And the Winner Is . . .

I entered a contest yesterday. Not a competition, just a contest. I put my name in the hat to win a darling little purse. And I really hope I win, for that will balance things out for me. You see, I haven’t had the best of luck when it comes to contests.

Years ago, when I was in college, I decided to clean out my desk. Now, this was not a weekly chore for me. It wasn’t even a yearly chore, as you will soon learn. My decision to clean out that desk was not out of any kind of desire to be organized. It was simply out of a desire to find a place to store my pencils.

That desk was crammed full of all kinds of papers and receipts, bent-out-of-shape paper clips, half finished homework assignments (I have no idea where the other half went), class notes from the distant past, and everything else you can imagine. When I finally got to the point that I couldn’t even open the drawer, I decided it was time to get out the old circular file and get rid of some stuff.

So I went to work. I went piece by piece through my own historical documents, and threw most of it away. I finally got my pile down to a manageable mess, and decided to pull the drawer completely out of its cubby. (Is that what you call the thing the drawer sits in?)

When the cubby was empty, I looked inside, way to the back. There was a small, index sized card. I reached back and grabbed it, and lo and behold, it was an old, unused, unscratched contest card from McDonald’s. Remember those? You were supposed to scratch off two boxes, and underneath each there was one half of a picture. If you got, say, both halves of the Big Mac, you won a free Big Mac. But more times than not, you ended up with half of a French fry and half of a milkshake, and you won nothing.

I checked the date, and the deadline for claiming any prize was two years previous. I started to toss it in the trash, but curiosity got the better of me. I grabbed a penny and started scratching.

There, beneath the first box, was one half of a car. I laughed, and kept scratching, expecting to find half of a soda in the other box. But wait – was that a wheel? And . . . were those tail lights? It couldn’t be . . . no, no, no! This was a nightmare!

Yes. I promise you, this is the truth. I scratched off the front and the back to the car. I sat and stared at the card in my hand, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. I have no idea how long I sat there, mourning what was lost and could never be found. I double and triple checked the deadline date, to no avail. The wording was very clear. Any prizes not claimed by the date on the card could never be claimed.

So, I really hope I win that little purse. It will somehow just make things a little more right, in my opinion.

I’m so glad God doesn’t have a deadline on His grace, aren’t you? I’m glad He doesn’t hold out His promises, and say, “You have two weeks to claim my wisdom, my peace, my love. If you don’t respond in that time period, My promises become null and void.” God has wonderful treasures that He holds out to each of us. Each and every one is the winner. We simply have to claim the prize.

So I guess, whether I win the purse or not, I can’t really complain.

But I still want that purse.

Psalm 145:13 “The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.”