This devotion was originally given for a Community Bible Study Leader's Council devotion in March of 2008. A friend's blog post today http://jasonbyerly.com/2013/03/01/the-god-in-the-hat/ along with the festivities at my children's school around Dr. Seuss's birthday motivated me to post it here for your enjoyment.
While I had been praying about the devotion that God would
have me to lead you in, I came across inspiration in a very unlikely way. I guess that God speaks to you where you
are. I happened to be reading a
children’s book, Horton Hatches the Egg and began to see biblical echoes of
faithfulness.
The story goes like this:
Mayzie the lazy bird is sitting on her egg and wants to play instead, so
she is looking for someone to sit on her egg so she can take a vacation. She was looking for some temporal, worldly
fun. She sees Horton the elephant and
asks him to sit on her nest. His
response - the elephant laughed. “Why of
all silly things! I haven’t feathers and
I haven’t wings. ME on your egg? Why that doesn’t make sense…. Your egg is so small ma’am and I’m so
immense!
This made me think of the recent lesson question that asks
if we could think of any reluctant biblical leaders beside the timid
Timothy. Sometimes we don’t seem like
the best choice for God to use in his service, but God’s ways are high above
our ways and sometimes are hard to understand.
Most of all, God is looking for obedient willing hearts.
Horton’s heart was right. “Very well,” said the elephant,
“since you insist… You want a vacation.
Go fly off and take it. I’ll sit
on your egg and I’ll try not to break it.
I’ll stay and be faithful. I mean
what I say.” Horton got to work and
propped up the tree and sat on the egg – through a terrible storm, when he was
uncomfortable, cold, and wet. It made me
think of Paul in a dungeon wishing for his cloak (2 Tim 4:13).
Meanwhile, Mayzie was having so much fun – she decided she’d
never come back. She was lost to the
pursuit of worldly pleasure.
Horton kept sitting there through the rest of the summer,
autumn and spring. side note: sometimes you are called to be faithful in
something that doesn’t seem too significant or too exciting – all Horton did
was sit.
In the spring, his friends laughed at Horton and then all
ran away, and Horton was lonely. He
wanted to play. But he sat on the egg and continued to say. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant…
An elephant’s faithful One hundred percent.
Sometimes being faithful means losing your friends. Jesus’s disciples scattered when he was taken
to be crucified. Paul’s friends
abandoned him (2 Tim 4:16). Noah’s
contemporaries surely laughed at him.
Horton was undeterred. “No matter WHAT happens, This egg must be
tended!” But poor Horton’s troubles were
far, far from ended. For while Horton
sat there so faithful, so kind, Three hunters came sneaking up softly behind!
He heard the men’s footsteps! He turned
with a start! Three rifles were aiming
Right straight at his heart. Did he
run? He did not! Horton stayed on that nest! He held his head high and he threw out his
chest. And he looked at the hunters as
much as to say: “shoot if you must but I won’t run away! I meant what I said and I said what I meant…
An elephant’s faithful One hundred per cent.
Many fearless Christian leaders have been martyred for their
faith, or were willing to be. Paul was
awaiting his execution and was still writing letters encouraging the church (2 Tim
4:6-7). Jesus himself was the ultimate
sacrifice and example of a faithful suffering servant. He died for our sins – though he was
sinless.
Horton was not killed, but instead captured and sold to a
circus, far far away. He was very
unhappy and very sick on the trip. Then
people came from everywhere to laugh at him.
Sometimes being faithful means going far away like missionaries.
Mayzie happened upon him too, right at the time that the egg
began to hatch. And she swooped from the
clouds through an open tent door….”Good Gracious!” gasped Mayzie, “I’ve seen
you before!” Poor Horton Looked up with
his face white as chalk! He started to
speak, but before he could talk…There rang out the noisiest ear-splitting
squeaks from the eff that he’d sat on for fifty-one weeks! A thumping! A Bumping! A wild alive
scratching! “My egg!” shouted
Horton. “My egg! Why, it’s hatching!” “But it’s MINE!” screamed the bird, when she heard the egg
crack. (the work was all done. Now she wanted it back.) “It’s my egg!” she sputtered. “You stole it from me! Get off of my nest and
get out of my tree!”
Isn’t that how it is – when the work is all done – people
want in on the recognition or the party.
When it started raining and raining, many people probably wanted on
Noah’s boat. At the judgement, many will
say didn’t we do great things for you – and Jesus will say that he didn’t know
them.
Just like at that time, when there will be no mistaking who
belongs to Christ, there was no mistaking who the egg belonged to. At that very instant, the egg burst
apart! And out of the pieces of red and
white shell, From the egg that he’d sat on so long and so well, Horton the
Elephant saw something whiz! It had ears
and a tail and a trunk just like his!!
The people cheered and shouted. “My goodness!
My gracious!” they shouted. “My
word! It’s something brand new! It’s an elephant-bird!! And it should be, it should be, it SHOULD be
like that! Because Horton was faithful! He sat and he sat! He meant what he said and the said what he
meant…” And they sent him home happy,
One hundred percent.
We are being formed in the image of Christ Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the
firstborn among many brothers.
We will have our happy reward when we finally are home with
him! 1 Samuel 26:23 The Lord rewards every man for his
righteousness and faithfulness.
Matthew 25:21 His
master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful in a few things; I
will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master’s happiness.”
Some closing thoughts:
Because God is faithful, he can be trusted completely to carry out his
commitments to us in Christ.
Dt 32:4 God is
the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong. Upright and just is he.
He will help us:
Psalm 143:1 O
Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and
righteousness come to my relief.
1Thess 5:24 The
one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
2 Thess 3:3 But
the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil
one.
1 Peter 4:19 So
then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to
their faithful creator and continue to do good.
He wants our faithful service:
Philippians 3:17-21
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of
those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live
as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their
destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their
shame. Their mind is on earthly
things. But our citizenship is in
heaven. And we eagerly await a savior
from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything
under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like
his glorious body
Psalm 33:4 For
the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
Psalm 100:5 For
the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues
through all generations.
Psalm 119:86 All
your commands are trustworthy. Help me,
for men persecute me without cause.
Isaiah 25:1 O
Lord you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect
faithfulness you have done marvelous things planned long ago.
1 Cor 1:9 God,
who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord, is
faithful.
2 Cor 1:18-22 But
as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “yes” and “no”. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was
preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not “yes” and “no” but in
him it has always been “yes.” For no
matter how many promises God has made, they are “yes” in Christ. And so through him the Amen is spoken by us
to the glory of God. Now it is God who
makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in
our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
1Cor 4:17 For
this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in
the Lord. He will remind you of my way
of life in Christ Jesus which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every
church.
