てんかんの発作のときは、自分の舌をかんでしまったけれど、ペコちゃん人形のときは、舌をわざと出しているのよね。
あのペコちゃん人形は、体がジッパーになって、売られたときは、中にキャンデーが一杯詰まっていていた。だけど、その後も数年間、我が家のクリスマスを明るくし続けてくれた。ペコちゃんは小人じゃないかもしれない。でも、ときには自分が慣れないようなことでも、誰かの祝福のために用いられればいいじゃない。
あれ？思ったんだけど、この写真、夏。クリスマスじゃない。あの人形がいるって、おかしいんじゃない？
I had been so afraid of blindness…I do not doubt that You, Father, could fill a life of physical darkness with utter joy and revelation that would make me marvel at how I could’ve feared it so long—yet I do. But I see Fanny, in her darkness, walked in light; while most of us, to see even a fraction of what she saw, have to wait until we die.
Some speak of Fanny Crosby and other blind people being able to see when we receive glorified bodies. But I rather think those of us who have been disabled with physical sight on earth and unable to see unlimited, eternal truths will find, when we get to Heaven and receive glorified bodies, we will be able to see infinite light and realities as Fanny Crosby and all the other blind Christians knew on the earth!
And we thought they were the ones who were handicapped.
Some people think the axe, if sharpened, is just as good a weapon as the sword. Well, scripture refers to the Word as a double-edged sword. Never does it refer to God's Word as an axe. However, some following passages came to me:
Battle Axe (Jer. 51:20) "You are my battle axe and weapons of war", God does refer to His own people once in this way. He wants us to be willing to plow into conflict for Him. Of course, this is an unpopular concept in contemporary society.
Borrowed Axe (2 Ki. 6:5) "The axe head fell into the water...Alas, it was borrowed." How much of what we spout are things we've heard from friends or from the pulpit--they're "others’ blessings", not our own discoveries from a thriving relationship with God?
Boastful Axe (Isa. 10:15) "Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews it" It is true God tells us to uphold His principles of justice. But to do so and then to feel I have done something good for which the Creator should feel fortunate to own an instrument like me...well, something is terribly wrong.
Severing Axe (Matt. 3:10) "And now the axe is laid unto the root of...every tree which brings not forth good fruit…and cast into the fire" I didn't say this; God did. Bearing fruit is a precious privilege; fruitlessness may hint Lifelessness. This axe is one God Himself, not man, wields. And it’s His timing, His choice of fruit.
When the Captain of our Salvation sees weary footmen head into the dark forests with their axes to gather timber for fellow warriors’ ease and shade, I think He is pleased.
I am trying to picture Jesus on that day riding on a colt into Jerusalem.
I wonder if He went up to that donkey’s mother and told it to give up its foal to Him because He was the Son of God, and it was the privilege of any donkey to let Him ride it. And the poor little foal, shivering, was approached by its mother. Be strong. This is a duty. And a privilege. No, no, no; a thousand times no! My Savior wouldn’t have done it that way.
Wouldn’t Jesus have smiled at the tiny guy and even pet him a little, saying in a gentle voice, “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you, really.
Will you let me ride on your back a little bit? Please? That would mean so much to me. No—take your time to think about it; you don’t have to answer me right away.
I’m sorry for springing something on you all of a sudden like this. I know it’s not natural to put burdens back there, and you haven’t ever done that before, not since the day you came out of your mother’s womb! So I’m not in any hurry to get a response; and if you’re not sure, I’ll ask around for someone else who might be able to help until you think you can, ‘cuz…what, you can and you will?! Thank you! You sure? Thank you!”
The day of the Triumphal Entry. I am trying to picture Jesus acting like the Father needs Him for doing His will for the Kingdom…but He treats lightly all those around Him, expecting them to do what they do because it is their responsibility to serve God. No; He wouldn’t have done that.
Instead, I picture Jesus leaning down to that little donkey, reminding him, “I need you today! You can’t know how grateful I am you’re doing this for me! I wish I could repay you.” And the little guy, snorting out feelings of pride and happiness mixed with love, found himself determined not to wobble as he walked that day!
