Early one morning, while I was sitting in my car at the park, I saw a drip of coffee running slowly down my cup. I really did not want to drip coffee on my slacks, so I gently reached for a tissue to catch the drip. As an allergy sufferer, I am reasonably adept at pulling tissues from their box. The concept is pretty simple—you pull the top tissue, it comes out into your hand ready to use while the next tissue lifts out of the box waiting the pull which will put it into service. The concept is simple, its execution is another thing entirely. 

 Having pulled out thousands of tissues in my life, I “expected” everything to go smoothly but on this morning, God had other plans. As I seized the tissue, the entire box lifted up while the drip advanced toward my slacks. Gravity working much more efficiently than me, helped advance the slack soiling drip toward the bottom of my cup. When the box lifted, I turned my body more causing me to jiggle the cup encouraging the drip to attach itself to my clean—but only for a moment—slacks. At this moment I prayed a version of Tevye’s prayer from The Fiddler on the Roof, “Lord, would it be so terrible if the tissue just came out of the box.” Was I asking too much? Apparently, yes. 

 And that is when the epiphany hit me. Yes, it would be terrible for the tissue to come out easily because God loves me too much to allow it. I saw, at that moment, that the little failures of life are designed by God to remind me that I am not supposed to live here forever. In fact, I am supposed to maintain my citizenship in heaven. Peter tells me that I am an alien and a stranger on this earth. How awful it would be, if I became satisfied with life in a sin-cursed world. After laughing, I prayed, “Lord, thank you for loving me so much that you thwart my plans, helping me to set my heart on heaven.” What a freeing thought.