If your eye causes you to stumble… (Cory Hunt update)

I wanted to post this so my friends can pray for Cory’s continued healing.  Sounds like the Lord has done some awesome stuff in this situation.  His blog can be found at:  http://octimesquartet.blogspot.com/ 

-Drew

Thursday, May 8, 2008

AMAZING Grace!

Forgive me as I’m sure this will get long-winded, but I feel the need to let you all know just exactly what I’m feeling.

Many of you are aware of the trauma I had with my eye early this year. After one surgery and many prayers, we fixed one problem. This was followed by months of follow-ups and continual bleeding in my eye. Then last week, we found that I had a detached retina and surgery would be necessary to repair the detachment. At that time, doctors told me I would not likely regain any vision in my right eye, but the surgery would save my eye ball itself, to keep me from having to get a glass eye.

Yesterday, I went in for surgery. My doctors planned it to be one-and-a-half to two hours and would include reattachment of the retina with a sclera buckle, possible pneumatic retinopexy (a gas bubble in the eye which would require me to be head down again for a week or two), silicone oil, laser therapy, cryotherapy, membrane dissection as well as a possible lensectomy. We prepared for this surgery for some time and arranged for a family friend from church to do my anesthesiology. She has a rep for being the best in town, but it’s also comforting for mom, dad and myself to go into an intimidating situation with a friend in the room.

Adding to this, my insurance that I had to cover the last surgery dropped me a few weeks ago. I was on a short term policy and the contract I signed had an option for them to not allow me to renew after six months. I had no way to pay for this surgery and that was a great burden on my family and I. My doctor setup an appointment with the State Work Rehabilitation Office. The day before my surgery, I heard back that I had been approved for federal assistance through Services for the Blind, covering all of my doctor and hospital expenses, a true blessing and relief.

I’ve never been much of a worrier, I just can’t think of an instance where it has helped any situation. Whatever happens, happens for a reason, and no matter what, it is in my best interest. It’s hard to see that sometimes – very hard – but I believe it wholeheartedly. So we (mom, dad and I) went to the surgery feeling upbeat, positive and eager for continuing the healing.

After saying our goodbyes, my anesthesiologist, Kathy, wheeled me into the operating room where I found Dr. Friedlander (my talented doctor and surgeon) and an old classmate, Emily, who was scrubbing in as one of his nurses for the procedure. There was also a med student from Illinois who was there to observe the surgery. It was a party! I asked Dr. Friedlander if he would do the silicone oil, if at all possible, so that I wouldn’t have to spend several days with my head down. (I’m graduating from college on the 17^th of this month and really wanted to walk across that stage when my name was called.) He said he would do what he could, said goodnight and that was about it.

I woke up in a daze with the familiar itch of stitches in my eye, ointment on my good eye and one question… “did he put the silicone oil or the gas in my eye?” The nurses in recovery weren’t sure, but they didn’t have instructions to put me head down, so it must have been oil. This made me pretty happy. But I had no idea what was to come.

Sometime later, they brought my parents to the recovery room and my mom grabbed my hand and asked if I had heard the good news. She told me that Dr. Friedlander found that my retina was NOT detached, he cleaned up my inner eye and sent me on my way.

There are truly no words I can write to tell you what kind of joy this gave me. I didn’t want to ask any more questions because it hurt to cry, it was pure delight. Dr. Friedlander removed the old congealed blood, scrapped more blood off my lens and did some work with the laser to prevent further bleeding within my eye. My parents told me when he came out to tell them how things went (just 45 minutes after going under) that he had a big grin on his face. (I’ve also learned through all of this that when your doctor is happy, you should be happy – when he is not, you should not.)

Today, I went in for a post-operation checkup and removal of the bandages. It’s itchy, red, swollen and looks like I got in a pretty good argument with a fist and lost. But when I opened my eye… I COULD SEE. For the first time in months, I could count fingers a few feet away, detect motion, see color – all out of an eye that I had been told was all but lost. My lens is scratched and a cataract is forming and will require a quick, routine surgery. My optic nerve still has damage to it and will not likely heal, so I won’t likely be able to read with that eye again, but the fact of the matter is I CAN SEE!!!!

