Owls, Uh-Oh's, and Second Chances

“I is for Indian.” So said the coloring sheet on my daughter’s desk her first day of kindergarten. The Indian in the picture wore a wide, feathered band around his head.

Oh, the sweet lessons and fun, colorful ways of teaching the children. The teacher had a big job. She taught her students the alphabet, numbers, how to read, write, and spell, and manners and orderliness like raising their hands to be called upon to speak, lining up to walk to the cafeteria, and saying please and thank you. The little ones also learned to pay attention in class and be respectful.

The learning process had its hiccups.

My daughter’s teacher had an owl system to visually track the children’s behavior. She had a laminated paper owl for each student. At the beginning of each day, all the students’ owls were on the wall. If a student broke a rule, their owl got flipped around. That was uh-oh one. On uh-oh two, their owl got taken down off the wall. Uh-oh three was punishment.

My daughter was well behaved in class, but she liked to chatter. It makes me chuckle now to think about it. One day she got her owl flipped for being turned around in her seat. She cried. She wasn’t punished, but having her owl flipped upset her. She never reached the punishment step with the owl system.

Like the owls back on the wall each new school day, we live in the blessing of God’s mercies being new every morning. “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23 KJV).

The Lord doesn’t really have an owl system with us. He offers repentance and forgiveness, hallelujah. He does have rules and expectations for us to live by. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 says

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 KJV).

When we miss the mark, instead of getting our owl flipped on God’s big board in the sky,  He sends reminders, gut checks, and warnings signaling us to repent and be mindful of His ways. They come through the Word, the Holy Spirit, and people the Lord uses—preachers, teachers, prophets, parents, and so forth—who look out for our souls.

In the book of Ezekiel, Israel had become rebellious toward God. They got into idolatry and adopted ungodly belief systems and practices. They no longer listened to God’s instructions or obeyed His commandments. They behaved so wickedly that the Lord said they were worse than Sodom and made the daughters of Sodom feel better about themselves by comparison (Ezekiel 16). (Cringe.)

The Lord extended grace to the people by warning them they were swiftly headed for trouble. In Ezekiel 12, He instructed Ezekiel, a stalwart guy who would not be dissuaded off his message by the raucous, unruly people, to tell the house of Israel that judgement was coming and would not delay. He told Ezekiel to demonstrate before the Israelites their being carried away into Babylonian captivity, as seeing that might cause the people to think.

The word of the LORD also came unto me, saying, Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house (Ezekiel 12:1-3 KJV).

Rebellious. 1 Samuel 15:23 likens rebellion to witchcraft.

And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry (I Samuel 15:22-23 KJV).

As wicked as the house of Israel had become and as hot as God was over their doings (read Ezekiel 16 for God’s scathing indictment of their deeds), God still loved the people. So, He warned them again, giving one more opportunity to “consider” and repent.

Why, oh, why do we choose to do wrong when we know what’s going to happen if we do?

God is not being mean in allowing or sending judgement when men refuse to repent beforehand. Judgement is terrible and grievous. But, it’s the knot in the bottom of the rope that was full of knots to save us from sliding off into eternal destruction.

Although a last resort, consequences open the eyes and understanding of men in a way nothing else does. The Lord says in Ezekiel 12

And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries. But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the LORD (Ezekiel 12:15-16 KJV).

We must know the Lord and acknowledge Him as Lord. Think about it. Is it not the crux of the whole effort of hell since the Garden of Eden to undermine the authority of God? To call Him a liar? To diminish Him in the eyes of men? To cause men to rebel against God? To make men sin and die unrepentant and therefore bring about man’s eternal death and separation from God?

It’s important that we as a people but especially as individuals know who God is, acknowledge He is Lord, and serve Him. We do that through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Without this, we are left ungrounded spiritually, a vulnerability that makes us susceptible to ideas that attempt to distort or erase the clarity of who God is.

As believers with a world at our fingertips offering a plethora of ideas, temptations, and belief systems that do not agree that Jesus is the only way to God the Father or that Christians ought to pursue a consecrated life and believe in agreement with the Holy Bible, we are at continual risk of becoming entangled with the world, pulled away from the tenants of our faith, and drawn into wicked beliefs and behaviors. Being flesh, our own carnal, human nature by itself subjects us to the tug of war between pleasing God or pleasing ourselves.

The Lord does not hold back His judgement forever. His mercy is extended for a time. Isaiah 55:6-7 says

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:6-7 KJV).

It’s good for us to take personal inventory, to ask ourselves and ask the Lord what we need to consider. Are there traces of rebellion against God in our hearts? What ideas and behaviors would the Lord have us turn from so we can serve Him with an undivided heart?

Take a moment to consider and let these verses be prayers for us today.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 KJV).

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:1-2 KJV).

Dear Heavenly Father, You know my frame. You know I am made of dust. But You have sent Your Holy Spirit to teach and strengthen me. Where I fail You, forgive me and help me live by Your ways instead of my own. Please have mercy on me and lead me in the way everlasting. I love You, Lord.

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