Dear friends,
A blog in a slightly different vein.
My post today is about a card game. By the way this is a super fun game that is great for playing these days! Let’s call this post the parable of the cards and the spoons!
To play this game you need one less spoon than there are players in the game as well as a shuffled deck of cards. Each player is dealt four.. The dealer then looks at the top card of the main pack, and checks if it matches any of his/ her cards. They then decide whether to keep it or pass it on. The next player checks and passes on each card that they do not need, and so on. All of this happens very fast that the aim of the game appears to be collecting a set of 4 cards of the same number. Everyone is extremely focused on this task. Meanwhile, the spoons are set in the middle of the table in plain sight. The moment that a player has completed their set, they reach for a spoon, as discreetly as possible. As soon as the other players realize, they must also grab a spoon as fast as they can. As there is one less than there are players, a player is left without a spoon and loses. If you lose 5 times you are out of the game.
My question is, while the world is focused on the cards, what is happening with the spoons and what are they? I believe it is good to have our minds, hearts and spirits alert to the voice of our Father who knows and sees all things. Let us all cry out with one voice: “Abba, what are you saying at this hour? How do you want us to respond? A key prayer that I have sensed for this time is for discernment, unity and humility, and then to pray against the opposites; i.e. deception, disunity, and pride.
How can we prepare for what is to come and have our lamps filled with oil, while reaching out to those around us that do not yet know Him?” To die in Him is gain, but to die without assurance of salvation is terrifying. May we grasp the urgency of the hour in which we live and see it with heaven’s perspective.
I was given a practical example to share with you just a few weeks ago. My mother asked me to call an elderly relative who was unwell. After a few days I had time to sit quietly and call him and he was so happy to hear from me. He shared many sensitive things with me, including that he really wanted to die so that he could go to be with his wife, my Grandma who had died a number of years ago. He said ‘I do not know what is at the end of the tunnel, but I hope that I will go to the same place as her.” Normally I am not so bold, but I sensed some urgency so I asked him directly: “do you believe in Jesus as your saviour?” Without hesitation he responded ”yes!” Just a few days later I got a phone call from my mother to let me know that he had died peacefully in his sleep. It blessed me so much to know where he was and to be able to pass on that comfort.
Let us not hold back, but lift up our voices, proclaiming salvation while there is still light to work for soon the night is coming when no-one can work. John 9 v 4.
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