What to Do When You're Not Invited to the Party
Do you ever feel like you are the one always left behind, stuck with boring circumstances, or missing the party?Not that I'm implying that you or I have a problem with self pity *rolls eyes,* but I've been thinking about the two angels that were left behind with a bunch of wide-eyed disciples when Jesus left planet earth.
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11 NIV).
Those angels weren't invited to the biggest event in the history of Heaven—the arrival of the One Who Gave His Life. They weren't among the crowd gathered at the gates of Heaven to welcome Jesus home. They missed the party.The reason these guys weren't invited was rather insignificant—they had to stay behind and deliver a simple message to a crowd of people who really didn't understand the implications of what was going on. I don't know about you, but I would have felt overlooked and a little like a second-class angel.Not getting to go to the Welcome Home Party would have hurt. Yet God trusted these two angels to get a job done elsewhere. And they did it. No questions asked and no complaints.Can God trust me to get a simple job done when the party is going on someplace else? I hope so. Somehow, life gets placed into an eternal perspective by remembering this story when I feel left out or unhappy with my circumstances.Now it's your turn: What do you do when you're not invited to the party? Can God trust you to get a job done when the party is going on elsewhere?
Susan Gaddis, Helping you build your spiritual legacy
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