The Misplaced Invitation

It was an uneventful day like any other. I went to work at the same time I came home at the same time. I ate the same food I normally ate. The bills were the same and the cares of this life were the same as ever before. The people in my life were the same never looking past the faces that were familiar in my life. It was just my life lonely, depressed, uneventful and empty. Most nights I cried myself to sleep because I was broken in my life of mediocrity.

There came a decree in all the land the king sent out a 'Royal Invitation' for his son's wedding. The king was so hopeful because he wanted to share his joy with all the land. He sent out invitations to all the most respected people of the land. All of his employees and co workers everyone he ever knew. What a joy to share his blessings with all he loved. The king was so disappointed and then he was mad. No one responded to his invitation. Everyone ignored his request; everyone was too busy with their lives to be bothered with the son of the king's wedding. So the king sent out a decree and he banished all the people he knew and turned his back on them. He sent his servant to the highways and the byways with a decree- “Please bring me the least in the land because those who say they know me do not want me in their lives. So now I will share my blessings with those who do not even know my name."

So this where my story begins...

I made my way down the street as I usually did at the same time I always do. I passed the same beggar on the street that I always did, but today was somehow different. I saw a servant of the king gathering up the homeless and broken people who were on the streets. I looked up and saw the King's golden chariot where the servant had gathered the many other broken people. Their clothes were tattered, they were hungry, they had tears in their eyes, and they had lost their hope. I began to weep as I thought of how much I had been blessed with but then realized I too felt so empty and lost.

~REACHING THE HOMELESS~

I was intrigued, what did this servant want with these people and where was he taking them? I began to follow him. At every turn I saw him reaching in the darkest alleys. He went places I never even knew existed and reached for people that I chose to ignore. He reached for them giving them food and drink. Something in my heart was touched. I heard the servant say, “Here is something to eat now but the King has sent me to invite you to his son’s wedding. When you eat with the King he will give you food that will forever change your life.” The servant reached out with such compassion and love as he helped so many lost out of the darkness.

I knew that I too wanted to feel that compassion and love in my own life. I followed for many miles; I fell a few times, broke a shoe and landed in the mud. Yet still I followed. I fell one last time before the servant turned to me. He picked me up out of the mud and said," why are you following me?" I was taken aback because I didn't know he had seen me following him. I said, "I'm following because you are a servant of the King and I was surprised to see you helping these broken people. I see the compassion in your eyes. It made me realize that I too want to share in that love and that there is something missing in my life."  He said to me, "but you got an invitation from the King he made sure you were invited to the wedding."

I stopped in my tracks and I cried in dismay. I said, "I have been so wrapped up in my own life that I misplaced the invitation." I was so busy with my life I that I didn't know what I was missing. “What can I do to help oh servant of the King?” The servant said to me: “The King and master say that you must feed his sheep. You must love the lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself.” Then the servant said unto me, “Will you follow me and partner with me to help reach the lost, the broken, the homeless and the needy?” 

FEED MY PEOPLE

FEED MY SHEEP

We made our way back to the King’s palace. As we entered into the throne room and I fell down on the ground before the King and Master tears streaming down my face. I was broken, dirty, and my clothes were tattered from stumbling in the darkness. The King looked at me in surprise. “Did I not send you an invitation to eat at my table; that you rejected? Did I not offer you a seat in the palace for my son’s wedding and yet you did not come?” “Did I not offer you all the blessings of my kingdom and yet you still turned your back on me?

KNEELING AT THE MASTER’S FEET

As I laid face down on the ground as I looked up into his eyes my voice trembled as I spoke; “Master I have failed you! I have turned my back on those in need around me. I have no right to ask your forgiveness. Yet here I am broken before you my King. Will you let me be servant oh Master of mine? No longer do I want to turn a blind eye to those in need. Please oh King and Savior Jesus will you  forgive me? To my great surprise he wrapped his arms around my dirty person. He told his servant to give me a clean robe along with the others. He spoke to my soul, “You are my beloved daughter turn away from this world and follow me.” Reach to the homeless, don’t forget the broken, share my love with all you meet, give all you have and follow me. Your life is no longer your own.”

Forever my life was changed the day the King forgave me for my sin. He redeemed me from a life I stumbled in the darkness. He forgave me when I had turned my back on him. See I had known about him all along but I was so concerned with life that I misplaced my invitation to the wedding. I can’t go back to who I was that life for me is gone. I can no longer turn a blind eye to those who are lost and hurting. I must be reaching in the highways and the byways because there are more who need to find the redemption of the King. Now you see my friends that I too am a servant of the most high King! My life is not my own it has been bought with a price. I have been redeemed by his amazing love. Will you too become of servant of the King the Master and Savior our Lord Jesus Christ? If you misplaced your invitation you can still come to the Master. He came and died because of his amazing love so that you and I might have life more abundantly! 

 (This story was adapted from the parable of the King who invited wedding guests for his son's wedding. The servant went out to look in the highways and byways for those who would accept the invitation of the King. This story just plays a twist on a girl who saw the servant and realized she wanted a change. It is allegorical and has aspects of how I feel the Lord has redeemed me when I misplaced my own invitation)