I find it so amazing how God uses circumstances that are completely awful to remind us of His love and promises. In thinking about how He came to live among us, I'm reminded of one of those horrendous times.
My mom always starts the story with, "I should have known something as terribly wrong when the sign on the front desk said, 'No refunds after 30 minutes.'" My family and I had traveled to visit my nana and stopped to stay the night at an Econo Lodge. For some reason we pronounced it "Eck-No Lodge," a fact that will later become relevant. Apparently, Mom had seen pictures of the rooms and such when she booked our room, but by the state of the room I don't even think the pictures were of that hotel--it couldn't have been that nice even brand new!
If you ever come to our house, my mom will encourage you to take your shoes off. Supposedly, research shows that most of the household dirt comes in on your shoes; needless to say, I know something's wrong when Mom tells me to leave my shoes on when we get to the room. Dad found that our sink was clogged and set down for someone from the front desk, who later returned with a plunger.
There was a restaurant attached to the lobby and a family was celebrating a high school graduation. Most of the kids had decided they wanted to go swimming in the pool, so they were wading in the shallow end with all their clothes on. My sisters and I are part fish, my mom always tells us, so naturally, we wanted to go swimming. At the deeper end of the pool, all of 5 feet, the light had broken so there was glass on the bottom and the side of the pool. With all the kids "swimming" in the shallow end, we were stuck to swim in the middle of the pool and we quickly realized that the water was so murky that we could hardly see our hands in front of our faces. Looking back on it, I'm honestly surprised that I got in the pool with it being that gross.
We didn't swim long, and Mom quickly persuaded us it was time for dinner. We walked to a nearby restaurant and took our sweet time. I'm telling you, we took FOREVER at dinner, probably because Mom had no desire to return to the hotel.
I'll spare you the rest of the gruesome details, but from then on, we now refer to Econo Lodge hotels as HECK-NO Lodge (Haha! Ok, so my family is cheesy....but really, it was so easy just to add an "h" to the beginning of our mispronunciation)!
Jesus entered our "Heck-No Lodge." The water was murky, we'd clogged up the sink, the room was gross, broken glass was everywhere, and even with the "No refunds after 30 minutes" sign He stayed. Why? Because He loves us and wants to spend forever with us. He didn't just stay the night after spending most of the it out at a nearby restaurant. He stayed for 33 years. Check out was more than nails on a chalk board; it was nails through hands and feet. Even check out couldn't keep Him away. Three days later, He's knocking over tombstones and walking down the street with people.
What's your "Heck-No Lodge" situation? What mess in your life has Jesus entered into? Have you allowed Him to steam clean the floors, unclog your sink and clean up the shattered glass? He won't make it look like a new hotel, He'll make it fit for a King--the King of kings.
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