Small Favors

Down to two rolls. That’s cause for concern in my house. Three women or soon-to-be women live here. Eighty percent of our guests are women. There is too much at stake for carelessness. I like to keep the toilet tissue sitting out in a basket in my bathroom. It decreases the odds I will run out unexpectedly.

Okay, I realize that a few days ago I was talking about poverty in America (see post 7/13/08), and now I am talking about toilet paper. This dichotomy in my thinking is biblical. It’s laugh or cry, and Christ was known to do both.

God did not design us to think about the serious stuff all the time. He made the day and the night, giving us a cycle of activity balanced with a period of rest. What tragedy could we live through without a time of relief, if we could not laugh often from the deepest part of our souls?

Our God has a sense of humor. Jesus wasn’t necessarily being stern when He talked about shoving a camel through the eye of a needle or about the Pharisees who would strain out a gnat but swallow a small farm animal. Picture our Lord with a bemused smile as He delivers these teachings.

In his book Jesus: Man of Joy, Sherwood Wirt writes, “Jesus was a man of such gladness of Spirit, such freedom and openness and magnetism in His attitude, that He was irresistible.” I don’t think Jesus minds if we take a break today and think about a basket of toilet tissue as the critical lifeline it can sometimes be.

May you feel His grace today,
Gail W.

The last Word:
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.
Luke 10: 21, NIV (emphasis added).