Last week I was going to make a gift for a friend who had a very special occasion. Being on a low budget these days, I remembered that I already had an unused glass lantern that I could use to make something memorable for the event. It would work well with the theme of the event and be simple and useful, too. All I needed was something to write on the glass with.
So, for a few days I had planned on stopping by an arts store to buy a paint marker or two to do the decorating and add the effect. I kept forgetting, until the other day as I was sitting in my room, I thought, I could probably just find a few usable markers in something like CVS. So, I went to CVS and found a few sharpies, the permanent markers that write on everything.
I brought them home and busted out my artistic skills to decorate the lantern, using all the colors I had. It came out great, and after I was done, I went to put the markers away. Where will I put them? I decided I’d put them in the pen container on my desk, the one that’s right next to my computer monitor that I look at every day. As I picked it up, I noticed something: I must have done this before, because those same four markers were already sitting there in the pen holder.
I took all the time and spent $7 to get a package of markers that I already had, that were sitting right in front of me every day. I never noticed. And I never thought to really check out what I already had.
One day, people were asking Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come, and how would they recognize it. He says, don’t go looking for it: it’s already right in front of you. They were looking right at the kingdom of God, they were right in the middle of it.
But they didn’t think to check out what they already had.
If you feel like you’re searching for something in life, if you feel like something is missing in order to give good gifts and express yourself, you don’t have to go right out searching.
First, check out what you’ve already got.
“The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Lk 18:20-22)
ALM 