There
are a multitude of things people do to increase their chance for success; many
of which have more to do with superstition than ambition.
Of
course, in terms of the negative, we are all familiar with the admonition not
to walk into the path of a black cat, and avoid walking under ladders or
breaking mirrors. And then on the proactive side, there are those who consult a
Ouija board, fortune teller or daily horoscope.
I have
often thought how foolish it is to invest trust in a few ‘prophetic’ words
which may have been dreamed up by some fat guy at a kitchen table, and
submitted to a newspaper for publication. From my way of thinking the so-called
“signs of the zodiac” are, after all, such a crock, as if the entirety of
earth’s population can be divided into neat little cookie-cutter groups, and
the date on which we were born has anything at all to do with our destinies. As
someone once said, “It’s not the stars which ought to be worshipped, but rather
the God who made them.”
In the
past week, we just stepped from one decade to another, and we find ourselves in
the year 2020. (Sounds like a TV series or eye exam, doesn’t it)? And as one
year gives way to another, it is common, at least in the South, to eat black-eyed
peas, pork and corn bread on New Year’s Eve. Someone came up with the theory
that doing so would guarantee the consumer success in the forthcoming year, and
the certainty of being alive to celebrate the next New Year’s Eve. However, given
the promise of Hebrews 9:27, (go on, look it up) I’m prone to believe that a
number of people who eat this stuff won’t be with us a year from now.
Pt. 2
As a
man who has always been prone to think for himself, rather than simply buying
into such notions which I have previously enumerated, I have rejected all of
the above. Why, there have been times I have tested my so-called ‘fate’ and
purposely walked under a ladder, or walked into the path of a black cat. Not
only so, but I avoid eating the standard fare on New Year’s Eve, in favor of
something more tasty, and I wouldn’t read a horoscope if someone offered me a
hundred dollars.
However,
something happened this past New Year’s Eve which got me thinking.
To be
sure, this particular something got my attention big time, and encouraged me no
end, and from my way of thinking served as a promise for the entire year to
come.
For you
see, as I was looking out my living room window, I noticed a tiny creature, the
likes of which I hadn’t seen in years; at least not in my front yard. A
sparrow. It was simply hopping around pecking at the ground, and without so
much as a care in the world. And just hours after the ball dropped in Times
Square, I peered out my living room window again, and noticed two sparrows in
the act of doing much the same thing.
And I
could not help but think of the words of our Savior in the New Testament.
Are not
two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground
outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. So, don’t be afraid; you are
worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)
And whereas, I cannot buy into horoscopes and superstitions, the
presence of those sparrows in my yard, and the two thousand year old words of
our Savior are portents of God’s love for me, and His promises to meet my
needs, and to inscribe the next 365 unwritten pages of my life’s volume, and to
do it better than I ever could without His abiding presence in my life.
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending
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