I know that we don’t all share the same religious beliefs but I just have to say, I truly have been touched by God throughout this whole ordeal. This truly miraculous turn in events is just one part of a much bigger picture. God has walked with me through the dark, lonely moments at night while wondering what the next day will bring; He has forced me to give up my selfish ambition and will to succeed on my own, and has brought me to rely on only His strength.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul writes:

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.“

What a privilege it is to know that true, unconditional love; to lay my worries and cares at the foot of The Cross, and to trust that everything that happens to me is all part of a much bigger plan. There’s nothing I can do to earn or deserve it, it’s all by the Grace of God.

I’m truly grateful to you all for your e-mails, kind words, thoughts and especially prayers. I wish that there was some way for me to repay you for the outpouring of kindness and love… I look forward to seeing you all in the near future and singing a sing with or for you, and appreciate your continued prayers for healing, but mostly joyous thanksgiving for a true miracle.

-Cory

Busy times…

It was just this past week when I had quite a wake-up call. 

Not only did we lose our precious “nephew”, Ethan Powell to Leukemia, but my dear wife was gone all week with the family in Memphis/Shreveport, the kids were with my Mom & Dad, and I found myself alone.  Several nights… while alone and busy doing work at home, I realized just how fortunate I was to be a part of a community of believers in Bowling Green that is passionate about caring for one another.

A dear brother came and cut my grass, countless phone calls, emails, cards, and otherwise prayerful meditations of people in our behalf were on my mind.  I’m not gonna lie to you, the loss of Ethan stunned me.  Even though I know all of the textbook answers about suffering.  I’ve read the Lee Strobel books, I’ve studied C.S. Lewis and various Christian theologians and apologists, but until you see a perfect little child who has yet to make a decision with a rational mind – die because of a ruthless disease – it’s not terribly real.

God is good.  He is big.  He knows more than I do, and I know that a lot of people were brought closer to him because of their realization of Ethan’s illness and perhaps their OWN deserving what an innocent child got.  Regardless, it is a time to fall on our knees and humble ourselves.

Another great tragedy has occurred in Bowling Green, KY this past week.  Sparing the details, a well-respected man in both church and community passed away by his own purposeful actions.  I found out I have “moderately abnormal” cells in a biopsy they did on me last week, and while not terribly alarmed, the Dr. wants to be sure and remove the spot on my skin.  Work is so busy that I feel like I’m standing on the seashore shoveling sand as quickly as I can, but another two, three, dozen waves come in every moment.  It’s been a heavy last few weeks.

Father, your word says that those who will do what’s right will be tested.  It says that you love those whom you punish.  Whether or not my life (and others around me) are being punished right now, I know you love me, and want my heart.  Forgive my foolish side-tracked mind, and may I be the champion of wisdom and holiness that my family needs.  Thank you for the sunshine today.  Thank you for the fun time watching “Are you smarter than a 5th Grader with my kids and wife”.  Thank you for cars that run, Christian bro’s and sis’s that love, and for our silly happy dog.  Thank you for the wake-up calls that remind us that you’re still here, you’re better than everything around us, and you want us to join you.

Whenever two or three are gathered in My name…

  …I am with them.  This past Sunday we were out of the country… well, it felt like it!  I was coming down with what I now know was STREP throat, and was laid up in the bed trying to get some rest – which of course I never got since my 7 year old wanted to sleep with Daddy.

We had our annual Spring Convention in the Dixie District of the Barbershop Harmony Society.  In lovely Greenville, South Carolina, the weather was pleasant most of the weekend, and since my quartet was trying to qualify for the International Quartet Contest (the Big Stage!) this summer, it was a big deal for us.  I’m in a comedy quartet called Lunch Break with a dear brother named Shane Scott (see his blog at www.faithandthought.net).  Shane and I almost always share the room, and the other 2 of our quartet buddies share their own. 

