The old adage, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans,” came true for me this morning.
For several years I have been leading a Bible study every Friday morning at my house. It is really an informal group made up mostly of widows, but also of ladies from various other churches. It makes for some very interesting discussions.
We have grown close through the years and have shared a great deal. There is always a closing of the ranks when there is illness or an emergency….phone calls, lunches out, visits etc….all surface when one of us has a problem. We know where the strength and weaknesses of each one of us lies.
And there is laughter… and sometimes tears. A phone rings and we hear news of a fellow Christian’s bad medical report. Immediately all chatter ceases as we bow our heads in prayer for mercy, comfort and strength. And chatter we do….One of our choir’s anthems is “Chatter with the Angels”, and I think of that each Friday morning as they bustle into the house, pull off boots and coats and head for the coffee pot in the kitchen. Then the chatter begins.
After ten minutes I raise my voice a bit and say “Good morning.” That quiets them down and with a prayer for guidance, the morning study begins.
Last week I proclaimed them all “religious fanatics”…the roads outside were skating rinks and I could see their tires spinning as they attempted to run up the slight hill to my house but that morning 13 out of 14 possible attendants showed up.
I love these ladies and pray for them every day. They have filled spaces in my life left behind since the death of my husband. They have been a gift from God.
And today God and I had the greatest laugh.
I decided that the book “Being a Presbyterian in Canada Today”, would be a great Bible study. I ran it by the Baptist and the United Church ladies and they didn’t have a problem with it. So I began my preparation.
The book consists of 41 pages and would no doubt keep us occupied for a few weeks. I began to read and jotted down the questions that came to me…my ladies love to debate and there was a lot to talk about in the booklet. I googled information on Calvin, Knox, etc. (Sunday school information, long forgotten). I decided to discuss things like Catholicism and the adoration of Mary, purgatory, homosexuality, Bountiful, B.C.. Well, I just couldn’t stop!
I set my pen down …I still had to input all this information into the computer. I looked down at the page number I was at and it said “10”…with 31 pages yet to go, I realized that a “simple Bible study” this was not going to be. That’s when I started to laugh.
I’m going to keep plugging on…God is always surprising me and today He had the last laugh but we did laugh together.
