What if you found out that God had it in mind to send you twenty-three
specific blessings today, but you got only one? What do you suppose the reason
would be?
There's a little fable about a Mr. Jones who dies and goes to heaven.
Peter is waiting at the gates to give him a tour. Amid the splendor of golden
streets, beautiful mansions, and choirs of angels that Peter shows him, Mr.
Jones notices an odd-looking building. He thinks it looks like an enormous
warehouse—it has no windows and only one door. But when he asks to see inside,
Peter hesitates. "You really don't want to see what's in there," he
tells the new arrival.
Why would there be any secrets in heaven? Jones wonders. What incredible surprise could be waiting for me in
there? When the official tour is over he's still wondering, so he asks
again to see inside the structure.
Finally Peter relents. When the apostle opens the door, Mr. Jones almost
knocks him over in his haste to enter. It turns out that the enormous building
is filled with row after row of shelves, floor to ceiling, each stacked neatly
with white boxes tied in red ribbons.
"These boxes all have names on them," Mr. Jones muses aloud.
Then turning to Peter he asks, "Do I have one?"
"Yes, you do." Peter tries to guide Mr. Jones back outside.
"Frankly," Peter says, "if I were you...." But Mr. Jones is
already dashing toward the "J" aisle to find his box.
Peter follows, shaking his head. He catches up with Mr. Jones just as he
is slipping the red ribbon off his box and popping the lid. Looking inside,
Jones has a moment of instant recognition, and he lets out a deep sigh like the
ones Peter has heard so many times before.
Because there in Mr. Jones's white box are all the blessings that God
wanted to give to him while he was on earth...but Mr. Jones had never asked.
"Ask," promised Jesus,
"and it will be given to you" (Matthew 7:7). "You do not have
because you do not ask," said James (James 4:2). Even though there is no limit to God's goodness, if you didn't ask Him
for a blessing yesterday, you didn't get all that you were supposed to have.
That's the catch—if you don't ask for His blessing, you forfeit those that
come to you only when you ask.
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