There’s a time for us…

I’ve been on “baby watch” today for the niece of a very good friend of mine whose blood pressure was extremely high and it was kind of touch and go but the baby is here and everything is fine, a beautiful baby girl. From the baby watch and hearing that all was well and feeling happy about that I got a call from another very close friend that her daughter was in a struggle for her life in the emergency room of a local hospital. Babies struggle into the world when they pass through the birth canal or when they are yanked into the world directly from the womb through an incision. From the time they fight their way into the world until the time of the final struggle to release the soul into eternity we are in a quandary of one type or another.

I thought of that and went to where there is a lot of advice and wisdom. It’s in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes and I think this verse is familiar to most, it starts by saying “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:” It is verse six I want to mention, it says: “A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;” 

Recently I happened upon a little box that was tucked into the back of my closet, I found several treasures. One was a beautifully hand knitted red sweater that my Dad’s mother had made for me when I was about 12 months old, there are pictures of me wearing it, I posted one of them at the top of this article. It is in excellent shape, no holes only two missing buttons and a little worn around the edges of the sleeve, the remaining white pearl buttons still shining bright. Then something caught my attention, it was two fragile sticks that had red yarn woven in and around to form a crude type of a “dream catcher”, at least that was my best guess. There was a yellowed piece of notepaper under it, with my handwriting, so I took it over to the window because the letter written with a pencil was very faded. It read: “Dear Mimi, Auntie and Pobbie, I have builded this stick for you. I am happy to give it to you for Mother’s Day. Mother writted the note I builded the thing. Dear Mimi I love you,” and it was signed “Feel Facer”.  Now I know that doesn’t mean a thing to you, but it was a note I had written for “Dr Ara” before he learned to write and, obviously, use good grammar! I took great pleasure in reading it over and then reading it to my parents and then, of course, I read it to the good Doctor himself. We look at things like that and, at least I do, miss the child that wrote it, made it, which played cars for hours, wore super hero capes and slept peacefully at night with no cares or worries.

In our faith walk, we start out that way, not using the “spiritual” terms that others might use, being over zealous, taking things a bit too far, making people run when they see us coming with our New Testament, but then we begin to grow in the Lord, as we grow physically and learn more of Him and His ways. But here is where I wish that instead of being mature and bored with new Christians, we could keep a little of the enthusiasm that is tempered with wisdom, in our daily walk.

I looked at my grown son sitting cross legged on his grand-daddy’s bed reading that little note, and he was happy to see it and examined the sticks with the yarn carefully, but when he got ready to go home, he handed the note and the stick back to me for safe keeping, he has grown up and doesn’t need to keep the reminder of his “childish” days. 1 Cor. 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Don’t beat yourself up if you are trying to learn, James 1:5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

I can imagine that when we are new to the faith God loves us and smiles at our ignorance, but after a while, He expects us to quit messing in our pants! I learned long ago that if I had a question I ask and He answers, you can ask Him too, that’s what the scripture says, and He will help! Put away the childish things that bring you down or remind you of “the old days” which usually only causes you heartache and sometimes gets you into trouble!

When you aren’t feeling “worthy” just remember this, God is like Mr. Rogers; He loves you just the way you are! Peace!