Top Shelf

     This morning I made my once a week work shopping trip to Wal-Mart. While I am at Wal-Mart I tend to people watch, to notice people. Every now and then, I will actually get a glimpse into people. This happened today. I noticed and older couple. She was in a motor scooter. He walked beside her. She was dressed to the nines, looked like she came off the pages of a 1920’s Vogue magazine. Her hair and make-up were in perfect order. She wore what looked to be a short mink coat. He was dressed in upper-end business casual wearing a tan trench coat.

I have no idea why I was walking down the soup aisle, only that perhaps it was a God thing. They had stopped at the soups. He held a can of soup out to her. “Here, I know you like this kind.” She did not look up at him. She was intent on looking at the self. She pointed with her cane and told him,”There, there’s the off-brand. Get that. “

On my drive back to work, I was reflecting on what I noticed between these two. He knew what she liked. That means that he has taken the time to take notice of her. He cared enough to offer her something that he knew she liked from the upper shelf. She declined; she wanted the off-brand, the one that was on the lower shelf. Why she made this choice, I do not know. However, I saw myself and my relationship with the Father in this couple.

There stands my Abba. He has taken from the upper most and said, “Here, I know you. I know you will like this. I know that you are in need of this. Here, take what I have reached into the uppermost to give to you.” I am so focused on the lower shelf that I do not notice what He is offering me. I respond with, "But there, right there, on the lower shelf is what I was looking for.” Here God is offering me so much more, and I forget to look up and see what it is He is offering. In my single vision, I stay focused on what I know instead of taking what He is offering me. I want to meet God where He is offering to reach me. I do not want to stay focused on the lower shelf.