As human beings we have...
Illustration
As human beings we have short memories! God had just wrought an enormous act of liberation for the people and had seen them through the desert years. Now as they prepared to enter the new land they were reminded of God's audacious claim to hold the ultimate keys for life, good, and the blessing of long days.
In our success and self-determination of the latter twentieth century, it is not easy to take our literal reliance on the beneficence of God for our well-being. Is this any less true today? Israel was a combination of faith and unfaith in respect to this equation, not much different from us. Like Israel, given that we accept God's ultimate power, we often want the blessing on our timetable and on our terms. Like Lucy van Pelt we want to move from one "up" to a higher "up" without any "downs in our lives."
In coming to our class reunion, a classmate recounted a close call as his airliner took off. Suddenly it lost power in one engine just as the wheels were retracted. The plane dropped and lurched diagonally toward the runway. Somehow the pilot and crew righted the stricken plane, lowered the wheels again, and made a high-speed landing. All were grateful. Yet, as the delay (while luggage was transferred to another plane) wore on, bitter grumbling soon emerged!
In our success and self-determination of the latter twentieth century, it is not easy to take our literal reliance on the beneficence of God for our well-being. Is this any less true today? Israel was a combination of faith and unfaith in respect to this equation, not much different from us. Like Israel, given that we accept God's ultimate power, we often want the blessing on our timetable and on our terms. Like Lucy van Pelt we want to move from one "up" to a higher "up" without any "downs in our lives."
In coming to our class reunion, a classmate recounted a close call as his airliner took off. Suddenly it lost power in one engine just as the wheels were retracted. The plane dropped and lurched diagonally toward the runway. Somehow the pilot and crew righted the stricken plane, lowered the wheels again, and made a high-speed landing. All were grateful. Yet, as the delay (while luggage was transferred to another plane) wore on, bitter grumbling soon emerged!
