Why am I telling you this now?

OK I am just going to do this and see where it goes. Sometimes a story rambles and seems pointless and then all of a sudden you know why you told it, so it is that hope (that I will know why I told it) that is pressing me to share this with you now.

I observe Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, or as I like to call it, Resurrection Day, and I like to share the stories and scriptures that lead us through the life of Jesus up until the crucifixion and ultimately the empty tomb, which we celebrate, so I don’t know how this will weave into a story … let’s see.

There was a handsome young man that was a member of our church; he was in a car as the passenger, the driver pulled out in front of a speeding truck which rammed into the passenger side of the car killing him instantly. It was a very sad situation.

I wanted to visit his mother at the funeral home but the only time I could do it was when I had just picked up my son, 6 years old from school. I had made a stop at the store and he came running up with a giant pair of clown sunglasses that were neon pick and yellow, he felt like he really had to have them so I bought them for him. When we got to the funeral home he wanted to carry his new sunglasses in with him so I let him. I walked up to the casket where the young man’s mother was just standing and looking at him. I walked up and put my arms around her and was saying a soft prayer when she suddenly looked over my shoulder, I turned around to see what had caught her attention and to my horror my little son had placed those giant sunglasses squarely on the face of the corpse of this lady’s son. To my amazement she started to chuckle! I quickly grabbed the glasses and reprimanded my son for doing that when she stopped me by saying, “It’s alright, Stephan would have thought it was funny too!” I took my little boy by the hand and led him back out to he car while feeling like I was going to faint!

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

I am sure we do things every day that seem as foolish to God as my boy putting those big neon pink and yellow sunglasses on the face of that dead young man, but He knows our faults and our weaknesses and gives us grace to cover our foolishness. Mistakes? I’ve made a few (yes that was a direct quote from a song… you know the one) but I know that God’s mercy is fresh and new every morning so that at the end of the day when I ask Him to help me and forgive all of my foolish mistakes He gives me the calm assurance to say, It Is Well With My Soul!

That’s the reason Jesus went to that cross and sacrificed His life for us, what can we do for Him?

*as a side note, that young man’s brother became my son-in-law several years later and his mother and I had several good laughs over what had happened.