And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing;
and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
 Ezekiel 34:26
 
 
When
 
McDonald's, who sometimes seem to have a monopoly on hamburgers and fries, once again is giving out Monopoly game pieces.   Yes, from Baltic to Pacific Avenue the traffic is terrific; jammed with people with Big Mac attacks ready to quench the craving to win some cash. The game, of course, is based on the board game by Milton Bradley that I once played for hours on end when I was a child.  I remember my sister and I made up our own rules as we went along. If the bank ran out of money, we always just made more five hundred dollar bills with torn slips of paper and a magic marker.  We never worried about if more money was coming to us, we just wondered when someone would land on our pristine property that would bring in the big parking bucks.  But easy come, easy go -  taxes, fees, and bail money to get out of jail took its toll on the biggest wads of dough. Sooner or later someone would go broke due to being unable to secure a loan,  or from running out of slips of paper to manufacture more money.  Game over.
Last Monday morning all these Monopoly memories meandered through my brain as I collected more game pieces at McDonald's.  As I saw my "new" pieces were some I already had collected, I sighed and thought, "Maybe next time."
A couple of booths down from me a young couple and their son sat down to eat their morning meal. Before they took a bite the young woman tore game pieces from everyone's cup.  She announced the property name on each piece. She had a railroad, "another green one",  a blue and a yellow one.  Her husband glanced at the pieces, shook his head and laughed. I believe there was unmistakable doubt in that laugh.
The wife's unshakable determination and faith wasn't deterred at all by his doubt. She said, "When I get one more blue one I will win $1,000,000; another yellow one $25.00, or a red one a vacation!"
I immediately thought of the verse "Such great faith I have not found!' If only I had enough faith to say when to so many situations in my life.  
On Saturday I once again ran into the same couple shopping at Wal Mart.  I knew God had placed this lady in my path once again for some reason.  I asked her if she had won at McDonald's yet.  I told her I had overheard her earlier in the week declaring her intent to win.   She smiled and seemed so pleased I had asked.  She said, "No, not yet, but I just lack one and it's coming!" Again, I thought, "What great faith!"
I told her I wrote devotionals and she had inspired me and built my faith. She seemed happy to know this. I pray she soon gets the "one" she lacks.
 
Today I began another year in this life that God has granted to me.  I pray this will be a year I no longer say "if" but "when."
May everything lacking in my spiritual walk with God come to be.  May my faith in Him become greater, unmistakable, and unshakable.
 
 
 
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." Luke 7:9