June 14 - Joshua 9:25

And now we are in your hand:

do as it seems good and right

in your sight to do to us."

Joshua 9:25

When I was about nine, I spied a cardinal on our back deck. I don’t know how I did it, but I quietly slid open the screen down, creeped across the back deck, reached out, and caught the cardinal!

… or at least … I dreamed that I did.

It’s still so vivid that it seems real … but in the light of day, I can’t possibly imagine the bird not flying off.

The key for today’s lesson is … what did I do with the bird? (It sqwalked, and I let go! Maybe it wasn’t a dream! In a dream, I would have kept it as a pet. It would sit on my shoulder and talk to me like a pirate’s parrot. It would have been my conscience like Jimminy Cricket, right?)

Nevertheless – dream or not – a little life was in my hands. (And I doubt the little guy was submissive enough to be sqwalking, “do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to [me].”)

Our little life is in God’s hands. How does he care for us?

Israel wrestled through this as they were tricked by the Gibeonites. Just as they had made a covenant with Gibeon, God had made a covenant with them. If they broke the covenant with Gibeon, did God have grounds to break his covenant with them?

They didn’t want to take the chance! They were merciful to the life they held in their hands.

What if we elevated our word, our promises, and our covenants to the same level that we want God to keep his promises to us?

In Christ’s Love,

the bird catcher

(or a dreamer)