“Take heed to thyself…” (I Tim. 4:16)
February 12, 2024 - Lawrence and Lucille Mitchell of Vinton, Louisiana invited me for lunch almost every Sunday of the six years that I was their pastor. They were the “canners” of the community and Lawrence built Lucille special shelves for their canned food.
One Sunday morning they arrived at church with noticeably somber faces. When I asked what was wrong, Lawrence exploded, "Those canning shelves crashed last night and all the jars are broken!"
“What do you think God is telling you?” I asked. “Quit feeding the preacher?”… “Stop canning?”
Sheepishly grinning, he mumbled, “No, He told me the nails I used to build those shelves were too short.”
We can’t blame God for self-inflicted calamities. If we carefully examine our fallen shelves, we might find that neither God nor our fellow man is responsible for their collapse.
Maybe our nails were too short.
