Do You Ever Wonder?

   I am currently reading a book by Charles Martin, When Crickets Cry. The device that the author uses to tell his story is to begin the book in the present time, then flash back to a distant past, then back to the present, then a nearer past, so that, I presume, in the end the past and the present will come together to reveal how everything has come about. The main character is hiding a fact of his past life, and the author is dropping bread crumbs in those incidents of his life to get the reader to wonder and speculate as to what has happened to bring all of this about, and to predict how it will end.

   Just as the author uses this writing technique to keep the reader wondering about the past and the future of the hero, so too do I wonder about times in the Bible where a fact is stated and then the narrative moves on. Like the incident in John 4 where Jesus meets the woman at the well. Toward the end of the story a verse states:

"So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days."

   As I read it this morning, I began to wonder what happened in that town in those two days. What did Jesus do that caused many to believe. Was there healing, were there other miracles, what parables did he use to teach? What if someone had used a video recorder for 48 hours? What would be on the tape or card?

   It is so very easy to just read a statement in any book, even the Bible, and just pass on by without stopping to think about it. History is filled with incidents that have happened, and there is no way to really know the causes or all the things that led up to that one time. We just speculate and wonder. That is our nature.

   Are there people living today whose lives are a testimony of what happened in that Samaritan town so many years ago? Those were real people with real lives, real concerns, hurts, fears and joys. What did they pass down to their children and grand children? If God threw a pebble into a pond on those two days, what have the ripples produced?

   I wonder.....

   Just as those Samaritans could not know the future events, so it is with me. I can't see past the current moment. I don't know about the pebbles and the ripples, I just see what is set before me, and can't even know all that preceded that, what other pebbles and ripples have come together to set up that one brief time. I can wonder, but in the end it is what I do, what rocks I drop into that water, that affect those that come after me.

   So, I wonder about things, but I need to do more than just sit and speculate. As God gives vision, action is required.

   Those folks who lived in that town 2,000 years ago, did something after that two day time, and what they said and did affected their lives and the lives of those others who came after them.

   What will be the ripples of my life?

   Will others be blessed?

   Will God be pleased?

   I wonder.....