Queen of the South

For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. (Luke 11:30-31 NIV)

When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. (1 Kings 10:1-3, 7 NIV)

The Queen of Sheba (also called the Queen of the South) was from what is now Yemen. She had heard about the wisdom of Solomon and his relationship to God, as well as his wealth, but did not believe what she had heard. No one could be that wise in every area, she probably thought, and decided to see for herself. The Queen loaded up a large supply of gold and spices (very similar to what the magi carried to Jesus) and headed out to see King Solomon. 

When she arrived, he was gracious and entertained her lavishly. While there, the Queen tested Solomon with as many hard questions as she could formulate. He answered every one. There was no question that was too hard for him. No situation was too difficult for him to find a solution. The Queen was incredulous. "I did not believe it until I saw it with my own eyes," she said. "You have far exceeded the report I heard." 

At the judgment, Jesus said, the Queen of Sheba will rise up and condemn those who refused to believe in Him. She will say something like this, "I heard all the hype about Solomon and didn't believe it, but I didn't just dismiss it and refuse to believe. I did what it took to find out the truth. I took all my questions to him, and found that he had the answers to every question I ever had. You should have done the same with Jesus. He has the answers to all the questions you have... if you'd only bothered to ask. He is all that was said of Him and more. If you'd only bothered to seek, you'd have found."

The Queen of Sheba will be right. If what we've heard about Jesus is true, and it is, it behooves us to find out for ourselves. If we have questions, He will answer them. All we have to do is ask. What a tragedy it will be at judgment day to find that the One we discounted as nothing more than a good man is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What a tragedy it will be to find that questions with eternal significance, left unasked, could have made an eternal difference.

There is something more that needs to be considered. Jesus was very specific about discipleship. The first step, He said, was to deny ourselves. Only then can we follow. If we never deny ourselves, you can be sure we are not disciples of Christ. This is so important that it bears repeating. Discipleship begins with denying ourselves. 

There will be a time of judgment. We will answer for our response to Christ. What a tragedy it will be if our response was limited to two hours in a pew on Sunday morning. If we don't understand, if we aren't sure, let us do what the Queen of Sheba did. Ask all our questions, for, when we do, we will find that Christ has every answer we need. We, too, will say what the Queen of Sheba said. "Jesus has far exceeded all the reports I have heard." He is more than we expect, but we will never know if we never ask.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matthew 16:24-27 NIV)

The New Year's Sign

There are two things you needs to know about my mama. First of all, she made great fried chicken. It was my favorite thing that she cooked. The other thing you need to know is that my mama always said that what you do on New Year's Day is what you are going to be doing all year long, so what happens on New Year's Day is a sign of what's to come in the next year. 

Today, I drove Ryan back to Atlanta and Georgia Tech. We had a leisurely drive with too many stops and were running late. The plan was to unload Ryan's things at his apartment, stop by the hotel and let me check in, stop somewhere for dinner, then see The Hobbit in IMAX 3D. Unfortunately, it took longer to unload Ryan than we expected and our schedule was suddenly extremely tight. Somehow, we managed it with 45 minutes to eat and get in the movie. 

Chick a Biddy is the new restaurant across from the theater. "Hey Ryan, let's see if we can get something quick here," I said. He wasn't hungry but I wasn't sure I could hold out for three more hours, so we stopped in. Since they had fried chicken, and I can't eat wheat, I figured I'd just get a salad. We picked up menus, and I started trying to find something gluten-free to eat.  Suddenly, Ryan said, "Hey Mom, look. They have gluten-free!"  There was a GF icon by the chicken tenders. The FRIED chicken tenders. There was also a GF icon by the sides section. ALL the sides. 

The waitress came to take our order. I wasn't positive about what I'd just read, so I asked to be sure. "Does this mean the tenders are gluten-free?" She smiled a huge, beautiful smile and said, "Oh, yes! Our fried tenders and all our sides are gluten-free." Somehow, it was such an unexpected gift that I started crying. I had to blink back tears and swallow back sobs to regain my composure enough to order my meal. I looked like a total nut, but Ryan just watched and smiled. He was rejoicing with me. Well, he was laughing a little bit, too.

When my meal came, it was astounding! It had been a long time since I last had fried chicken, but this was so crispy, juicy, and tender that it was just about better than my mama's. The Mac and cheese was so smooth and creamy that it was unbelievable. Yum! My tears had dried, but when the waitress came by to see how we were doing and asked how I liked the chicken, I started crying again. It was outrageous and embarrassing, but Ryan wasn't embarrassed. He was thrilled for me, still smiling and laughing. Then, the manager came by to see how I liked the GF Mac and cheese.  Apparently, they'd been talking about the weepy lady at the front table. I started leaking again. She was radiant at my response to their food. 

It wasn't so much that the food was wonderful, nor that it was gluten-free, although it was. Because of her celiac disease, my mama was gluten-free long before it was trendy, and she would've loved the meal. That was part of what was overwhelming. Really, though, my tears were mostly because my mama would've said it was a sign of something good to come in the new year. 

Such a sweet, totally unexpected surprise was not just a coincidence. I took it as a gift from God and, regardless of whether or not it was a "sign", it was an unexpected blessing in the least likely place. Because of travel today, we missed all those traditional New Year's foods like cabbage and black-eyed peas that are supposed to bring luck and prosperity. I've never put much stock in that anyway. I know that every good and perfect gift comes from above. The likelihood of blessings has nothing to do with peas or cabbage, or with chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese for that matter. Tonight, I was reminded all over again that blessings come straight from the hand of God, and the one I received at dinner was mighty precious, indeed.  

I've had some blessings that didn't look as much like a gift from God as the fried chicken did, though. In fact, they looked terrible and more like a curse than a blessing.  Now that I'm on the other side of them, however, I can see they made me more Christ-like, and that made enduring the blessing worth it. Perhaps you've had a few of those blessings yourself. There's no way to know what form our blessings will take this year, but there is one thing we can count on. Every blessing we receive will come, not from our own hard work or as a gift from a loved one, but straight from the hand of God, and that is something to which we can look forward all year long.