Mr. McBeevee

Last night my sisters and I were all sitting on my bed watching an Andy Griffith show on YouTube. It was such an everyday sort of occurrence and I wasn't expecting the Lord to speak to me. Maybe that's why He did. :)

The story begins with Opie Taylor having an imaginary horse. He and his "pa" know it isn't real (and of course Barney doesn't know that!!), but they pretend anyway. Around the same time, Opie meets a man in the woods named Mr. McBeevee. His description of his new forest friend is a little bizarre at times and Sheriff Taylor and Deputy Fife are not especially prone to believing Opie. As a matter of fact, they are pretty much convinced he is making it all up. Opie finally gets in trouble because they think he is telling outright lies and they suspect that he is stealing things and using Mr. McBeevee as his excuse. While he is disciplining Opie, Andy comes to the conclusion that he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that his son is not lying. He still isn't quite sure what to believe, but he knows he believes his son. He comes down from Opie's room to where Barney and Aunt Bee are waiting in the living room. The conversation goes like this:

Andy: I told him I believed him.

Barney: You told him you believed him? But, Andy, what he told you is impossible!

Andy: Well, a whole lotta times I’ve asked him to believe things that in his mind must’ve seemed just as impossible.

Barney: Oh, but Andy, this silver hat, and the jingling, and the smoke from the ears . . . what about that?

Andy: Oh, I don’t know, Barn. I guess it’s a time like this when you’re asked to believe something that just don’t seem possible, that’s the moment that decides whether you got faith in someone or not.

Barney: Yeah, but how can you explain it all?

Andy: I cain't.

Barney: But you do believe in Mr. McBeevee.

Andy: No . . . no, no. I do believe in Opie.

"That's the moment that decides". I have been facing moments like that. Do I believe what God says in the face of facts that are directly contrary to it? Am I convinced that my God will not lie? I am currently looking dead-on at a situation which directly contradicts what the Lord has said to me. Flat out, my current circumstance is completely opposite of what I believe the Lord has spoken to my heart. Do I doubt Him? It is so easy to do that, but doubt will cause me to cease praying. It will cause me to harden my heart towards the Lord. The Lord has delayed in answering my prayers, but that does not make Him less gracious! Tonight, with all my heart, I am choosing to believe the absolute goodness of God that is spoken of in Isaiah 30:18, "And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him."

As much as Sheriff Taylor believed that his son would not lie because he knew his son, I believe my God will not lie because I know Him.

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numbers 23:19