Thursday, July 14, 2016

Heartthoughts: Persistence!

"Sir, may I have your cart when you're through?" I asked a man headed for the exit at Walmart.  Howard had sent me to get a handicap cart while he waited in the car.  They are always scarce there, so I zeroed in on that one. The man said I could, so I told him I would follow him to his car.

Turns out he was in a truck a distance away, not in a handicap zone as I expected. He nimbly got out of the cart and proceeded to unload a huge order of groceries with no problem. I guess he just didn't want to walk all over the vast store! (I can't say I blame him, though!)

When we had finished our shopping and were headed to the door, I noticed a woman behind us looking at us intently. I didn't pay much attention, but went ahead and helped Howard tear open a bag of cheese curls we'd bought.  She stopped when we did and started when we moved, following  behind us the whole time.  Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the woman was
shadowing us all the way to the door. Then she spoke:

"Ma'am can I have that cart when you're finished?" she asked.  Of course I said she could, and told her we were on the way to the car.  She wanted to know how far it was and if I would bring it back to her. I wasn't too sure how far it was, telling her it was a ways, but she said she couldn't walk that far. Then she asked if we were in a handicap spot, and she followed when I told her we were. 

"Thank you," she said when she got onto the cart, to which I replied, "You're welcome! I had to chase a man down to get it for us!"

This incident made me think of Elisha and Elijah in the Bible.  Elisha knew that Elijah would soon leave this world, and  he determined to stick with him until that happened.  No matter how often the prophet Elijah told him to go back and not to follow him, Elisha was persistent.  Why? He wanted the anointing of Elijah!

II Kings 2:9: And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."

Elijah told Elisha that if his eyes were on him when he was taken away, it would be so.  Sure enough when the chariot of fire appeared and Elijah went up in a whirlwind (II Kings 2:11-12) Elisha saw it and took up Elijah's mantle.

And Elisha's double portion resulted in his doing twice the miracles of Elijah! In recounting the miracles, there were 8 in Elijah's life and 15 in Elisha's life. Not quite double. Where was the other miracle? The answer is found an interesting side note that appears in II Kings 13:21, when some Moabites tossed a corpse into Elisha's sepulchre. When the man's body touched the bones of Elisha, he came back to life! He had raised the dead after his own death. The other miracle!

The humble shopping cart was not a chariot of fire, but both present a lesson in persistence!

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