Did you always do what your parent told you?
I must admit that I did not always. Just most of the time.
We had a huge Weeping Willow in our yard. When I was about 6, my sister and I were outside playing and my mother said to come into the house. I of couse was having none of it. We were having too much fun. I ran and my mother chased me. Because I was short and little, I could run under the branches of the tree. My mother as a result had to fight the branches of the tree. However, on the front steps, my grandmother and sister were laughing so hard that my Mom started laughing too. It was such a funny picture that I laid down on the ground and laughed myself. I knew that I was in for a spanking but it was so very funny. Nonetheless, I missed any punishment that day. It was a light hearted moment that I always loved and remembered from my childhood. We eventually obeyed my Mom but this does not always happen when we as children or adults break the rules.
God expressed His frustration with his people in our first reading today from Isaiah. He said, “If only you had been alert to my commandments, your haappiness would have been like a river.” The message is simple from God. Follow these rules and you will be happy. God wants us to be happy. That is what most people miss when they think of rules and commandments. In this message God is saying that we would have been a great deal more happy and prosperous if we had listened and obeyed his rules.
This is a big takeaway from this reading.
Marlon Brando from “On the Waterfront” …” I could have been a contender.” He was expressing regret, but regrets don’t have to rule your life. Jesus discribes all of us as children. “What description can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other.
What has sin gotten any of us?
Nothing!
The true happiness and peace we all seek is to follow the rules of the Ten commandments that God has set out for us. God know’s that the Devil will tempt us with the pleasure coming from adultery, stealing and other sins. Yet Jesus always has a open door policy. This is the modern day apple that Eve took in the Garden. She missed the message that God wants us to be happy. He still does.
Every morning I look at my picture of Jesus, laughing. I am never sure if He is laughing at me or with me, but this thing I do know that He has my back.
Yet wisdom has been proved right by her actions. The world will tell you to take this path but Jesus knew that the clamor of the world would not stand up to the truth. The truth is we still have the opportunity for that happiness.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
Picture Credit:“Panel with ten Commandments from the synagogue of 1674” is marked with CC PDM 1.0
