One of our family's favorite movies is an old black and white titled “Harvey.” It stars Jimmy Stewart and a large invisible rabbit called Harvey. Whenever we all want a good laugh we'll pull out this movie and settle into our comfortable chairs for an hour and a half of comic relief.

Not only is the movie funny, it also contains a few scenes and dialogue with valuable lessons. Over the next few weeks I want to examine three of them. Today I'd like you to think about a scene where Elwood P. Dowd (Stewart) is asking the character, Mr. Chumley, where he would go and what he would do if he could have any wish he wanted. You see, Harvey (the invisible rabbit) is magical and can make time stand still so that you can go anywhere and do anything you wish and when you come back, not one second will have ticked off the clock.

Mr. Chumley replies he would like to go to Akron, lay under a maple tree with a pretty blonde girl and send out for cold beer. He says that he would tell this pretty girl all of his deepest and innermost thoughts that he has never told anyone and while he was bearing his soul, the pretty young girl would hold out her hand and say "poor thing, poor, poor thing". “It would be wonderful” he says. Mr. Dowd replies “It sounds pretty boring to me, just Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing'.” I must agree with Mr. Dowd.

What is the point, you ask? Here is a man who could go anywhere, do anything and have anything he wished and he picked Akron, cold beer and a pretty blonde girl with a limited vocabulary.

God has promised to his children all spiritual blessings in Christ (Eph. 1:3). The God who created this world and all things in it is our own heavenly Father who loves us and wants the very best for us. Paul tells us in Romans 8:32 that He gave His only begotten Son. If God will do that for us, does it not follow that He will also freely give us all things that are for our good? We have all spiritual blessings in Christ and yet some of us, not only settle for, but actually desire things akin to “Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing.'”

“Oh, but those are spiritual blessings...” Be careful. You'll tell on yourself. When we degrade spiritual blessings because they are spiritual in nature we reflect our carnal and fleshly disposition. Do you realize that our reward in heaven is going to be of a spiritual nature and not material. What will we say to God at the judgment. “Oh, I'm sorry, no thank you. I'm not interested in spiritual things. I thought there were going to be literal streets of literal gold.”

Let us be careful that we do not behave like the Amish man who won a brand new Cadillac. Because the Amish do not use any modern technologies like electricity or gasoline engines, all he could do was hook his team of horses to the Cadillac to pull him around town.

God has given all things for our good, let's not settle for horse-drawn Cadillacs or “Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing.'”