What Time Does God’s Store Close?

A friend who does a lot of spiritual mentoring says that’s a question she often asks, especially if she is talking with someone who is in a hurry to get an answer or help from God.

“What time does the store close?” she asks.

It’s a question that stops them in mid-conversation, and makes them realize that God is not in a hurry, and his “store” never closes.

It set my mind in a different direction.

I thought back to Ford’s Jewelers, the store my parents ran inour home city in Canada.

Closing time most days was 6 pm, except for Thursdays when all the shops closed for a half-day, and one night (Friday or Saturday I think) when they stayed open until 9 to suit the farmers who came to town to shop.

For my father the store hardly ever closed, even when the doors were locked. He sat most evenings and some Sundays at his watchmaker’s bench, much of the time I fear to get away from my mother’s harassing him about money.

These days “what time does the store close” is a question from another age, isn’t it? The big box stores hardly ever close, and internet shopping is there 24/7.

But what the question made me ask is: when does the “store” of my mind ever close? My daughter Debbie says I am a “thinkaholic.” My mind usually is hopping like a grasshopper.

Remember the Bible sentence that says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee”?

When is my mind ever really “stayed”? Busy thoughts closed down to listen for the Voice that matters most?

I am thinking (there I go again!) that this Lenten season I perhaps need among other things to fast from the information flow that never stops, internet or off the net.

To “stay” my mind on God. Because his store never closes, and his grace is always open.

Leighton Ford
February 2013