A month ago, my friend’s father came by my father’s house to help me with some electrical work. We were updating all the electrical outlets and switches in the house. He’s a master electrician – I was the apprentice.
One of the things he gets to do, being a master, is change the outlets without turning off the power. Now that can be a very dangerous thing, right? A good zap of 120 volts through the body on a hot and sticky summer day and I could end up in the hospital. But I trusted him, and after a little teaching session, I was off to change outlets and switches on my own without the power turned off.
The first one went fine. The second one was a little different. I first knew something wasn’t going right when I got a little zap from the metal box in the wall. Then, while I was trying to move a wire around, all of a sudden there was a big spark, a loud smack, and switch came out of my hand.
I was OK. The switch was OK. The outlet was OK.
But after that, I made very sure that the power was off before I touched an outlet.
So, later on, his wife Mary came by to bring us some food. She had just the meal that he liked, with a thermos of tea that perfectly hit the spot. She came by again later with some low-sugar pudding for a snack, just what he was looking for. Low-sugar because he’s diabetic. “Are we going to have some dinner?” I asked with my belly grumbling. “Oh no, this is all he needs. Just this snack,” Mary answered. She seemed to know exactly what he wanted, just what he needed, and she got it for him.
So, as we got to talking, my friend’s father joked that he may not have enough gas in his car to make it home. Now, in the language of their 50-year marriage, that really meant that he didn’t have any money on him.
So Mary opened up her purse, took out a few bucks, and gave them to him.
I’m thinking, what this guy does is amazing with electrical work, and here he is, this master electrician who can change electrical outlets without turning the power off, who risks his health doing it, and all the fruit of his work, all the pay he receives from it, all his money, is his wife’s. She holds everything and she decides where it goes.
Why does he hand everything over to her?
Because she knows just what he wants and she gets it for him. She loves him and listens to him.
God does amazing things, right? He does things that we could never do, He is the Master. But, for all that, His wife holds all His treasure. Mary holds all the fruit of his works. She keeps all God’s treasure in her heart. She holds everything and she decides where it goes.
Why does God hand everything over to her?
Because she knows just what He wants and she gets it for Him. She loves Him and listens to Him.
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38)
God desires to give us His gifts, His treasures. They are ours to have. If He trusts us. If we love Him and listen to Him. “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (Jn 14:23)
This is very nice.