Devotion November 16, 2016
15/11/16 22:56
Greetings!
What a glorious morning!
For a while all of these devotions were about that awesome summer adventure to California to watch my daughter as she competed on the TV game show Jeopardy. In fact there were so many devotions about Jeopardy that I figured it was getting a little annoying so I even wrote a devotion about how annoying my devotions were becoming since they all had to do with the Jeopardy event - that will forever go down in the annals of one of the most spectacular events. But since I haven’t mentioned this most wonderful occurrence for a while I decided it was time to return to the Jeopardy theme (admit it - the Jeopardy theme song is going through your head right now isn’t it…..)
When you are a contestant on Jeopardy all expenses are paid by the contestant - travel costs, hotel fees, meals. However Jeopardy does request that you stay in a particular hotel - mainly because the van from Jeopardy shows up at this particular hotel to transport the would-be-players to the TV studio to participate in the show.
And it was a very nice upscale hotel. I guess to give the contestants an added incentive to win their game and make some money so as to offset the expenses that have incurred in order to be a part of this great experience on the show!
So because we are good rule followers, we stayed at the hotel we were told to stay in.
We flew in to the LA airport and made our way to the hotel. We were pretty disoriented from the time change but we were able to get a good night’s sleep so we could get my daughter up really early the next morning for her big TV debut.
We made it up in the morning and wanted to make sure the daughter was well fed so she would have the nutrition necessary to give her spectacular energy to compete to her best ability.
So down to the main floor of the hotel we went and we spied the food serving area. Now we are from the culture that stays in hotels where there is a complimentary breakfast…. and not seeing any signs or other notifications to the contrary, we assumed that this particular breakfast bar was what we were used to….. complimentary.
Of course we were a little taken back by the quality of the food at this particular breakfast bar and we became a little concerned when a waiter dressed in a very dressy black suit showed up at our table asking for our drink order and automatically pouring us a delicious cup of coffee….. However this was California and we just figured things were done a little differently on the west coast.
We made a couple trips to the very delicious food bar complete with a chef with the tall hat who made ‘eggs to order’. Admittedly it was a great breakfast and my daughter still had plenty of time before the Jeopardy van was to pick her up.
It was then that the aforementioned waiter shows up at our table with that little black folder that waiters carry when they are bringing you the bill for your meal……
Well, our assumptions about the breakfast were not correct. It was not a complimentary feature of the hotel and when I looked at the bill I realized that I was about to pay more for this particular breakfast than I had ever paid for any meal ever in my life….. It was quite the surprise and with the tip I imagine it was the most I would ever pay for a meal ever - not something I had anticipated when we sat down to eat breakfast so that the daughter would be a well nourished contestant!
What a wonderful thing to know that in our relationship with God we never have to worry about being surprised at the pearly gates with a ‘bill’ for our entrance into the presence of God! What a wonderful thing to know that the fee for our relationship with God has been paid and paid in full and we never have to fear a time when God sets us down and says - “You just thought this was free - in reality you are going to have to do this or that or pay this or that….” I think sometimes we worry about this happening, but it will not. We can be 100% sure that every cost for our eternal association has been paid - paid once and for all - no questions asked!
Isn’t that great? No worry about assumptions; no worry about misunderstanding Jesus’ work for us; not ultimate concern about our eternal life. Great news!
Amen!!
What a glorious morning!
For a while all of these devotions were about that awesome summer adventure to California to watch my daughter as she competed on the TV game show Jeopardy. In fact there were so many devotions about Jeopardy that I figured it was getting a little annoying so I even wrote a devotion about how annoying my devotions were becoming since they all had to do with the Jeopardy event - that will forever go down in the annals of one of the most spectacular events. But since I haven’t mentioned this most wonderful occurrence for a while I decided it was time to return to the Jeopardy theme (admit it - the Jeopardy theme song is going through your head right now isn’t it…..)
When you are a contestant on Jeopardy all expenses are paid by the contestant - travel costs, hotel fees, meals. However Jeopardy does request that you stay in a particular hotel - mainly because the van from Jeopardy shows up at this particular hotel to transport the would-be-players to the TV studio to participate in the show.
And it was a very nice upscale hotel. I guess to give the contestants an added incentive to win their game and make some money so as to offset the expenses that have incurred in order to be a part of this great experience on the show!
So because we are good rule followers, we stayed at the hotel we were told to stay in.
We flew in to the LA airport and made our way to the hotel. We were pretty disoriented from the time change but we were able to get a good night’s sleep so we could get my daughter up really early the next morning for her big TV debut.
We made it up in the morning and wanted to make sure the daughter was well fed so she would have the nutrition necessary to give her spectacular energy to compete to her best ability.
So down to the main floor of the hotel we went and we spied the food serving area. Now we are from the culture that stays in hotels where there is a complimentary breakfast…. and not seeing any signs or other notifications to the contrary, we assumed that this particular breakfast bar was what we were used to….. complimentary.
Of course we were a little taken back by the quality of the food at this particular breakfast bar and we became a little concerned when a waiter dressed in a very dressy black suit showed up at our table asking for our drink order and automatically pouring us a delicious cup of coffee….. However this was California and we just figured things were done a little differently on the west coast.
We made a couple trips to the very delicious food bar complete with a chef with the tall hat who made ‘eggs to order’. Admittedly it was a great breakfast and my daughter still had plenty of time before the Jeopardy van was to pick her up.
It was then that the aforementioned waiter shows up at our table with that little black folder that waiters carry when they are bringing you the bill for your meal……
Well, our assumptions about the breakfast were not correct. It was not a complimentary feature of the hotel and when I looked at the bill I realized that I was about to pay more for this particular breakfast than I had ever paid for any meal ever in my life….. It was quite the surprise and with the tip I imagine it was the most I would ever pay for a meal ever - not something I had anticipated when we sat down to eat breakfast so that the daughter would be a well nourished contestant!
What a wonderful thing to know that in our relationship with God we never have to worry about being surprised at the pearly gates with a ‘bill’ for our entrance into the presence of God! What a wonderful thing to know that the fee for our relationship with God has been paid and paid in full and we never have to fear a time when God sets us down and says - “You just thought this was free - in reality you are going to have to do this or that or pay this or that….” I think sometimes we worry about this happening, but it will not. We can be 100% sure that every cost for our eternal association has been paid - paid once and for all - no questions asked!
Isn’t that great? No worry about assumptions; no worry about misunderstanding Jesus’ work for us; not ultimate concern about our eternal life. Great news!
Amen!!