Opportunity

Dear Boys and Girls,

Ava stomped away, muttering in frustration. Behind her, the last pony was being loaded onto the trailer, and she could hear the four, spotted, goat kids bleating in the second trailer. She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she did not turn around. She knew what her mother was going to say. It happened so often that Ava missed out on something because she had dawdled somewhere. She bent her head and wandered away from the trailers. The animals were leaving the farmer’s market, and she would not have another opportunity to pet or ride them.

“I did remind you several times, didn’t I?” Mom said softly next to her, sounding as though she felt a bit sorry for Ava. Ava nodded brusquely. If only she had not spent so much time making the picture frame and sand art, and if only she hadn’t taken so long examining the many rows of fudge, candy, chocolate pops, and flavored popcorn which her mother would not allow her to buy anyway. Why had she wasted her time? She had come to see the petting zoo most of all, but even the soft, gentle little rabbits were back in the trailers, ready to go home. It was too late. Ava loved animals but only had a parakeet at home, and now she had missed a good opportunity to cuddle all the farm animals she wanted. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye, but she could not do the day over again.

How often does it happen to you, boys and girls, that you miss out on something that was possible for you to do? You have probably all heard at some point in your life, “If you hurry, you will just be in time to…” or “Tomorrow is the only day to do it, so I would not miss it if I were you…” or “Make sure you come if you want to have…” Maybe you need a new suit or dress for church, and your mother says, “I know you were planning on playing outside before dark, but if we don’t go to the store now, all the clearance items will be gone, and the sale ends today. Let’s go!”

There are many such opportunities in life. Maybe your big brother’s boss is offering him a better job, and it is the only chance he will have, the only time he will be offered the job. If he does not take it, someone else will receive it. Something or someone is making the job possible, but it will not always be there. That is what an opportunity is.

Not every opportunity is a good opportunity. You might have the chance to do something good, or you might have the choice to do something bad. If someone comes across your path of life for whom you can do something good, you have an opportunity and should do so. If it is something bad and wrong, you have to turn away from it.

You might even have two voices speaking to you at the same time. One friend tells you, “Don’t do it! You’ll be in big trouble if you climb on top of the neighbor’s car and scratch it!” while another friend tries to convince you, “Just do it fast. Get the Frisbee off the top of the car and jump down before anyone sees you. If anyone asks about it, let’s just say we don’t know who did it.” You can listen to the good, or you can listen to the bad.

You also have the opportunity to go to church. Yes, your parents expect you to go; you have to go, but…you also MAY go. While everyone sometimes has the opportunity to listen or do the right or wrong thing, not everyone has the chance to go to church. Some cannot. They live in a country where it is not allowed. Perhaps they live in a place where there is no church anywhere near. Others grow up not knowing anything about church. Their parents do not go. They never speak about it. They spend their Sundays just like all other days. Maybe it is a day off from work to sleep in, go shopping, and mow the lawn, but it is never a day to listen to God’s Word in His house, so the children do not have an opportunity to go either.

Is it possible for you to go to church? Yes? Every Sunday? You only stay home when you are too sick? That is fifty-two times a year, isn’t it? Oh, and during the week sometimes, too? If you add up two services per Sunday, midweek services, and special days like Christmas and Good Friday, you might go to church more than one hundred twenty times a year. That adds up to many opportunities.

Opportunities for what? For a better job? A chance to do something that is fun? A time to do something for someone else? No, that is not what I have in mind. A minister long ago used to say, “If you want to get wet, you have to stand in the rain, and if you want to be converted, you have to be in church.” In church, there is the opportunity, the possibility, to receive a new heart. THAT is the opportunity—don’t take it for granted.

Or are you like Ava? You mean to listen and to pray for a new heart, but the fly on the shoulder in front of you is so interesting to watch, and the butterfly outside the window is so many pretty colors, and the lights above you are interesting to count… It startles you when the minister announces the psalter. Is it time to sing already? You have not even eaten your second candy yet. Oh, and now you did not listen either and you can’t hear it over again. It is done. Well, you will try harder next week. It won’t be the same sermon, but there will be another one…

Yet…what happens if you become sick? What happens if you sit in church until you are very old, without ever truly praying to be converted? At some point in time, there will be no more opportunity. A firetruck was spraying water once, and the wet mist was blowing in our direction. Although it felt good to some on such a hot day, I watched an old grandmother with a cane struggle away from the droplets. My two-year-old, who was feeling a bit feverish, whimpered and kicked in his stroller, also wanting to escape the chilly mist. They did not want to become wet. In the same way, you could become too sick or too old to have the ability, the desire, or the opportunity to go to God’s house and be under His Word. Maybe your legs will be too shaky to walk or your back hurts too much or you can’t drive anymore, or you are very sick or in pain, and you can’t think about anything else anymore. Go, listen, read, pray while you CAN, because some day, you might only think about how sad you feel or how much pain you have. Ask the Lord to bless every opportunity you have to be in God’s house under His Word. Ask Him to press that Word into your heart.

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