from our grandparents’ house. They lived in the same village as we did but at that time streetlights were a future dream and
it was dark and dark is spooky when you’re ten years old.
The road led us past a place where the forest came right up to the road. I was already a bit on edge when suddenly I heard a noise from the edge of the woods, “Grrrrrr…”
Electric charges ran up and down my spine. I imagined there was a bobcat or some hungry animal lurking in the trees ready to pounce and eat us.
Since I was the oldest I figured that I should find something to try to protect us but the only thing available was the pea gravel on the edge of the road. I needed to call in an airstrike and that was all there was–tiny rocks!
Suddenly something burst out of the woods and … and it was the son of our neighbor who had hidden himself when he saw us coming and decided to scare us.
Scared? Me? You bet cha’.
Have you noticed that our backbone often becomes electrified when something surprising happens?
The King Came
Lots and lots of people were asking themselves, “Is this Jesus our promised Messiah? Hundreds or maybe even thousands of them crowded around Him as he trudged the last dusty steps towards Jerusalem.
Then two of his disciples burrowed their way through the crowd and brought him a donkey. Electricity crackled through the crowd as Jesus mounted the little donkey.
Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute. Why are they getting excited over Jesus climbing up onto a donkey’s back? Because hundreds of years before a prophet had a vision of the Messiah coming into Jerusalem riding a donkey. Jesus was making a statement that He was that promised Deliverer.
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”(Zechariah 9:8-10, NIV)
The delirious crowd didn’t know that He first had to pay the price for our sins, that His throne would be a cross, and that He would go back to the right hand of the Father until the time of the end came.
God’s prophets like Paul and Peter told us that He was going to come back and He would fulfill all the prophecies made about Him. He will rule and reign eternally. He’ll trade the little donkey for that white steed of a conquering King that we talked about recently.
“The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4 The Message)
You know what? I’m getting this tingly feeling in my spine.
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Hmmm …
“Teenagers are the least understood among us. We treat them like children and we want them to act like adults.” Philippe Bergamini
Smile—
You spend the first two years of the life of your child teaching him to walk and talk.
Then you spend the next 16 years telling him to sit down and to be quiet.
Mothers of teenager know why some animals eat their own children.
It’s rare that children twist your words. The problem is that they repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said.
Be kind to your children. One of these days it’s going to be them who decide when you go to the old folks’ home.