As we live our daily lives, we find that over the years there have been very good times and very hard or bad times with every day struggles thrown in. Perhaps you’ve raised a family, a loving spouse, perhaps children, family pets all whom you’ve loved very much. You pray to God regularly, more than some, perhaps less than others, yet you pray faithfully to God. You thank God for all He has seen fit to grant you like; your family, your home, your job. Perhaps you thank God for the gifts given to you at birth such as; Your musical talent, your ability to learn and remember even the most minute details, your ability to love and accept love, your charity and humility.
You go to church every Sunday, missing very few. You volunteer for events at your church and in your community, give as generously as you can in the collection plate and of your time. You become a church elder and help decide what is best to keep your church and its parishioners faithful to God. You consider yourself a true and faithful Christian. You believe that God will look upon you pleasingly and assure you a happy life and entry into heaven.
Then one night you have a dream, in this dream you stand in a field marked off on either end with a goal post. In this dream you see two faces, one a kind and benevolent face and the other is that of a horrid creature. One face hovering at either end at their respective goal post. You cannot understand the words spoken between them, because it sounds ancient and mostly gibberish. Now it looks as though there has come an understanding between the two faces, they vanish and you are left alone in the field. And you wake up! There is an awful banging on the door! You dress quickly wondering where your spouse is, they were there when you went to bed because you remember kissing him/her goodnight. You remember tucking in your child or grandchild around 8, watching some show on the tube with your spouse before retiring to bed because you have to get up early for work or that golf game with friends. But that dreadful banging.
When you answer the door there are two policemen standing there with solemn looks on their faces. They politely ask you to come inside and ask you to sit down. You ask what it is about, and they tell you! They tell you with saddened faces that your entire family has perished, including the family pet. They tell you that they have never heard of a thing such as this. In one or many catastrophes you are alone. The life you have built has been shattered in one day.
Now think! What would you do? Would you pray to God? What do you think you would say? Would you praise God, or would you curse God for taking or allowing to be taken from you, everything you held dear? Would or could you remain that true and faithful Christian you so deeply believed you were or are?
I cannot truly answer this question, Can you?
As you live your life, with all the struggles, good times and bad, remember Job, and what you would do in his shoes…
Peace be your journey,
Rick Pickett