“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:9-11
I am no different from many other teachers all over the country. When Wal-Mart is full of yellow cardboard boxes each summer, I go and buy supplies for my classroom. One thing I usually purchase for my students is a couple big boxes of yellow pencils so my students don’t have to carry them from their regular classrooms to mine.
The first day I had students for classes this year, I had several brand-new pencils out for my students. As I put them out, I noticed that the erasers in these new pencils were just a tad longer than normal. Now, I’m sure that sounds like a good idea to most people, but what I know is that a longer eraser usually ends up breaking off right at the metal band - if not just below it - the first time a student goes to erase. Since I knew it was likely to happen, I warned my students to be gentle when they used the eraser so they wouldn’t break.
We hadn’t even gotten to the point in the lesson where the students were actually using their pencils when I saw one particular student’s eyes go wide. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but he managed to break the eraser off before he had even used the pencil.
I am not going to lie to you, my first instinct - my gut reaction - was pure frustration! I was irritated! I had just warned them about this very thing! In fact, I was starting to compose a lecture in my head about listening and treating our supplies more carefully.
But, right then, I felt a tiny prick in my heart. It’s just a pencil. Look at his face. He’s waiting to see how you react, and he’s bracing for it. My frustration level instantly deflated. I took a deep breath and let go of that lecture. Instead, I chose grace. I handed him a new pencil and went on with the lesson.
This last week, I studied the book of Jonah. If you’ve been in church much as a child, you are most likely familiar with the story of how Jonah disobeyed God’s command to go to Ninevah and ended up in the belly of that giant fish. You probably know that after three days and some prayer time, Jonah was vomited onto land and then obeyed God and went to Ninevah.
But the part of the story that we don’t often teach our children about comes later in the book. After Jonah preaches to the citizens of Ninevah, they humbly repent, and God, in response to their repentance, pours out His grace and does not destroy them.
Jonah, however, was not happy about this outcome. You see, Jonah didn’t want the Ninevites to be spared. He wanted God to punish them and bring the destruction he warned them about.
So Jonah goes out in the nearby desert and sits down under a shelter that he builds. Then God makes a plant grow up overnight to provide Jonah some relief from the punishing sun. Still Jonah is angry. The next morning God sends a worm to destroy the plant so that it dies and Jonah is left in the scorching heat with no shade. At this point, Jonah is absolutely livid.
That’s when God asks him a pointed question: “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
You see, sometimes I get angry because of my circumstances. Someone breaks a pencil eraser that I bought with my own money, and I get mad. A coworker gets an opportunity that I wasn’t given, and I become angry. A parent is demanding something I feel is unrealistic, and I get irritated. I could go on . . .
But is it right for me to be angry about these things?
God goes on to tell Jonah that He is concerned about people who do not know Him. He is concerned about people’s spiritual needs, their eternity.
Am I concerned about people like God is concerned about people? Do I put my own wants, my own comfort, my own well-being, above all else? Or do I have God’s heart to help those around me know the amazing power of God’s grace?
I know that I personally need to be reminded that sometimes, it’s just a pencil. Let go of the anger. Be a conduit of God’s grace so that others might turn to Him and find eternal life. So if you see me carrying around a pencil with the eraser ripped off, you’ll know that I’m trying to remember this lesson that God is teaching me - to have more compassion and to be full of His mercy each day.
Father God, You are so compassionate towards us. Your grace and mercy are extended to us over and over. I know we live in a world full of people who don’t know You, who seek only their own gain, who regularly practice evil in order to get ahead. When we encounter these people in our daily life, help us to remember that we don’t deserve Your love either. Remind us of their need for You, just as we need You. Help us to be merciful and full of grace, just like You.
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