My Message from 12/13/06

Message Theme: Determining Your "I-Sight"

There was a young boy who just absolutely adored his grandpa. He would often spend time doing the things that his grandpa did even if he didn't know the purpose of what he was doing. The boy would always find his grandpa reading the bible on his front porch every morning. This very much intrigued the young boy, and being that he adored his grandpa so much, he began reading the bible himself. After reading through a good portion of the bible, he approached his grandpa and said, "Grandpa, I've been reading the bible just like you and I'm not really sure what it means. I don't understand what it says to do and I feel as if I'm not the right person for it. I want to believe what I'm reading, but at the same time, I think I'm missing the purpose of the text".

The boy's grandpa was very encouraged by his grandson's efforts, but did not provide to him an explanation. Rather than answering his question, he handed to the boy an old dirty woven wooden basket and directed him down to the stream located in front of their house to retrieve some water. The boy eagerly accepted the basket and headed down to the stream as instructed by his grandpa. As the boy approached the stream, he quickly submersed the basket under the water and pulled it back out. The boy noticed that the wooden basket had open cracks in it, which resulted in the water leaking out of the basket. With the water leaking out, the boy ran as fast as he could back to his grandpa. By the time the boy had arrived back to the front porch where his grandpa resides, the basket had completely lost all of the water the boy had retrieved. His grandpa said, "Where’s the water?". The boy said, "Well grandpa, I filled the basket up completely to the top and the water leaked out because of the cracks in the basket." His grandpa then said, "Go back down to the stream and try again."

The boy headed back down the stream as he wanted to fulfill his grandpa's request. The boy filled up the basket as he did on his first attempt, but this time ran back to his grandpa even faster than he did the first time. He approached his grandpa with the basket and his grandpa said, "Where's the water?". The boy, who's now growing a bit disheartened, said, "It's not possible Grandpa. The cracks won't allow the water to stay in the basket!". His grandpa then responded by saying, "Try harder son. Now go down to the stream and get me some water from the stream using the basket that I provided to you". The boy once again made his way down to the stream and attempted to retrieve some water for the third time. Only this time, the boy was sighted walking back to the front porch with his head down. Once again with an empty basket.

His grandpa said, "Where's the water?". The boy replied, "It's useless grandpa. No matter how hard I try or how fast that I run, I can't provide to you any water through this basket." His grandpa could see the disappointment in the boy's eyes. The boy's grandpa then said, "Take a look at the basket, son. This basket was once filthy and now it's clean due to your efforts. Now we can use this basket for what it was intended to be used for."

How many of us live our lives through our own eyesight? Most, if not all of us, tend to behave and do the things that we do based upon what we think will accommodate us in our favor. As in the story that I wrote above, the boy had expected to see or feel something that would benefit him from reading the bible. Just as he assumed that he'd be able to deliver water through the cracked basket to his grandpa. You see, the bible calls us to do things that our own eyesight doesn't always allow us to comprehend. We often jeopardize or stray away from God's "I-Sight" because we are not obedient through His own eyesight. I think we've all heard the saying, "Hindsight is always 20/20". Well, when we live through God's "I-Sight", our vision of today and the future is always 20/20.

Grace and Peace,
Mavsluva

Good Read !!