My Shadow

I have a shadow. He is only about 2 1/2 feet tall and weighs 35 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. I see him when I am in the midst of some task that I am trying to complete in a hurry. He loves to help me do the laundry by pushing the basket full of clothes down the hallway (and bumping into the walls and leaving a trail of clothes behind). He'll put the cups in the cabinet after they are cleaned (and still wet instead of letting me dry them first); he'll place the groceries on the belt at the check out (some of them will fall to the floor and we come home with dented cans of spaghetti sauce). He loves to be at my feet as I cook dinner or wash the dishes (opening and closing the dishwasher after every single item is put in). He is my helper.

Every once in a while, in the midst of my frustration, God will get through to my stubborn head and help me see that I act the same way. Just as with my son, the process always seems to take so much longer and a greater mess is usually created when I go about "helping". He tells us to do something and we do it in our own way-not His way. I was reminded of Sarai and Abram when God promised them an heir even though they were so old. She got impatient, and didn't get pregnant when she thought she should. So what did she do? She offered her husband her servant girl, Hagar. God had made a promise, but she could only see what was in front of her. She was impatient and confused and so she did what made logical sense, if she couldn't get pregnant, she knew her servant girl could. I wonder what God would have done if they only would have been still and waited. His timing is so different from ours. "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness." (2 Peter 3:8-9a)

I can look back on my own life and see how many times I have gone about the Lord's business in my own, human way and failed. I will worry about things and try to fix them. I'll call a friend to vent instead of telling the only One who can truly fix my problems. So often I have been like Foster, grabbing the clothes or the situation out of God's hand and trying to do it my own way. What I failed to see, was that I was really just getting in His way.