“There’s an extra space!”
“What? Show me!”
My daughter pointed to the typesetting error. It was a slightly greater space than one would expect between words. I was impressed that she discovered the error although not at all surprised. She was exercising her skills as a previous editor in chief of her high school yearbook. We were looking at my son’s senior yearbook, three years after she graduated. As she pursued the pages, she identified more errors such as photos that were slightly out of focus, awkwardly worded banners, and even typographic errors. Even after my daughter pointed out some of the errors, it was still difficult for me to recognize them. Some details are only discovered if one has a mind that is prepared to recognize it. Unlike my daughter, I did not have a background in editing. She was shaking her head as I was nodding my head. “Very impressive, Sweetheart! You obviously learned some very valuable skills!”
Attention to details.
It is a skill set that can serve us well in life and in our walk with God. The Bible shares a very important example that transpired between our Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples. During the three years that Jesus taught His disciples, He revealed to them in very great detail the facts about His imminent suffering, death, and resurrection. Yet, in spite of His disclosure, the disciples didn’t understand.
His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.
John 12:16 (NLT)
Jesus revealed all of the details of His mission yet the disciples were not prepared to receive it. It was only after the Resurrection and God, the Holy Spirit filled each of them, did they understand all of the details Jesus shared with them.
In our spiritual walk with God, we should always seek to have a mind prepared to receive God’s teachings. It seems like an easy and desirable goal, yet, like the disciples, we often fail. It is because we still wrestle with our sinful nature. A wise man eloquently described this struggle, “I have two dogs living in me–a mean dog and a good dog. They are always fighting. The mean dog wants me to do bad things, and the good dog wants me to do good things. Do you want to know which dog wins? The one I feed the most!”
Let’s nurture and feed the Holy Spirit who indwells within all believers in Jesus Christ. When we do, we will gain the attention to details that God desires all His followers to have. We will have eyes to see and ears to hear God’s glory!
Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.
The Bereans Blog 