Devotional - December 16th, 2020

Hi everybody it's me Casper again and I have some things to share with you. My dad talks about this guy named Pastor Dick.  I don't know him, but he seems like a pretty special guy and my dad says it was a privilege to serve God with him. Anyway, one of the things Pastor Dick used to say was we don't have it all together but together we have it all. And that started me thinking. I have lots of time to do that while my mom and dad are at work. My dad says God gives all of us gifts, maybe even me. But nobody gets all the gifts or skills or talents. So that means if we are going to do everything that God wants us to, we have to work together. And it means that everybody is important. From everything I have heard this has been a really hard year so it must mean that working together is even more important than ever.

My dad keeps talking about how so many people are afraid to go out of their houses and how they are watching church on their computers and televisions. That means it is hard for everybody to get together. So then there must be ways to work together even though we are not in the same place. Like everybody can pray at the same time for the same things. And everybody can make phone calls to check up on somebody else. The post office is still delivering mail even if they are sort of slow right now. Because like it or not, we are all in this world together and we are all we got.

I think life is messy and people are messy and sometimes people make mistakes, and they say things or do things that they shouldn't. Or they say things that hurt somebody else.  My dad has a picture on the wall above his desk that is from a book called Psalms. The picture says, ”Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.”  Psalm 133:1. I think that means we are supposed to figure out how to work out our differences and help people rather than make fun of them because they look different or believe different things than we do. And people are already stressed out because of that virus so it would be good if people worked together. Because like Pastor Dick said, together we have it all. Maybe instead of fighting with people we should fight for them.

The man named Paul wrote “I appeal to you brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly United in mind and thought.” 1 Corinthians 1:10. And then he reminded everybody later in a book called Galatians that we are all one in Jesus. That means everybody has a place with Jesus where they fit. There are lots of places in the Bible that talk about everybody working together. I don't know how God can get everybody to work together but if anybody can, it's Him!

I think it is really hard to work together because sometimes we just want to be right and sometimes, we just want to win. That is what it was like when Yoda was still around. He was stubborn just like me and even though I am way bigger and faster, he stood his ground and then I had to show him who the boss was. But it turned out the real boss is mom. Then we had to figure out how to get along because dad said he would open the front door and let us both out. I don't think that would have been a very good thing. Everybody has to figure out how to get along and nobody gets to have their way all the time. Because we don't have it all together but together, we have it all. I think that is what God wants anyway. He probably gets tired of everybody fighting and I bet He doesn't like it when we say mean stuff about other people either. Because God doesn't do mean. He loves all of us, even when we don't get along.

Pastor Dick sounds like a pretty smart man. I think he knew God pretty good and he knew how to say what God wants us to do in ways that are easy to understand. My dad says God broke the mold when He made Pastor Dick. I don’t really know what that means but I think that it's a good thing. The important thing to remember is that we can't do life by ourselves. We need other people, and they need us. Because we don't have it all together but together, we have it all.

In His Grip
Casper Wiswall