Carl Sandburg, in his poem The Fog wrote, “The fog comes on little cat feet.” I have discovered that God often comes the same way in our lives. We all look forward to the big jolts of supernatural awareness, some great thing that God has done that is unmistakeable, majestic, and mind-blowing. But all in all, those times are few and far between for our stimulation needs.

In reality, the God Who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), does more day-by-day in our lives that, when taken together, far outweigh the jolting moments of supernatural awareness. It seems to me that God much prefers and greatly enjoys the quiet, unseen movements in our lives. I think God enjoys our wake-up realizations that “He was there all the time,” as the song goes.

In fact, He has said to me, “I am at work in the quiet places, and the corners, and the edges of your life. Places where you maybe haven’t thought to look for me.” And I realize that that knowledge makes me very comfortable and peaceful.  He does say, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Col. 3:15).

I am glad that God comes on little cat feet, in the every day, hum-drum times of life – because there are so many more of those than the WOW times.

What Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, thought had come too late, Mary, the mother of Jesus, thought had come too early. It is amazing, isn’t it, that what we desire of the Lord seems never to come at the time we think it should.

Zacharias had prayed and prayed for a baby. His wife was called “Elizabeth the Barren” in their home town, and among the priestly families. He was no longer praying for a baby because he and Elizabeth were too old. In fact, the angel said, “Your prayer was (not is) heard.” Even the angel knew that Zacharias had given up. And now the promise had come, seemingly too late!

Mary was so young, and only espoused to be married. So she had not begun to pray for a baby. She was just making wedding plans. Maybe she had dreamed of someday becoming a mother, but that was just a distant dream. Gabriel had to do some explaining to Mary. The promise was here, ready or not!

We have our own ideas about when we think things should occur. Invariably, our timetable does not fit reality. That may be some of the reason for our reactions to rejection and unfavorable comments from others.

Take a look anew at the Christmas story, and be of good cheer! He who calls, produces. Yes, it takes our hard work, our faith; but He is the one who produces, as He will. It was even prophesied of Jesus, “. . . and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.” Be ready! The vision will come to pass, and “we shall reap if we faint not.”

PS. The difference between Zacharias and Mary? He questioned the fact, she only questioned the mode?

Do you remember when Jesus was passing through Samaria to Jerusalem and he sent messengers ahead to make a place for him? The Samaritans would not receive him. The disciples asked, “Do you want us to command fire from heaven and burn them up?” The scary part of that story is that they really could have done that! Jesus never indicated that that was far-fetched or impossible for them. Instead Jesus rebuked them because they had the wrong spirit. He said, “The Son of Man came to redeem man.”

On occasion you do or say a really dynamic thing, something that you know everyone should be standing in line to hear about. Instead, they just seem to miss the whole point. Or maybe you have just had the idea of the century — something that will sell like hotcakes; alas, no one is even slightly excited about your idea.

Now you come to the place where you begin to contemplate calling down fire from heaven. You may call it “giving a piece of your mind”, “reading the riot act,” or some such modern phrase. But it still translates roughly into the same action as the disciples, at least in spirit. And that, as Shakespeare says, is where the rub comes in. Your spirit is all wrong.

Okay! You can’t do that, so you just make a firm decision that you will never share again. Or you decide to be eccentric and do things “only for myself.” What you have to say is too good to waste on an unappreciative world. That is a sneaky way of calling down fire.

Instead of “calling down fire”, recognize the “fire that is shut up in your bones”; that fire which God has placed there. Let that fire of His Word burn out the dross of your unregenerate personality. Allow the rejections and the unappreciative friends and family to sharpen you, as “iron sharpens iron.” Determine that rejection and lack of appreciation will only make you a stronger, better person. Even fire can be a handy tool!

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After Jesus had risen from the tomb, the disciples were instructed to wait for him in Galilee.  While waiting, Peter and company decided to go fishing.  They had fished all night without any luck.  Coming close to shore, they saw Jesus.  He asked them of their catch and they had to admit their failure.  It is hard for expert fishermen (or anyone) to admit that their experience, practice and knowledge of the territory have produced absolutely nothing in their behalf.

Now comes the strangest command yet given to a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus said, “Cast your net on the right side of the ship.” Greek is a word-picture language, and the word “net” is no exception.  It is made of a number of words, and a literal translation of the word is “that instrument you cast over the left side of the ship to bring fish in with.”  Did you catch the irony?  These great fishermen did not know how to throw the net over the right side of the ship.  And if they did so, it would no longer be called a “net”!

Talk about culture shock!  Talk about being totally lost in a deep fog!  Talk about confusing!  Of course, you know the story; Peter and company obeyed and brought in 153 fish in a net that could not hold that much — and the net didn’t break!  Wow!

What do Christians  need that this world doesn’t have?  They need the ability to change at His direction. No longer a secret, that is the ingredient that is most sorely needed among Christians.

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When the women went to the tomb on that early first day of the week, they expected a lot of things.  They expected to find guards on either side of the stone.  They expected difficulty in opening the tomb to finish the burial anointing of Jesus.  They expected a lot of tears as they remembered the life of the One they were anointing.  But they did not expect an empty tomb.

That seems rather interesting in this twentieth century.  We know that Jesus promised to rise from the dead.  Why didn’t they?  Surely they heard him say what we have only read.  Persepective is an interesting phenomenon.  Nevertheless, they were amazed, stunned, surprised, bewildered, and all the other emotions of astonishment.  The tomb was empty!

What happened?  Did the guards take his body?  Did his enemies?  Did his followers?  Thank God, He placed angels nearby to explain.

The empty tomb makes us believers different from all other peoples.  We celebrate “emptiness.”  We rejoice that the body of our Loved One is gone!  We actually say things like, “Have you heard the good news?  The tomb is empty!”  We laugh; we thank God; we plan celebrations about this emptiness.

No other religion would react as we have if they found the tomb of their founder empty.  There would be investigations and recriminations.  There would be tears shed, and anger expressed.

That is the difference.  Our God is alive.  Their gods are dead.  You can find their graves, and they are quite full of bones.  All conversation with their gods has ceased because they are dead.  All hope of seeing them again is gone because they are dead.  But our God is alive!  See . . .  his tomb is empty!

We need not gather at the empty tomb, as others gather at their full tombs.  Jesus said, “Where two or three of you are gathered in my name, I am there.”  On the street, in the home, in the restaurant, on vacation, overseas, or wherever we are, Jesus is with us.

Our gathering is a place where we visit with Jesus.  We see him and hear him and touch him and are touched by him.  What a fellowship!  What a joy devine!  What wonderful EMPTINESS!

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