The village children were amazed. Wasn’t this that little donkey, the timid little fry that brayed all the time but turned tails and ran if you even touched its back? It looked like the one that had been bullied by the bigger ones so was too scared to come out with the others anymore. But it was letting Jesus ride it! What had Jesus done?
There were hurt people too timid to come out into normal life. Could Jesus…do something for them too?
“Hosanna!” (That means “Save us!”) It started out with one youth’s cry. An echo sounded. Soon, the donkey heard it from a gravelly alley, from the steps winding down the middle of Jerusalem, and soon it seemed lampposts were lighting up and waving palm branches and crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“You, my friend,” I imagine Jesus whispered to the donkey carrying him; “you started this, you know.”
END
“Jesus is so different.” I found myself thinking. While many of us, even well-meaning Christians disdain “sinners” and would hold ourselves far away from them, Jesus doesn’t do that. Oh, let me throw all that away, and get back to why I was thinking that.
I know there was a time I felt I had been stabbed emotionally when I went to a Christian at prayer meeting when we divided up into twos to pray and was met—she wouldn’t even look at me—with the words: “Just put your hand on your heart and ask yourself what sin you harbor there.” Then she got up off her chair, moved elsewhere and would not pray with me. To this day, I have no idea what she was accusing me of. Pride? Prayerlessness? Laziness?
But there was the woman at the well of Sychar who met Jesus of Nazareth (John 4). He didn’t get up off his chair and move elsewhere when she approached; He actually went near her when He knew she lived with 4 men before the man she was living with—and then He asked her for a drink of water. I doubt seriously he said she was a prostitute as I have heard some preachers do!
My mother told me it once scared her to think that God could see everything in her heart. But then, she realized it was a God that saw everything and loved us anyway, not like the person who wouldn’t have anything to do with you if you have some sin in the heart, but He’d come and ask you for something just to let you know He really did want to be with & talk with you.
The usual reaction, when a person finds out somebody has taken a candid picture of him is, “Oh no!” But it wasn’t that way with the woman at the well! She ran into town, telling the people, “Come! You’ve just got to meet this man! He knows everything about me!” That would make most people say, “Don’t listen to a word he says!” But she sounded so excited, they had to meet Him.
Are WE like that? Do WE meet people, find out the worst about each other, yet find ourselves the best buddies on earth? Or do we do the routine of get-up-off-our-seat-and-go-to-where-the-purer-saints-are? Jesus didn’t do that with the woman at the well.
And she left her waterpot, saying,
“I have met a man who told me everything I ever did!”
In 2 Chron. 28, Ahaz, king of Judah, a wicked king, led the people into gross sin, so God let the people lose terribly in battle.
But just as 200,000 people of Judah were being taken away as slaves by the victors, the prophet Oded spoke up and told their captors: "God is punishing us for sinning. Do you want to make us slaves and chance getting judged even harsher?"
When 4 leaders heard this, they stopped the soldiers, had the captives cared for with the booty from the battle, and sent them back home. They came home better clothed and fed than before they lost the war!
Most people would rather hear stories like David and Goliath, the Walls of Jericho, or Gideon's 300 men, where they can praise valiant heroes for their courage. Stories like this, where defeated sinners repent and accept undeserving favor...well, it's not supposed to be in the Old Testament, is it?
A cow wading in the Nile saw a basket in the reeds, and when he bent to see, a frog hopped on his head to see too. A little baby was inside. A flea perched on the handwoven awning and looked at the face, and a fly stopped nearby; they had never seen anything like this before. A young girl came sloshing towards the basket, carrying the cover that apparently had slipped off when she had been distracted by something else. Just before she snapped the lid back on, the insect on the blade of grass to the side of the basket leaped for cover. It was a locust.
About 40 years later, the baby - Moses - became a murderer and fugitive and fled to Midian to become a shepherd. He returned when he was 80 - did these critters tell their descendants about the infant they saw floating on the river? Because for 5 of the plagues, he called for them to come. Could they have known the baby would someday come back...and come back as he did?
