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Home Sweet Eternal Home

miss_tpa
Nov 14, 20227 min read

Many people find it hard to choose a good gift. I’m certainly one of those. I think because of this, I am not so fussy when it comes to receiving gifts. I am definitely not like Rachel Green in Friends who would return gifts for a better one. There are many types of gifts I like, one of them is gift cards. I received a gift card for my birthday in 2021 and kept it on standby, to be used at an opportune time.

Now where I precisely kept this card on standby soon became a mystery.


I just couldn’t remember where I placed it. I tried to look in the various places it could possibly be and didn’t find it. The card was for a good amount so I couldn’t just give up on looking for it. What consoled me was the card was valid for 2 years, so I had time to look for it. You know what I did though. Yep, I still prayed about it. May be not with urgency like a prayer for healing, but I did pray to find it.


Time to time I’d think about the gift card especially when I looked in my wardrobe and discovered that yet again despite the many clothes I had, I didn’t have “anything” to wear and needed to go shopping. I’d try to look for it, wouldn’t find it and would give up only to continue this cycle months later. One time I was going on a trip and wanted to buy holiday clothes. I thought of the gift card and was determined I would find it. I looked everywhere and still nothing. I decided that I needed to make peace with the fact that I’d lost the card because I looked everywhere and just couldn’t find it.


One thing with me, even though sometimes I say I’ve given up on something (usually not a life changing thing), a few days later I find myself working on this very thing that I alleged to have given up on. Another trip was coming up and I was convinced I was going to find this gift card that was being very stubborn and disobedient. You can guess the outcome. This time I really did make my peace that I had misplaced it. There was no where else I could look, absolutely nowhere.


A friend of mine came to visit me one time. I hadn’t been feeling well days before and we had decided we would just order takeaway. Most of the places we tried to order from were not opening till 5pm on all the digital takeaway platforms. I decided to look for the takeaway flyers that I had kept over the years. I have a junk drawer that I keep…junk. It is full of a whole bunch of junk and papers and when I saw the state of it decided it needed a good sort out one of these fine days. Not sure which day exactly, but one day soon. I opened the drawer and rummaged through it for the flyer. I thought to myself, surely the flyers are usually long and glossy how can I miss finding the silly thing.


I have noticed a pattern in my life’s travels. If I set out to look for something, especially important life changing things, I usually don’t seem to be able to find it with relative ease. I have to put so much effort. This becomes especially frustrating because it seemingly looks like other people find the very same things with relative ease. I stress, or so it looks. Comparison is the thief of joy and I think true knowledge also. Sometimes we think someone got the job “easily”, but we don’t know the real struggles, sacrifices and pain they went through and in fact it was far from easy. On this day I think God knew where my thoughts would lead to and as I continued looking for this flyer in this junk drawer that I’d been in several times even in that week, I found something I had been looking for, for a long time, or so I thought.


I didn’t find the flyer, but I found the gift card! Just like that! “Thank You Jesus” was the next thing I said. I had to explain to my friend who must have been wondering, what kind of flyer is tiny and rectangular and damn girl are you that hungry you’re going into praise now that you’ve found the takeaway flyer. I couldn’t believe it. I had been in that junk drawer every day that week. When I had been searching for the gift card, it was the first place I would always look at. The way I found this card was so “silly”! Just like that! I found it.


The next day I was going through my wardrobe, trying to pack some items for an upcoming trip. I want to blame British houses for being so small that sometimes you end up shoving unrelated things in one space. No! I won’t blame myself. It is the design of the small houses, I repeat small. I find my shoes are in the same space as gift bags containing gifts to be used e.g., unused perfumes, birthday cards (I keep those for the beautiful words written), empty gadget boxes with the instruction manuals inside, etc. As I’m going through the contents to see if there is any gift I can now use, what do I find? A gift card and money that was probably from a birthday card. But wait, which gift card did I find yesterday?


