IMAGINE

Imagine….  
   Imagine, you build a house, you build barns, you plant gardens, and you start a family.  Your children have children, and they all live with you on the land you worked hard for, in the house you build with your own hands, they eat from the gardens you planted and tended to, they eat meat from the animals you raised and cared for. And all you ask for is love and respect. Maybe a little help here and there, because, I mean, they are living with you, they do eat all your food. And maybe just obey a few rules, because you are the dad and you do know what’s best for them. You don’t want them to do things that might cause them to hurt themselves, you try to teach them all the things they need to know to live.

Imagine the love and joy in your heart.   

Imagine, one day a neighbor comes along and tells your children that they shouldn’t have to work to help you, they can do whatever they want to do because it’s their right. And why shouldn’t they have to love and respect you, it’s your job to take care of them. So, they stop helping you around the house, and in the fields and in the gardens.  
Imagine the sadness in your heart.     

Imagine, one day they invite that neighbor to come live with you. And he starts whispering other things in their ears. Then your neighbor tells them that those rules you laid out really aren’t rules but suggestions and really what’s the harm in disobeying a tiny little rule. And all of the sudden your children and grandchildren are lying to you and stealing from one another, they are fighting and killing each other, and your sons are raping their daughters.  

Imagine the sadness in your heart.   

Imagine, your neighbor is whispering to some of them that you don’t even exist, that you didn’t build that house or those barns, you didn’t plant those gardens. He tells them that they just came to be there. So, the ones that he told this to stopped talking to you, when they passed you in the hall, they didn’t even see you there. 

 Imagine the sadness in your heart.   

Imagine, you have one son that is the apple of your eye, he sticks with you and helps you, and you sit and talk for hours. He’s the doctor of the family, he helps them when they are hurt, he loves them all as much as you do and does his very best to bring them all together.  This son goes to the other children and tries to tell them that you just want what’s best for them and you love them and look at all the things you’ve done for them. But they turn on him and they kill him.   

Imagine the sadness in your heart.   

Imagine, they put you in a room in the far corner of the house. Some of them will come knock on your door and sit with you and talk to you ask you for your forgiveness and you welcome them with open arms but when they leave, they go back to the ways of the world.   Others will come knock on your door when they need something beg and plead for you to help them and you do and they go back to living a life of “freedom from rules” Still others come crashing into your room without knocking and start ridiculing you and mocking you and you sit there and let them do it because really what can you do, they are your children, and you love them.  Still others don’t even know you are there.     
Imagine they just stop coming by at all.   

Imagine the sadness in your heart.   

But wait...   IMAGINE IT ANONTHER WAY    

Imagine... 
Your father built a house, he built barns, he planted gardens and he started a family. and that family grew to a large family, and the entire family lived on the land and in the house that your father built. You all ate from the gardens and from the livestock your father tended to. and your father didn't ask for much. he just asked for a little help and for you to follow just a few rules.  

Imagine the love you felt in your heart.  

Imagine one day someone whispers in your ear that you shouldn’t have to help around the house, and you shouldn’t have to help in the garden. and you shouldn’t have listening to what your father was telling you, and you stopped doing the things he taught you. 

Imagine seeing the sadness in your father's heart.  

Imagine you helped destroy the house that your father build and the barns were in ruins and the gardens didn't grow anymore. and there was lying in your family and murder in your family and adultery in your family.  

Imagine SEEING the sadness in your father's heart.  

Imagine you have your father locked in a room and you only visit when you want or need something. And your angry at him because he has let all these bad things happen you, and you yell at him and you curse him.  

Imagine SEEING the sadness in his heart. 

Imagine one day being at your lowest point and you have such despair and you have nowhere to go, you have nothing. You call out for your father, “Father forgive me!” Imagine him coming to you and wrapping his loving arms around you and comforting you and saying “I forgive you” 

Imagine seeing the love and joy in his heart! 
 
​ Isaiah 55:7 7Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 

AS I WAS READING  MY DEVOTIONS THIS MORNING GOD PUT IT ON MY HEART TO WRITE THIS. WE ARE CALLED TO LIVE IN HOLINESS, WHEN WE REJECT GOD WE SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS. BUT GOD PROVIDES A WAY FOR US TO BE RESTORED. 
​PRAISE GOD!