GOD'S COUNTRY

If, as Jesus said, one cannot be a prophet in his own land, then one cannot love his/her hometown until he/she leaves it. Such was the case of high school students who wanted to flee the nest and go to other climes. Any clime. Just so as to leave their hometown.

One student that comes to mind was Billy. Oh, how he thought himself too cosmopolitan for a little rural town in Southern Illinois near St. Louis. He had such disdain for his hometown that I tried to help him cope.

I'd simply call MTV God's country. At first he'd get angry with me. Then it became laughable as I carefully worked it into conversations once a month or so. Then he became convinced that I was completely out of it.

We never got to have a spiritual conversation about why God puts us certain places for certain reasons, and only God's timing is perfect. And how God expects us to bloom where we're planted. And how God sees time both in the past and the future as well as the present. In fact, we might have had a good discusssion about whether God really knows anything about time since it's all the same to Him.

That's not to say that He doesn't know all. It just might not have the same effect on Him, Bill might argue. But His timing is always perfect, I'd respond. He knows just when to tug at our hearts, just when to inflict a conflict in our lives that would strengthen us, just when to reward us with His many blessings.

Blackaby gives an illustration about a parent buying a blue Schwinn bike for his son and putting in the garage until Christmas. When he asks his son what he'd like to get for Christmas, the young boy had much lower expectations. It was up to the father to convince the son that he wanted the blue Schwinn. And that's the way with the Holy Spirit who tries to get us to want what's best for us, what's all ready in the garage for us.

So don't tell me that God doesn't know about time. And place. He put us in God's country, wherever that may be. If you see Billy, please tell him for me.