A four-year-old girl was at the pediatrician's office for a checkup. As the doctor looked into her ears, he asked, "Do you think I'll find Big Bird in here?"

The little girl didn't answer.

Next, the doctor took a tongue depressor and looked down her throat. He asked, "Do you think I'll find the Cookie Monster down there?"

Again, the little girl was silent.

Then the doctor put a stethoscope to her chest. As he listened to her heartbeat, he asked, "Do you think I'll hear Barney in there?"

"Oh, no!" the little girl replied. "Jesus is in my heart. Barney's on my underpants."

That little girl certainly has her priorities straight, getting right to the heart of the matter.

God gets right to the heart of the matter, too, when he chooses Jeremiah, before his birth no less, to be a prophet. …