Pocketful of Poo

Tiffy and I just got home from our walk, which is the highlight of our day. It is kind of a procedure getting out the door though. I have to strap on Tiffy's pack that I carry her in when her little legs get too tired, and remember to bring my house keys so we can get back into the house. I have to determine the temperature so that I can decide what jacket to wear, and if Tiffy needs her sweater. I must remember to bring a ziploc sandwich bag for Tiffy's poo. And now I have added one more thing to my list, my recently purchased canister of mace. The mace isn't for my protection mind you, (I figure how much protecting could I need when I usually have a pocket full of dog poo?) but Tiffy....well, she is very small and vulnerable and hubby insisted that I get the mace just in case one of the many large and mean sounding dogs we walk by ever got loose.

So......once I go through my mental check list we are off. While enjoying the southern Oregon sunshine today, with my pocketful of poo and mace in my hand, my thoughts drifted back to a video I had watched right before I departed. It was Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding, and he was sharing about how we are all an "open heaven", and that we just need to remind ourselves of that fact. We can practice living in and sharing the heavenly presence, by just taking a moment and reminding ourselves this truth.

I loved what Bill shared, and was pondering it (which I do a lot, hence the name of this blog).....and I found myself laughing out loud (which I probably shouldn't do so much while walking by myself)....because I realized that there I was proclaiming to be an open heaven, with mace in one hand and a pocketful of stinky poo. (See? You would have been laughing too!!)

It occurs to me that is often what we are like! We pray and want to be the Good News displayed to everyone around us, yet we are so stinky because we have sin that we think we are hiding (like a pocketful of poo). And we want to be a light, but more often than not we sting others with our self-protecting remarks (our mace). But He chooses to come and live in us, and allow His glory to be displayed through us! I am an open heaven! Oh man, God is so funny sometimes!