May 11, 2024 – The Dollar Spot Devotions: Chalk – The Semi-Permanent of Writing Implements

“Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote. ⁶ Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him.” Daniel 5:5-6

“Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” John 8:6

In one of the bins of my dollar spot travels, I spotted some chalk. Sidewalk chalk is one of the greatest inventions of all time. Forget the cotton gin invented by Whitney, forget the printing press invented by Gutenberg, sidewalk chalk has been one of the greatest tools for getting your children out of the house to spend some time outdoors using their creativity. Think about it, I have seen some great sidewalk chalk drawings. I have watched people walk around a sink hole that was drawn in chalk on the sidewalk. 

In the bible, we have examples of things being written by either the hand of G-d or by Jesus himself. Sometimes we have no idea what is written, but it always plays a role in the story. For the king in the story of Daniel the handwriting on the wall spelled out doom and gloom, for the king Belshazzar. The story is that the king used the vessels of gold and silver taken from the Temple and drank wine to their gods of stone, wood, etc.  Daniel was called in to interpret the writing, and here is the meaning:

“And this is the writing that was inscribed: mene, mene, tekel, and parsin.This is the interpretation of the matter: mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; tekel, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”  Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed in purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made concerning him that he should rank third in the kingdom.” (Daniel 5:25-29).

Sometimes I wish I had a prognosticator who might be able to tell me how things are going to go in my life. But I don’t. Nor do I ever expect to receive one. But I do know that G-d has given us the Ten Commandments to teach us how we should relate to G-d and to each other. And I know that G-d has given us the Gospel of Jesus Christ – where we are told that through the cross of Jesus, everyone has the promise of a place in G-d’s kingdom for eternity. It is as clear as the handwriting on the wall – as the noses on our faces – and yet we often see only as in a smoky mirror. I get it. I don’t always understand, and sometimes when I think I see a pit opening in front of me, it just turns out to be a chalky fake.  But this is why we have faith.  We read for understanding and we serve and love and forgive for faith-filled living.  And that you can print – even in chalk.

Pastor Dave