Shane and I have much in common – especially our faith in Christ.  It would appear that we’re going to be spending a fair amount of weekends in a hotel room on Saturday night/Sunday morning, before either early Sunday morning flights home to Nashville, or perhaps Shane will take the Sunday off (full-time minister for a church in Nashville).

Some months ago, Shane asked me, “hey buddy, on some of these Saturday nights/Sunday mornings (late, late after the afterglow shows), why don’t we share the supper together.”  I agreed that it would be an ideal time and a great idea to share that great communion together in our solitary moments  – So this past Sunday in South Carolina we enjoyed a few minutes together as Shane read out of Isaiah, and we ate some bread and drank the wine together.  GREAT times! 

One of the neatest things about it, was that I wasn’t feeling well.  Shane said, “it’s ok buddy, you’re ox is in the ditch – why don’t we do this another time.”  I insisted that we go ahead, and he just pulled a chair up to the bed and we still made it happen.  It was a great moment, and I felt refreshed even though I wasn’t with my spiritual family at the church in Bowling Green.  I couldn’t help but think about the passage where Jesus told his disciples, “where two or three are gathered in My name, I am with them.”  We continued to talk for a few minutes about our special bonds in Christ, and how it was only through Him that we could share in such deep times of devotion together – and perhaps in time, we can use those moments to sharpen one another’s spiritual swords.  Shane is a great friend to me, and a great mentor to my son, Jacob, who loves him dearly.  …Fact is, almost nobody DOESN’T LOVE Shane.  He’s a selfless servant of Christ, who’s about as wacky as a human can be, and still be G rated!

Oh, and our quartet did well… we did in fact qualify to go to the “big show” this July, and will be fortunate to be one of about 45 quartets from around the world going for the International Championship.  Great, great times, with great friends.  Feel free to visit www.lunchbreakquartet.com and leave us a comment!

Voice of Truth

I’ve been listening and re-listening to Casting Crowns lately on the way to work in the mornings.  It’s a great time to get my head together on my 1-hour drive to Nashville, and the lyrics to this song have been repeatedly coming to mind for me.

This song speaks to the nature of Satan’s craftiness.  More than anything else, for Christians, he may use our own guilt; the deceitfulness of our own hurting hearts from the sins of our dark places.  I love these artists!  They’re clearly conveying the truth of God’s word in the lyrics of this song, and allude to the choice we have of listening to the various voices that battle within us. 

“Voice Of Truth”

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I’m in
Onto the crashing waves To step out of my comfort zone
To the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He’s holding out his hand

But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. ‘Boy, you’ll never win!’
“You’ll never win”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
And the voice of truth says “Do not be afraid!”
And the voice of truth says “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a Sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand

But the giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again “boy, you’ll never win!
“You’ll never win”

But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don’t seem so high
From on top of them looking down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

The truth is – we will listen to God’s voice of truth if the Lord Jesus is our master.  Father, I pray for the strength to listen to the voice of truth – whatever its source.  If it is holy, it is from you, and I pray for the courage to listen to it.  I pray for the strength to be the holy man of God I hoped to be long ago, a pillar of strength and holiness, and always a reflection of your Son.  You are far more holy than I can ever be.  Father, forgive my failures, and help me to laugh at the waves in the strength of the King.

Maxxxxx!!! That is NOT a chew toy!

You know that belly-laugh you get sometimes?  It feels really, really good when that happens.  Tonight I got to see Jacob having that, and it almost happened to me just by watching him.  He was watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” – of course, the Jim Carrey version – and was laughing amazingly.  One of the funniest spots to him was when Max – the Grinch’s dog – jumps up and clinches his teeth into Grinch’s tail… he squirms and grimaces as only Jim Carrey can, and screams, MAX!  That is not a chew toy!  If we had Tivo Jacob would want to see it 20 more times!

