On my recent trip to Calhoun, Ga., Deana Brannan served as my gracious host. This cozy vignette was a welcoming sight when Mary Ashley and I arrived at her home Friday night.
With comfortable chairs, blankets and a blazing fire, this scene reminded me of one of my favorite illustrations from the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. Weaver was moved by Robert Boyd Munger's article "My Heart Christ's Home," in which Munger talked about welcoming the Lord into his heart and giving Him a tour.
Munger says the two paused in the library of his mind and stepped in to see the workshop of his talents. Willing to be completely vulnerable, Munger even showed the Lord his messy hall closet of secrets. But it was in the drawing room that the two felt most at home. They decided to meet there daily. The communion of their prayer and Bible study was so sweet that soon the two began calling their meeting place the "withdrawing room."
But as worldly demands pressed in, Munger found himself skipping appointments with the Lord from time to time. Setting aside time for prayer and Bible study became increasingly difficult, and before too long he found he never entered the withdrawing room anymore.
Munger reveals, "I remember one morning when I was in a hurry. ... As I passed the drawing room, the door was ajar. Looking in I saw a fire in the fireplace and the Lord sitting there. ... 'Blessed Master, forgive me. Have You been here all these mornings?"
The Lord's poignant response: "The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of the quiet time, of the Bible study and prayer time, as a factor in your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour means something to Me also."
Joanna Weaver, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2000), 71-73.
