This time
Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you.”
This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. — Jonah 3:1-3, NLT
This time we are going to get it right. This time we’ve learned our lesson. This time we will do it SO much better, quicker, or easier.
This time.
“This time” means we’ve done it before, or we’ve been given a second chance. Like Jonah, we are so grateful to God for this second go-around, this opportunity to do what we didn’t or couldn’t do before. It’s a gift we appreciate.
More than just Jonah’s love for God makes this story what it is. Profound gratitude to God must have also been behind Jonah’s message to the Ninevites. The way the fish-smelling, beach-landing once reluctant now zealous (and inexperienced) prophet speaks to those in danger makes the message mean even more.
Wonder with me about what your next time will be. When will God give you a do-over? When will the Divine One with the Grand Design make it so that you get a second chance—a second gift—to do what you should have done the first time, which is speak God’s love to people?
It’s exciting to think that God will send you with His love to a place where you can share exactly who He is, and what He will do.
PRAYER: God of the great fish (and the most unlikely way to travel we will ever hear about), we are like Jonah. We have refused to share who You are—at first. Help us smile now. Also, help us wait for You to give us the second gift of getting it right so that others will know Your redemptive love over all our sins. Amen.
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