Lemuel and the Bank

My friend Lemuel went to the bank the other day to make a deposit. Since there was only one drive-thru lane open he pulled behind the car in front of him that was at the bank teller window. Soon a pickup truck pulled in behind him. Lemuel waited, and waited, and he waited. He could see the lady in the car talking to the teller…and he waited some more. It appeared as if the lady and the teller talked, then didn’t talk, then talked again.

Lemuel, thought, “If she had multiple transactions why didn’t she go inside?”

As Lemuel continued to wait he thought, “If I could pull out of this lane I could park and go inside the bank.” But the pickup truck behind him was close to his rear bumper so that wasn’t a good option.

The minutes passed. Lemuel was pretty patient, he thought that God must just want him to wait before he could get on with his trip to Home Depot.

Finally the sliding tray opened from the teller’s window and the lady in the car retrieved a paper and drove away.

As Lemuel approached the teller’s window and gazed into the bank he saw lines of people at the counter. “Well,” he thought, “looks like if I had gone inside I’d still have to wait.”

The teller, a young lady named Marla, looked at him through the window and apologetically said, “I’m sorry you had to wait, our system is down and we have to do everything by hand.”

Lemuel thought, “Glad I didn’t make a fool of myself by getting impatient or angry – that would have been stupid.” (Of course it would have been stupid no matter the reason for the wait – our day belongs to God).

“Oh, that’s ok,” Lemuel told Marla, and he meant it.

Marla had to go to the main counter inside the bank, fill out a manual receipt, and then have a manager sign it. As she returned and gave Lemuel the receipt through the tray Lemuel looked at her, smiled and said, “I’m sure this has been a tough morning for you…I hope you have a good day.”

Things aren’t always what they appear to be – it’s better to trust God than to jump to conclusions – waiting won’t generally hurt us – and as Lemuel found out when he got to Home Depot, God had a purpose for the wait…but that is the next post.