Guess Whose Coming to Dinner

Guess who’s Coming to Dinner?

“Have you watched this movie before?” My roommate asked, as she came in with a bunch of movies from school. “What movie?” I responded, sitting on the couch, watching Jeopardy. “Guess who’s coming to Dinner?” “Yes I did, a while back.” “Is it a good movie?” “I liked it because Sydney Poitier is acting in the movie.” I responded. A Communication student, my roommate had brought the movie from the Library to watch as part of her assignment, but did not have the time to watch it right there and then because of other pressing issues.
A few days went by and there was no mention of when the movie would be watched, well, up until my roommate asked me if I had taken the movie because she needed to watch it. The due date for the assignment was fast approaching. I told her that I had not taken the movie, but had “seen” it the day before exactly were she had last placed it-or did I? She “looked” through the pile of the six movies but still could not “see” it. She called friends who had stopped by to see if they had taken the movie by mistake. Each friend said that they had not taken the movie. She turned her room upside down trying to locate the movie, but to no avail.
A few days went by and she still could not find the movie. On the fifth day, she came back from work frustrated because she could not understand how the movie went “missing.” I offered to go through the pile of the three VHS tapes and three DVDs just to make sure. I mean, six things to go though…it cannot be that complicated now, can it? As I began looking through the tapes, I heard my roommate say, “The movie is a VHS.” I had initially picked up the DVDs, but when I heard her specify what kind of format the movie was, I quickly turned my attention to the three VHS tapes stirring at me. “Guess who’s coming to Dinner” was not there.
At that moment I heard my roommate utter another sentence, “Oh my gosh, it is a DVD, not a VHS.” She had just seen the movie when I placed the DVDs on the floor. “What?” I exclaimed. “You are kidding me right?” “No,” she said. At that moment, I looked down again to make sure that she was not pulling my leg, and sure enough, “Guess who’s coming to Dinner” had been there all along, not as a VHS, but as a DVD.
My roommate had spent about five days looking for a movie that was there all along. Wasted energy, wasted emotions, wasted time, frustration, anxiety about the pending assignment and library fees, name it, looking for something that was there all along. Her mind, and up to that point, mine, had been “trained” to look for a VHS and not a DVD...go figure.
How often do we look for a “missing item” when in actuality, it is not missing, but our minds and eyes have been trained to look for something else? The Pharisees and the Jews, anticipating the coming of the Messiah, missed the Messiah because their eyes wanted to see the kind of Messiah that fit their perception.

“And the multitudes were amazed, and began to say, ‘This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?’ But the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.’ (Matt. 12: 23-24, NAS)
“The Jews were grumbling about Him…and they were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” (John 6: 41-42, NAS)

Not to be hard on the Pharisees, how about the Prophet Samuel when he was told to anoint one of Jesse’ son to be the next King of Israel in I Samuel 16: 1-13?

“Then it came about when they entered that he looked (Samuel) at Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ (Vs. 6-7, NAS)

Could it be that we are looking for that “missing” ministry, when in actuality it is right there in front of us? That “missing” job, when it is right there in front of us. That “missing” time of rest, when in actuality it is right in front of us. That “missing” help, when in actuality, it is right there in front of us. What is it that our minds have been trained to look for when in actuality God wants us to look for and see the ‘DVD’ and not the ‘VHS?’ We could save ourselves five days of looking for something that was already there in the first place. May our prayer be that we have the eyes to see what God needs us to see. May our personal perceptions not hinder us from God’s perceptions.

Needless to say, my roommate and I laughed at what had transpired. I was happy that she found the movie. Right there and then, we decided that it was time to watch it, considering all the drama that we, actually my roommate, went through “trying” to find something that was not missing J -it is, after all Sydney Poitier-a class act. I know who’s coming to Dinner!!!