While I was a graduate student, President George H.W. Bush opened his Presidential Library on Texas A&M University’s campus. Every day on my way to work and school, I passed the Presidential Library of the 41st President.

Soon after the Library opened, I began to have a certain fantasy. I imagined myself being on campus and seeing the President. I would strike up a conversation with him in the midst of Secret Service men, and he would instruct the guards to let me through so he could chat with me.

This fantasy scenario would then become even more intimate: I would ask the President if he and his wife could come for dinner at our home that night, and he would accept. That evening, after his Secret Service guards ensured his safety, the President and Mrs. Bush would arrive for dinner. They would sit in our living room for a while before dinner and we would talk about many things.

By the time they left, my wife and I would be on a first-name basis with George and Barbara, and they would invite us to keep in touch. We would take lots of pictures, and I would display those photos prominently.

Okay, so this fantasy was quite elaborate. But was it realistic?

Of course not.

Let’s suppose for a moment, however, that the random meeting did happen (It didn’t). Let’s say that I actually did have a chance to ask the former President to dinner (I didn’t). Even if I could have conspired to arrange such a meeting, what could I have done to ensure that the President and I became friends?

Nothing; absolutely nothing.

I couldn’t pursue a relationship with George H.W. Bush because I wasn't his equal. He is the former President of the United States, and I was just a graduate student. If ever a relationship was to be formed, it wouldn’t have been by my initiative but by his. I could never have been friends with the President simply because I decided I wanted to be. I could have desired it, longed for it, dreamed about it, but I could never have made it happen myself – it would have been the President’s choice alone.

Even more so, this is true with the God of the Universe. I could never have chosen to have a relationship with Him and have it come to fruition by my own efforts. No, for that relationship to form, God needed to first open the door and invite me in – without His approval, I wouldn’t even get past the Secret Service Angels guarding Him.

But He did open the door. By the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, He, the God of all that exists (way more powerful than a simple President – no offense, Mr. President) has shooed His angel guards away and said, “Come; My time is yours.” He has invited me to sit at His holy table, to talk to Him about anything and everything, to simply relax in His company, to have fun and to get to know Him.

—David Drees

Do you really comprehend the tremendous gift that has been given to you when you are invited by God to enter His presence? Thank Him today for that awesome privilege.

© 2004. Kingdom Building Ministries.