On the way home, I asked for "first" ideas. Joel has a small domino set that he's been playing. It is designed to set up and knock one domino down and the rest fall. We have 3 big sets of dominoes. Joel and I combined these and set them all up and knocked them down via the domino effect for my "first."
We started with the big dominoes. We worked for a few minutes and one fell down and knocked the rest down so we had to start over. Then, it happened again. We realized that when we touched the table it shook enough to knock the dominoes down. I cautioned Joel about touching the table. We started again and got a long ways toward the finish. Joel started working with his smaller dominoes which also have a couple of trick items with them. I accidentally knocked over the big dominoes again. This happened more times than I care to count. It started getting frustrating. This took a lot longer than I thought it would. At one point, Joel said that we (I think he meant me) needed to relax and not get frustrated. That was good advice. I think that in addition to the dominoes, my patience was getting knocked down a bit.
After a long time, we finally got it all set up. We asked Laura and Hannah Grace if they wanted to come and see. They did. I'm glad because I believe two males would have had their feelings hurt in the Wilkinson abode if they had declined. Joel knocked the first domino down and off it went. I was really hoping they would all fall down and not have a glitch. Success!! They all fell down and Joel pronounced it awesome.
Getting started
Rats; they all fall down but we weren't finished
Starting over
Off we go
It's working!!
Can you see the ball working its way down the green monster?
Success!!
As we were working on this, I asked Joel what he thought the spiritual meaning might be for this "first." He said, "What do you mean?" I explained that I liked to say something about Jesus in my blog about my "firsts." He said the table was like Jesus and the dominoes were like us. The table was holding everything up. If it were not for the table, the whole thing would fall down. Well said, young man. Jesus said in John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." We should make sure that we make Jesus the foundation for all that we do. If not, it all comes crashing down one day. It might be today, next year, next decade, or 1 second after we die. Jesus is the only foundation to build a life, a church, or a home upon.
When we were getting ready for bed, Joel said again that this "first" was awesome. I said that it was hard and a bit frustrating. Joel said, "Yea, but when they all fell down like we hoped, it was worth it." Wow, there is some spiritual truth in that. Sometimes following Jesus is hard. Sometimes the things we do for Christ tend to fall down or not go like we had hoped (even though we are leaning on Him). There are times when following Jesus is frustrating due to our sin, someone else's sin, or just living in a sinful world. Praise God, in the end, it will all be worth it. There's an old song that says, "It will be worth it all, when we, see Christ." That's true. The Bible says it this way in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
Glad the abundant life is worth it
Barry
3 things I thank God for today
1. Building dominoes with my son
2. Wheels
3. The sure foundation of Jesus
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