Devotionals

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Larry Lilly’s Letter Thursday August 4, 2005

Sunday past I spoke to the sleepy saints at our church on the importance of being mindful of the Wonders of God. The text was Nehemiah 9:16-17 with the emphasis on the statement of the priests acknowledging to God that they had failed to be mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them.

Verses 16 and 17 form a bridge between an outline of things not minded and a fuller description of God’s mercy, grace and provision for His people in days long gone. This prayer/confession teaches us the utter necessity of knowing our heritage. Certainly Americans have a heritage worth knowing and through this knowledge possessing the wisdom to be ever mindful of God’s wonders in our midst over the years.

Each group will be encouraged when the time is taken to journey along memories lane and realize afresh the goodness of the Lord. Many churches in failing to do this lose sight of the prize and rely on the prognosis of the world in matters of business and faith. For shame.

And what of the families that fail to give serious thought to the goodness of Christ along the way. Joyce and I often walk down Memory Lane and relive the miracles in our life along these 41 years of marital bliss and pain and hurt and….Yet through it all God is good.

The principle of being mindful of God’s wonders is one that is stated easily, yet one that we all fail to practice religiously, THANKFULNESS.

For the last several months I have been training my grandchildren’s puppy, Max. He knows what street Green Acres, the ice cream place is on and as soon the turn is made he goes bonkers with joy. He knows ice cream. In a few years I will train him to sit and fetch, but hey, he’s only young once. The other day just as I made the turn, he noticed for the first time horses grazing in the field. Max fixed his eyes on the horses and turned all the way around as I drove away. He looked in that direction until the road curved and he could no longer see them. The horses were a wonder to him and he was mesmerized by them. I have been making the turn for years, and I had never noticed the horses. I had failed be mindful of the absolute wonder of a horse.

I do have a sense of wonder when I watch The Great Blonde make attempts at training Max. He thinks he is getting a music lesson for he plays her like a violin!
I found the following un-attributed illustration and I think it expresses what I have tried to say in this article:
‘A father and daughter were flying cross-country from New York to Los Angeles. The little girl kept looking out the window and exclaiming: "Daddy, Daddy, there's a river ... Look, Daddy, there's a farm ... and a barn. Daddy, Daddy, look at that hill down there ... and there's a beautiful pond with all sorts of ducks in it." The father was busy reading a book, and kept repeating "uh, huh, uh, huh," until he became a little irritated, then embarrassed by his daughter's excited chatter. Finally he turned to the passengers seated nearby and apologized: "Please forgive my daughter. She still thinks everything is wonderful."’
Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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