In 2015 I had the satisfaction of self-publishing my devotional book that contained 366 readings of “Daily Grace and Truth from the Treasury of God’s Word.” The title, SONGS IN THE NIGHT, was based on Psalm 42:8, “By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” I dedicated it to my young granddaughters Keri and Kelly, who for a time lived right across the street and shared both nourishing breakfasts and “God time” with me routinely.
As described on page one of my foreword, I told them the following story about their Uncle Peter, my youngest son. He was in kindergarten when he stitched a felt bookmark for me. I opened his gift on Christmas Eve and gasped with pleasure that got him a big hug. Why? The wobbly letters stitched on the pink felt read “WOW.” It felt very special until the little guy matter-of-factly told me I was holding his handiwork upside down. That turned me back into a plain MOM.
“I believe God has a comparable problem,” I wrote. “To a majority of Western earthlings He is simply a distant religious entity called God, or a nebulous Higher Power. Clueless, they ascribe no WOW factor to His Being. That is not true for you, Keri and Kelly. You thrill me often with your spontaneous exclamations of wonder at God’s creative genius or His redemptive love. If you continue on this blessed path, you are joining the company of those early Christians of whom it was said, ‘They have come here also to turn the world upside down.’
If today’s Christ followers ache to turn our sorrowful world right-side up, the proper WOW cannot be a gush of spiritual puppy love. The fitting adult version boils down to WORSHIP – OBEY – WALK THE TALK. Even so, I seemingly betrayed the maturity matching my gray hair, when I recently stated, “If truth be told, when it comes to the Bible, I’m like a kid in a candy store who urges those with that kind of sweet tooth to come in and indulge it to their heart’s content.” Please take the hint before I ramble on with Licorice Luke, Toffee Timothy, Jelly-bean Joseph, Heartburn Hezekiah…