Abbey sat sipping her first cup of coffee and waiting on the oven timer to tell her when it was time to take out the coffee cake she was preparing for Jonathan's breakfast. She was deep in thought, mulling over in her mind the sermon that Jonathan had preached earlier in the week. He had preached on, "The time is now." He had used the scripture in Isaiah 55 about seeking God while He can be found and calling on Him while He is near. He had told them that God was coming to save, and that He was going to be looking for something and someone. Jonathan had been preaching on salvation hot and heavy lately. They had several lost in the church that seemed to be really close. The whole body seemed to be hurting over the condition of the lost and praying that it would be over soon. Then they could rejoice over the new birth.
This Sunday the air was particularly thick and there was a heaviness on the sermon even more than usual. They all knew that the Spirit of God was hovering close by. Before the sermon was finished, several were already in the altar praying and crying over their friends and family, begging God for help.
Abbey felt a tremendous burden, it was just as if she herself was lost. She recognized it as the Holy Spirit burdening her for the souls of others. She began to pour her heart out to God, "Oh God help them!" By this time the ache in her soul was so great that all she could do was cry. No words would come, but she knew that God could hear the prayer in her heart. It seemed only minutes, but in actuality it had been almost an hour before the crying and praying stopped. Suddenly there was silence in the whole place. There was not the peace in her heart like she had hoped for, but something was going on. She raised her head in anticipation to see Jonathan talking to one of their lost ones in the altar. She could not hear what was going on, but she could only hope it was going to be good news. Finally they all heard Jonathan say, "It's okay son, God is patient. He is a God of timing, not a God time. He knows that you want to believe. He will help you, and when the time is right, He will come again. When he does, you obey His command and it will work. Just in time, He will snatch you up and save you, just as you realize you are headed for destruction. You can bank on it. God will lose none of His." With that statement, Jonathan hugged the young man and stood up. Abbey felt a hopeful disappointment in her heart. She was not quite sure what had happened, but she planned to ask Jonathan later.
The walk across the parking lot home was silent. She knew that Jonathan was also disappointed. She felt so sorry for him. She knew that he did not take the responsibility of a lost person's soul lightly. It made her heart ache to see the look of failure on his face.
She asked him to explain what had happened earlier, "What did you mean when you told Pete that God was a God of timing not of time. You also said in your sermon that God was coming to save, and that he would be looking for something. What was God looking for?"
Jonathan began to explain to her about God looking for a broken heart and a contrite spirit. "But Jonathan, his heart was broken. I saw him, he was in great travail. For that matter, the whole church was in great travail. There seemed to be enough brokenness to save the world today."
He smiled, "Looks can be deceiving, Only God knows the heart. You are right, God was there and there was a lot of brokenness and travail." He continued to try and explain to her, but he could tell by the look on her face that even though she believed his words only God could bring her understanding. Suddenly, his own mood lightened, "ONLY GOD COULD BRING UNDERSTANDING." He may not have helped her, but God had helped him. He had not failed. He had given them what God had given him, and God would bring understanding in His own good time.
Abbey had been talking to God and rereading the scriptures all week. Here it was Wednesday, time for another sermon and she still had not gotten a hold on the last one. "God please help me. I want to understand. How do you know if your sorrow is enough, or if it is the right kind? Did I just assume that I got saved? Was my sorrow enough? Forgive my doubts and unbelief. I know that you owe me no explanation of what you do, or how or when you do it, but God, if it be your will, please show me."
God began to bring to her mind a day last summer that she had forgotten. She had been reading a book, when she began to notice a shadow passing by her windows. First the front of the house then the back. From where she sat on the couch, she could see both den and dining room windows, as they were straight across from each other. The shadows passed over several times before her curiosity got the best of her. Finally she got up and went to the back door to see what was going on. She witnessed something she had never seen before. There were two tiny mocking birds using her yard as an airport. They looked like small airplanes flying a test pattern. They were swooping, soaring, dipping and landing, just to take off and do it all over again. She wondered where the mother was, probably chasing the cat as usual. Poor Tom had spent the entire summer dodging an over-protective mother bird. She had been watching for quite a while when she noticed that they seemed to be flying pretty close to the ground. They seemed to be trying to land. They were flying way too fast and did not have their little landing gear down as before. She was pretty sure that they were going to crash and either she would be burying them, or Tom would be rewarded for his humiliation over the past summer. Just in the nick of time, from out of no where, came the mother bird. With no regard for her own safety, she swooped dangerously low to the ground and lifted them up on her own wings to safety. "Wow! that was too close for comfort."
Just a little later they had changed course and where not flying side by side, but toward each other circling and dipping, soaring and landing, sometimes coming close to colliding. But one would lift or circle just in time to avoid collision. Except once, neither bird seemed to notice that they were on the same flight pattern. They were both flying at break-neck speed, right toward each other. "Oh my, this is it. Where is their mother this time?" she remembered thinking. Again from out of nowhere, came the mother to their rescue. Just as they were inches from sure death and destruction, she flew in between them catching their attention, causing them both to change patterns. Once again, Abbey realized how all mothers, animal or human, would go to any length to save their young, even without regard to their own safety.
"God that was good to remember, but what has that got to do with this?" Before she could make sense of it, she was brought back to reality by the sound of the oven timer. "Um, breakfast is finally ready." She had been smelling it for a while, and she was dying to taste it. She opened the oven door, and with her mitt she pulled the rack out. The coffee cake looked done. The streusel topping was a perfect golden brown. She sniffed, it smelled done, but just as she tugged on the oven rack she noticed that the center seemed to jiggle slightly. She checked the center for doneness and found it to not be quite ready. Since it was a new recipe, she double checked her instructions to make sure that she had the oven and the timer both set right. She was right. Maybe her oven temp was off slightly. She turned up the temp and added a few minutes to the timer. Then she sat down to sniff and wait as patiently as she could.
Just as she started to pour her second cup of coffee, she heard God say, "Just because something looks and smells done on the outside doesn't mean that it's ready on the inside. Looks can be deceiving. That is why I always look on the heart. I always test it for doneness. Just like I did you, when I saved you. There were times when you looked and smelled done on the outside, but I knew that your inside was not ready. So I turned up the heat and waited patiently for the heat to finish what it started. Just like the mother bird, I stayed nearby watching to protect you from destruction and death. If you remember I saved you just in the nick of time, before your soul crashed. My timing is never off. I am always willing, ready, and able to save. Just as you were ready to hit bottom I snatched you up on my wings of love. Trust me, I know when the time is right, and I will never miss."
Abbey almost dropped her coffee cup, " I got it, I got it!" she almost shouted. "Thank you Lord."
"You got what? Hope it's not catching, and what is that wonderful smell?" said a voice from behind her.
"I think I finally understand what you tried to explain to me. Yes, I hope it is catching, and the wonderful smell is God's love. Oh yeah and coffee cake." She began to recount for him all the things God had been showing her, in great detail, careful not to leave out one tiny thing. "Well, what do you think?" she asked.
"By George I think she's got it!" he laughed. "But I knew that you would. Now dear, can we eat? I'm starving."
God does not look at time the way that we do. He looks on the heart and bides his time waiting on the heart to get done in the middle. He never accepts a half baked Christian. They will have to be done through and through.
What do we do in the mean time? We wait and
pray
never forgetting where God brought us from, and those that waited and
prayed
for us. Be confident, that God will pull them through just in the nick
of time.
- Kate Fuqua