November 10, 2010

Graffiti – Part 3

I wrote down their names, their mother’s names as well as their phone numbers and I assured the girls I would be calling. Within half an hour one mother and her daughter returned to our house with a profound apology and I give kudos to both the mother and daughter for taking responsibility. As for the other mother, I left a voice mail asking her to call me, but when she didn’t return my call, I called her again. This mother was totally unaware of the situation and seemed agitated as I explained what had transpired. It was revealed that not only was the mother not told, the child also erased the voice mail from her mother’s phone. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:13 NIV)

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----It is fortunate that all things are laid bare before God’s eyes. He will eventually deal with them all. The meantime is the problem. In your case, you were able to discover and tear apart the veil of deceit this young lady wove to cover her mother’s eyes. And that was key to your effecting the cures for the damages she did to you and to herself. I believe God worked the circumstances allowing this deed to be laid bare before her mother, to whom she also owed an accounting. The witness in your house was just the first circumstance He effected within a line of other circumstances which finally eventuated your discovery of her deceitful erasure. Your demand for her accountability worked the situation into His hand by which He could effect something in her life through her mother. But it does not consistently work that way in this temporal life.
-----Last February, someone stuck the nozzle of a fire extinguisher through the mail slot in my office door and discharged it. I was left to clean up the mess myself. Yet the mess in someone’s heart who did this to me may have never become cleaned up, because I had no circumstances like yours for bringing this person to temporal accountability. While I was cleaning up the mess, I often thought how nice it would be to have that someone beside me where I could forgive him, and where we could clean together while laughing and discussing the nuts and bolts of social life. However, I am left in a position of no resolution for his side of the event because I could not bring address to what needed attention in his character for his benefit. The possibility of resolution for the damages done to himself I only have through prayer that God will work other situations in his life, bringing his character flaw to a temporal accountability so that he will not be held accountable on the Day of Judgment (not to mention the greater joy he would experience before then by having had some additional character improvement.) Getting caught can be a gracious thing.

Love you all,
Steve Corey