Editor’s Note: Pastor Scott Peterson continues to share devotions from some of his favorite authors.
May 1, 2020 – The Waiting God
I see a little child whose eager hands
Search the thick stream that drains the crowded street
For possible things hid in its current slow,
Near by, behind him, a great palace stands,
Where kings might welcome nobles to their feet,
Soft sounds, sweet scents, fair sights there only go—
There the child’s father lives, but the child does not know.
–from Diary of an Old Soul by George McDonald
The Waiting God by Alvin Rogness
Are we like the child who searches the muddy stream for things, when all the while his father sits in the palace waiting to give him all good?
Many of us do just that. We probe around for things that will give us satisfaction. It may be money. It may be prestige or power. It may be taking first in life’s mad race. All the while we have a deep suspicion that somewhere a great treasure is hidden, if only we could find it. And God sits in the palace window waiting to give it to us.
The supreme treasure is God himself. The cross is the assurance that he wants us to claim him, now and forever. We live with him and get caught up in his ways. We learn that we are important simply because he loves us and makes us his children. No longer need we fight for a place in the sun. We learn that we become servants as he became the servant of all. To give, we discover, is more blessed than to receive
Back in the palace, we have his ear at all times. He comforts us in our griefs, he gives us hope when we are discouraged. In the hour of death he is at our side ready to put us on our feet again in his everlasting kingdom.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32)
Alvin Rogness (1906-1992) was president of Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, from 1955-1974.