WALLOWING IN SLIME

​i recently attended a celebration of life for a friend’s dad, who passed away in May.  Throughout most of his working life he’d been a cop, and that influenced how he had parented his kids.  But as he grew older his heart softened, and as his faith in Jesus grew he found himself with his own crosses to bear.
 
His wife and mother of their four kids grew blind in her old age, and that took quite a toll on him as he struggled to take care of her.  He ended up having a stroke, and he became incapacitated as well.  If you don’t have a savior to rely upon, things like that can make your last season a living hell.  But Jesus used the very things that eventually took them out to stir up His life as the Christ in them, and so their last season was in many ways the sweetest.
 
i got quite a few chances to hang with my friend’s dad during his last years, and i was continually amazed at how a man so severely debilitated could still overflow with so much peace and joy and love.  But one time while we were talking about kids, tears welled up in his eyes and he began to weep.  We put so much emphasis on stuffing kids with head knowledge that we end up neglecting their souls, he said.  His heart reminded me of our shepherd’s, when He implored Peter to feed His sheep.
 
i was hoping to share that story during the celebration of life, but it didn’t happen.  But after the service another buddy sat down next to me, who’d worked with youth in sports and church while working a job in health care to support his family.  i realized that God wanted me to share with him what i’d gleaned from our mutual friend’s dad.  
 
So we talked about the hard things that had happened to our friend’s dad - how his trials had pierced his heart - yet how deeply that had blessed many of us who’d seen Christ in him.  In his later years, whenever he opened his mouth we could hear and even feel the heart of the Father and the devotion of the Son.  And now i saw a similar gift in my buddy.
 
“i will never forget the times you led communion at church,” i said to him, “because i felt so strongly the presence of the Lord.  It wasn’t so much the words you spoke or the thoughts you shared, but your reverence for God and your devotion to Christ.  It’s an extraordinary gift, to draw people closer to God not by anything you do but by the presence of Jesus in you, and God intends to continue to use you that way, to reveal His heart to others, just as He so powerfully used our elder.”
 
“His heart was broken for kids,” i continued, “because the adults in their lives were so intent on teaching them things that they neglected to feed them.  For even those of us who claim to know God tend to fill our kids’ heads with information, all the while their hearts are aching for love.  But he had prayed for them about that - not only his own kids and grandkids, but for many others - and i believe that you, buddy, are an answer to his prayers.  Jesus is calling you to feed His sheep, as He called Peter to do in the closing verses of the Book of John.”
 
i told my buddy that i had no idea how God might use him - whether God might call him back into working with youth, or whether the sheep God wanted him to feed are now a lot older - maybe his age or mine.  But i was really encouraged by the stories we’d just heard about our friend’s dad, because they showed that God doesn’t have to give a man a particular job or ministry to use him mightily to build His kingdom.
 
My buddy was deeply moved by what i shared, saying that it really spoke into the question he’s been pondering about what’s next for him and his wife, now that their youngest will be a senior in high school and they’ll soon become empty-nesters.  As for me, i’m deeply grateful that God led me to share His heart with my buddy, and that He had given both of us such a fine example of love in action through the life of our friend’s dad!
 
That example continued to burn in my heart after i returned home to a house full of my own grandkids last night.  Before i fell asleep i confessed to God that i wasn’t doing a very good job of nurturing Christ’s life in them, even though our friend’s dad and i had prayed similarly - that as for me and mine, we would serve the Lord.  So i asked God to help Karen and i not just read Bible stories to our grandkids, but to love them well and teach them to love each other well, by depending upon Jesus’s love for us.
 
The next morning, after three of our grandkids had rolled around on the bed with us for awhile and we’d tickled them and giggled with them to their hearts’ content, they all disappeared for a moment.  Karen soon disappeared as well, and when she returned she was carrying some of the Bible story books we like to read to our grandkids.
 
“i don’t think that’s going to work today,” i said as i pondered the mood of our kids.  Sure enough, when our youngest returned he shunned Karen’s offer for story time.  But an hour later, after the last of his siblings woke up and they’d all had their fill of breakfast, all four of them got in a protracted battle over the toy slime the youngest had recently gotten at the Discovery Center.  As soon as he noticed it was missing, they all started pointing fingers about who had played with it last.  Eventually they found it near the couch, but it had been left out of its container all night and had become so dry it was no longer any fun.  So the finger-pointing ratcheted up about who had been so careless.
 
It was ugly and heartwarming at the same time, because they all agreed that their youngest sibling needed a new batch of slime and that he shouldn’t have to pay for it all by himself.  They agreed that the cost of a batch of slime was five dollars, but they couldn’t agree about who should pay to replace it.  Some of them had no money and some had lots, which only deepened their division.  Their dad and i sat there through the whole debate, saying nothing while we watched them wrestle with how to make things right.  But the more they talked the more helpless they felt and the more frustrated they became, so i finally was moved to break the stalemate.
 
“i will pay the five bucks,” i said, tossing an Abe Lincoln down on the table in front of them, “because it reminds me of what Jesus did for us.  We were all stuck in our slime, with no way out; we were all wrestling mightily with our sin which we couldn’t fix, so Jesus stepped in and paid the price for us on the cross.  i’m so grateful for Jesus, and i don’t want you to feel guilty because i’m paying to make things right.  i just want you to thank Jesus, for what He has done for us.”
 
They all sat there dumbfounded by what had just happened.  i’m not sure if any of them fully understood the point i was trying to make, but they all seemed relieved that there was a solution, and the youngest was overjoyed when i promised to stop by the Discovery Center that day and buy him a new batch of slime.
 
It’s obvious to me that God had orchestrated it all to smear a bit more Jesus into our grandkids, and maybe into their parents and us as well.  Even if they don’t fully grasp my explanation, i’m hoping they have a new appreciation for how Jesus can show up in the midst of their messes and make things right.