This is a beautiful time of year.  There’s a gang at work that wanted to do something different this year in stead of swapping gifts, and they contributed quite a few $$ to the local boy’s home in Nashville.  The thought has occurred to me a number of times recently – as I’ve come across several Scrooges – that the spirit of giving is what the season is all about.  It is the warmth of family, the kindness of self-less giving to others, and the realization that things are new during this season.

I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas as a Holy day.  I now can’t help but reflect on the meaning behind the day.  The “whovenile delinquents” in Jim Carrey’s “Grinch” were ones who GOT IT.  They do not allude to Christ in the film; after all, it’s a feel-good happy story of an ugly creep who was spoiled in his youth against Christmas, and how he’s redeemed by the heart of a little girl.  But the thing that appeals to me more and more in the last few weeks, is that in Christ’s birth, the beautiful story of the ages is brought to fruition.  The virgin mother child herself bearing the savior of mankind, and giving us “second birth” as the song says… that is the beauty of the Christmas story! 

The Grinch was redeemed in the end of the story… but not by Jesus.  It’s interesting; the Grinch brought back the gifts he had stolen from the Who’s in Whoville, and he finally understood that it was about kindness and warmth because of something greater than yourself.  The 3 gifts to the Great King were Gold – the bounty of Kings, Frankencense – a costly spice that is used by royalty, and Myrrh.  As Dan Melear said this past Sunday… Myrrh doesn’t fit.  It’s the same root word in Hebrew as “Marah” – or bitter waters.  It’s the spice/ointment they used for embalming bodies in that time.  It was a bitter herb’ish type ointment or spice, depending on its form, meant to cover up the stench of death.

Embalming Fluid as a gift for the Savior of all Mankind upon his birth?  Come on!  …yet could there be anything more appropriate?  I don’t know all of the history of the socio-economic value of Myrrh in that ancient world, but I know that it was used in the burial of Jesus’ body.  2 of the 3 gifts were the gifts of Kings.  The third was perhaps prophetic of the greatest gift he would offer mankind; his own self.  His own body in our stead.  His own legacy of kindness, compassion, love, truth, and his own legacy of setting the standard.  the Anointed One was the epitome of hermeneutics.  He defines what our interpretation should be.  Love, kindness, compassion, mercy, truth, and obedience.  If we “get” that… maybe we would start to see Christmas in a little bit different light.  I’ll close with my favorite Christmas hymn’s lyrics from the 15th Century:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Leaf Playing & Real Quality Time

Last weekend Jacob & I wanted to spend some quality time together.  And for the first time, he is getting old enough to actually help me work!  I had to get the leaves collected around our house, so I put a rake in his hands and I held the blower and went to work on the front and back yards. 

Jacob worked on the spots up close to the house, and got his little pile together, and was so proud of it.  He’s so smart.  I mean it doesn’t require much intelligence to rake leaves, but many kids don’t figure out how to do things the right way, and actually care to work!  I know I didn’t…  but I went to look back at his work, and although he had missed some spots – he had done a great job getting most of the leaves out of the flower bed and all in one pile.  I only gave him meager instruction, but he did a great job.  He was so proud of his work.  Leaning on his rake, he was standing there as if to say, “yeah… check that out, Daddy.”

So we got the leaves all together, and when all was said and done, there was a 4 – 5 foot pile of leaves about 15 feet in diameter.  Big pile!  So right when Jacob said, “daddy, how is this fun, Daddy?”  I grabbed his 65 pound rock solid little body by the leg and an arm – and swung him into the big pile of leaves.  He panicked for a second, then said, “hey Daddy, do that again!!!”

He had no idea that work could be fun.  And lo and behold, working with Daddy proved to be a memorable experience.  I can look back on my time with my Dad, and some of the most quality times I had with him were times working, playing, scouting, or just hanging at the house. 

