WHAT IS THE MESSAGE?

Was watching a Hallmark Channel movie with the wife last night. At one point, the oldest child had to babysit the others so the mother could work. When the mom got home, the toddler had awaken in the night and done some mischief in the bathroom. Later, mom was asleep and the toddler woke up and put peanut butter all around the room, including mom's nose--a big mess to clean up. Interesting movie.

After being awake in the night, I went back to bed and back to sleep. I often have dreams when that happens. My dream--I was climbing a high and challenging hill--very hard to get myself up there--a real struggle. And I climbed it twice. When I got there, there were three kids, (not mine), two older and one baby.

The second time I got up there, I was focusing on something else when I noticed that the baby was getting very close to the edge of the 100 foot drop. I could not, or did not, move to get there, but asked one of the other kids to "please grab the baby, because he is so close." The child tried, but it was too late. The baby had gone over the edge.

We went the long way around to get there--a long path. When we got there, the baby was very bloody and in very bad shape. I picked up the baby and tried to call the parents, to tell them what had happened, but with no success. My cell phone was destroyed also, and I was fiddling with that. That took my focus and attention off the baby.

At that point, I thought to pick up the baby, and attempt to take the baby to the parents. But when I picked up the baby, the baby was beginning to get stiff, in the process of dying. I felt so terrible, and prayed, "Please God, no--please God, no!" I had not only been negligent about watching the baby, but I also had focused more, at a crucial moment for the baby, on a thing, the cell phone, than I had the gravely ill baby.

Then I woke up. Yes, I saw a t.v. show that replayed during my sleep. But could there be a message for me--and for you? For the believer in Christ, while we are climbing our high hill or ladder, could there be people who are very near the edge and needing someone to save them from falling off? Could there be some that need our love and tender care--our attention to them, instead of our attention to "things" in our lives?

And then a phone text from my daughter this morning--a Scripture verse from 1 John 5:14-15: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."

There are people I need to pray for. There are people I need to rescue and hold and pay attention to. There are people I need to be alert for. There are people that I need to focus more on than I do the concerns or things in my life. They do not ultimately belong to me. I am a babysitter, watching SomeOne elses' kids.

So what is the message--for YOU--today?