She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she’s put aside, plants a garden. First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started. [Proverbs 31:16-17 (MSG)]
The Proverbs 31 woman (or man) has what our Florida pastor calls “opportunity awareness.” Where others may see an unplowed field, he or she sees a vineyard. Their vision is not just of what exists now; it is of what can exist in the future. A perfect example of “opportunity awareness” was demonstrated recently by a child who sold a lizard trap to our pastor after church. This little boy gathered up plastic containers from that Sunday’s treats and cut small holes in their lids. To catch a lizard, one just had to put a little food in the box and a lizard would climb in and be trapped. He even had two lizards in another container to demonstrate his product! This little boy didn’t see a plastic carton destined for the recycling bin—he saw a way to capture lizards (and to earn some money).
God presents us with opportunities all of the time; we just have to open our eyes to the possibilities. Spencer Smith worked for 3M and was trying to create a super-strong adhesive when he discovered a somewhat useless un-sticky glue. A solution without a problem, it was nearly five years before one of his colleagues saw its possibilities. A choir member, he tired of losing the paper bookmarks in his hymn book. He tried coating his paper markers with Smith’s glue and Post-it Notes were the result. George de Mestral took a look at the burrs that got caught in his dog’s coat when hiking. Instead of seeing an annoyance, he saw the possibility of making a fabric fastener that would mimic the burrs’ microscopic hooks. His idea was met with resistance and laughter but, since his vision resulted in Velcro, I imagine he was the one who ended up laughing. Caleb and Joshua saw a land with promise but the other scouts saw only giants. When the Apostle Paul sat in a Roman prison, he didn’t see barred doors; he saw an opportunity to write to the early church and to witness to the jailed and their guards. Surrounded by a crowd after he and John healed a crippled man, Peter saw a congregation to whom he could preach.
So what do these inventors, an eleven-year old budding entrepreneur, Israelite scouts, and early Christian evangelists have to do with us? The French scientist, Louis Pasteur said, “In the field of observation, chance only favours the prepared mind.” These people saw more than what was right in front of them—they saw possibility and potential and, more important, they were prepared to do something about it. God continually presents us with fields that seem barren, boxes that look empty, things that don’t work the way we anticipated, burr-like annoyances, unbeatable foes, locked doors, and people with questions. Yet, in all of these circumstances, God provides us with opportunities to serve and witness for Him with our lives and words. Every situation (both good and bad) comes with an opportunity to be Jesus to someone. But, as Pasteur pointed out, we need to be prepared, both to see and to do.
Remember as you go about your day that you may be the only Jesus some of your friends, neighbors, and family will ever see. [Wanda Brunstetter]
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. [Thomas Edison]
As I picked up another starfish and tossed it back into the water, I thought of Loren Eiseley’s essay about saving starfish and making a difference in people’s lives, one life at a time. Remembering Eiseley’s essay got me thinking about an announcement made last week at Bible study. While a local family was driving home from church last Easter, a driver sped through a red light, t-boned their car, and changed their lives forever. Their two small children were seriously injured and one, a three-year old girl, was airlifted to another town. On life support for about a month, her injuries left her a quadriplegic. Now four, this sweet little girl has more surgeries and months (if not years), of medical, physical and occupational therapies ahead of her. Meanwhile, her family struggles with mounting medical expenses. Although the family does not attend our church, their need came to the attention of our pastor. Being restricted to a wheelchair has kept this little girl and her family from their favorite Florida activity—going to the beach. Since the wheels of a normal wheelchair would sink in the sand, family beach time has been just a memory until now. Yesterday, along with a sizeable check to help with their expenses, our church presented them with a sturdy all-terrain beach wheelchair. This vehicle enables her not just to go to the beach but also to go into the ocean and play in the water once again.
With their huge medical bills and needs, the $2,200 spent on a wheelchair may seem a little frivolous—but not to a four-year-old girl who had given up all hope of ever going to the beach or feeling the waves again! There are some people who will analyze how many mission trips, meals, blankets, immunizations, medicines, bricks, or Bibles could have been purchased with that same amount of money. They may disagree with how the church spent our tithes and offerings. Without a doubt, there is a tremendous need in our world for just the bare necessities of clean water, food, shelter, and health care. Sometimes, however, a need is right in front of us—a need to make life a little easier for a neighbor, a need to bring some joy back to a family or to put a smile back on a child’s face. Sometimes what seems extravagant to someone is a necessity to another—a great wig or a day at the spa for a woman with breast cancer, a davit that allows a paraplegic man to get into his boat again, skiing on a sit-ski for a wounded warrior who’s lost his legs, a week of summer camp for a teen with diabetes, a weekend at Disney for a child with leukemia, a trip to the Super Bowl for a boy with cystic fibrosis, or even a teddy bear for a tot recovering from heart surgery.
Devotions of the Heart 