By Dr. Jacquelyn Simmons
Scripture: Matthew 16:19
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
A dear member of my family had completed college and had become engaged to be married in a month or so, afterwards. Well, being an exact parent, I wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. However, the bride and groom-to-be deposited me at home after her graduation and kept traveling to the groom’s hometown to “meet and greet” his unknown family members to her.
Every time I contacted her about their “choices or decisions concerning the upcoming nuptial, I was consistently told, “Whatever you pick, ‘Ma’ is alright with me.” My answer was, “your wedding gown, also?”
After a vey unsuccessful shopping trip hither and thither trying to do this, complete that, I bypassed the home God allows me to call my own and decided to go to my sister’s home to whine and complain about the complete abandonment of the engaged couple. My sister can usually calm me down with a few choice words when others may find it a bit difficult task once it gets “tuned up”. No! You are probably thinking of the use of unchurch like curse words or uncomplimentary ones-but no!! They usually work. (Smile)
Anyway, I entered her quiet home, even though the television was turned down low as usual, also, and began to “rattle off” my complaints, failures and very few accomplishments and false threats to abandon the entire idea and let them go to a Justice of the Peace.
I finally threw myself on her living room couch with the intention of continuing my barrage of complaints to a usual silence unemotional seeming listener, and…
I do not know whether I was completely asleep and dreaming or having a vision or… but suddenly it seems…continued next week by God’s grace and mercy.
(Before continuing, next week, make sure you have researched a “skeleton key” so you would be familiar with how they look).