The gift card I found the previous day was one I had been given as a token of appreciation and the one I found with the money was the actual gift card I had been looking for all this time. Again! Look how I found it in a “silly” way and when I was not looking because I thought I had already found it the previous day. I had totally forgotten about the token of appreciation gift card, so that means I had also forgotten to look for it. I found what I was looking for and what I wasn’t looking for! And I didn’t even pray for the token of appreciation gift card, because how do you pray for something you’ve forgotten about? Imagine my excitement when I realised what happened and that I’d found them. Do you think I went to those thoughts of woe is me who can’t find things with relative ease? Not at all! God is good!


My K.P.M.G God (see K.P.M.G post) cares about every big, every small and little thing in my life. I may forget about it, “give up”, actually give up, but because He is “responsible for me” (Pastor Kimberly Mann), He will make sure the same power and might that let him do the big things for me, will be the same power he does the “little” things. Not only does he make sure and sees to it personally that he works out the things that matter to me, but he also makes sure he shows me that some of my thought patterns or beliefs I have are not true, because the God of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego has powers that far exceed any limiting beliefs, physical or memory barriers.


The God of Abraham not only provides a way where there is no way but provides a way when you didn’t even know there was a need to make a way! The God of Jacob will wrestle with those negative thought patterns that makes us view the world with lenses branded with the F.O.L, Father of Lies, i.e., the one who is devoted and committed to steal, kill and destroy us in any way he can especially through our thoughts, minds and spirits. The God of Hagar knows how to make you see that the well is right there in front of your eyes. You’re looking far and beyond and what you seek is right under your nose.


Most importantly Jesus who helped the blind man see clearly when initially he couldn’t see, then saw men who looked like trees walking, will do the very same for us. Why? We need to see clearly. Not just see the things we have missed like I did, but we need to see we have a Wonderful Counsellor who will help us through the big and small things of life. We have a Mighty God who nothing can ever defeat, so what will man or lost things do to me? We have an Everlasting Father who has promised us that these big and small things of life will one day end and we will have Everlasting/Eternal life. A life where we will search no more, we will not have any dominant negative thought patterns, we won’t compare ourselves to anyone else because we will all be the same, singing and dancing for the victory we will be experiencing together.


Our sinful nature that sees lack will be gone and never more to be seen. The only thing we may look for is which song to sing next as we give praises to our Forever King. Not these kings who die. Not the King of Wakanda. The King who defeats death! The King who has given us the chance to one day sing “O Death where is thy sting!”. A Forever King that gave us this chance by dying for us. Not because he loved pain, suffering, persecution, torture, being spat on, being struck, being nailed to a cross, dying and showing off that he can defeat death. A Forever King that wanted to save us. A Forever King that sacrificed his life for us because he Loves us like that. He loves us like no one ever will.


Even if you had 300 spouses and 700 concubines like Solomon did, they would all not love you like Jesus does. It wouldn’t even come close. A Forever King that wants us not only to gain victory on that day, but right here in the land of the living. A Forever King who says so long as we have him, we have EVERYTHING! Yes everything. The external things you can buy and the internal things you can’t buy even when you have £114.5 billion like Mr J. Bezos. A Forever King that wants to give us riches that transcend this earth. Not riches we will leave behind. Not riches that the moth and dust will corrupt. Not riches that thieves whether at the funeral home, residential home and grave will steal. A Forever King who wants us to live in a fearless way because He is with us always until the end of time. What time is that you ask? Ask him on that beautiful day when he comes back to take all of us home sweet eternal home.


Related verses

Mark 8:22-25, Isaiah 9:6, Matthew 6:19–20, James 5:2, Matthew 7:7, Psalms 139:1, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalms 145:17, Psalm 31:19, John 8:44, John 10:10, Daniel 3, Genesis 22:13-14, Genesis 32:22–32, Genesis 21:19, Revelation 17:14, 19:11–16, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, John 15:5, Matthew 28:20



Next post: 20/11/2022


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