May I Have Your Attention, Please?
This morning, besides being woken very early by allergy coughing, I was fascinated watching the interaction between my wife’s dog and my cat.
I have always been more of a cat person and my wife more of a dog person but both of us are pet people so we love them and they love us. It just so happens that, as an early morning person, my cat gets up with me and joins me as I spend quiet time in the morning before my wife gets up (side note - if you are a morning person, it is a great time of day to read your Bible and other daily devotion activities). She, my cat, snoozes on my lap while I recline and read, etc.
This morning, really all week, has been different. My wife is out of town so I’m home alone. The dog happened to get up promptly with me in my early morning coughing fit and followed me into the living room. He’s a pudgy little dog and can’t jump very high. So, he whimpered to be hoisted onto my lap. He got there before my cat.
You should have seen the look of disgust on her face. I could tell she really wanted to slap the stuffing out of him (they are pretty close to the same size), but she knew that wasn’t appropriate. She did manipulate herself between my face and him so until I got up, we had a form of detente. When I returned to the chair, he missed the hoisting opportunity and I had to decide whether to listen to him whine or tick my cat off, who was prompt, by getting up to pick him up. The third time (ok, I drink several cups of coffee in the morning among other miscellaneous activities), he was prompt in the hoisting stage. All these times, my cat made sure to position herself between my face and him.
This made me realize that little kids do the same thing when their parent is talking to another adult by interrupting them for whatever reason (for example, mom, mom, mom, can I have a snack?). Unfortunately, this made me realize that, far too often, adults do this to one another also. There seems to be this common theme of “owning” the person you love and being “jealous” when you don’t have their complete attention.
The obvious question for me, at this point, was whether we do that with God. Unfortunately, at least for me, I could recall a few times where it probably was true. “Jealous” and “owning” may be way too strong of words but, sure, I can remember occasions where I worried that God’s attention wasn’t on me and whatever I was dealing with or seeing God work in someone’s life and wishing it was me.
“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.” - Acts 7:9-10 ESV
“And Job again took up his discourse, and said ‘Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me, when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil! When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square, the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood; the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth; the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.’” - Job 29:1-12
“When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. Fire also broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.” - Psalm 106:16-18
Praise God that he chooses to work in our lives and according to his sovereign plan.