I was reminded of the Lord’s love for us.  It is for our own good that he allows us to be challenged, to work, to feel the load of daily cares, and responsibility.  It’s in the small things like REAL quality time that we spend with him that we grow truly close to Him.  Time in prayer, time in the word, getting to know him as our relationship grows closer to him; and then out of nowhere he throws us in the leaves; and shows us the simple joys of life in him. 

I’ve been continuing to read a book by Lee Camp called Mere Discipleship.  More than anything, I’m beginning to understand that the Lord wants a real relationship with us, not some sort of proof-texting mastery of the Scripture; and a card-punching unblemished attendance record at church.  What I never knew before – thanks to God for some graduate study in this – was that we are often guilty of Bibliolatry, and worship the Bible itself, rather than seeking a relationship and true quality time with the Lord.

How much more does he want us to be devoted and dedicated to him out of love rather than fear!  Understanding what he has done for us, in redeeming us from our wicked separation from him, is paramount to any relationship we will develop with him.  I pray that God will continue to bless me with quality times with my son, and the presence of mind to MAKE quality times with my children, and not just be task oriented and meaningless with our co-existence.

Amberlee’s Prayer tonight…

Picking up midstream…

… and um, thank you for Jesus, dyin on the cross, because Jacob doesn’t want me in his room, and because I don’t want him in my room, because I love my piggy bank.  And thank you for Jacob, and for Mommy & Daddy, and Molly and Kate (friends), and Nanna and Pap, and thank you for doughnuts, and for Santa Claus by my sheet (next to her bed), in Jesus name, Amee-un.

Praise God for the innocent heart of a child. 

Reminiscing

Tonight, Elizabeth and I took a much needed break from working our house over… finally getting settled in to our first house we’ve been blessed to own.  In moving stuff around, I found 2 videotapes that have been hiding for several years. 

One of the videos was of Jacob when he was about a Year old.  We had taken him to the Zoo in Memphis (a GREAT one!!), and he was such a chatterbox!  He was talking to the monkeys, the tigers, flamingos, and all the while that crazy fuzzy velcro hair of his sticking up everywhere!  He has always been a Mama’s boy, but there were several times he clearly wanted to come to Daddy.  But Daddy was so busy filming everything else that he didn’t get a chance to love on him until near the end of the Zoo trip.

There was a time after Jacob had come to Daddy on the video when my Dad – Pap – was looking down at the Rhinocerous in the mud – and Pap started smacking the rail at the lookout spot.  My Mom – Nanna – was standing between Dad and Jacob’s view.  Jacob was looking around every which way to see what Pap was doing.  It wasn’t but a few seconds before Pap smacked the rail again (to try and disturb the Rhino’s slumber) when Jacob puts his little hand down and pats the rail himself!  It was much more of a pat than a smack coming from the one-year-old.

I was amazed that this little guy is exactly the same now – at the age of 7 – as he was 6 years ago.  He loves mimicing his Daddy, his Pap, his Mama, and whomever he admires; he loves playing, throwing stuff, teasing you into tickling him more, and more, and more!  

Why don’t we mimic our Master like Jacob did Pap?  Why don’t we still long to please him?  To make him proud?  Is there ever a time when we maintain our pure-hearted diligence to please and obey him as we did when we first obeyed the Lord? 

There are a whole lot more things I got out of watching the video… most of which were sentimental warm feelings.  After all, this is a baby boy that was so unbelievably sweet and happy, and we were blessed with him by God.  And then… Amberlee asked, “can we watch me as a baby, Daddy?”  So we cruised back in time only 3-4 years to watch our little girl.

Praise God for his love and blessings!  I pray that he will guide me into holiness in the same tender way he did when I first became a father, and was so concerned about being a perfect example for my son.  And most of all, I pray that I will try to mimic the every move of my Savior, and with child-like enthusiasm to obey and serve.

Amazing Review for the Golden Compass – by a 14 y/o

(Another reason I’m thrilled that we’re home-schooling Jacob!)
-Drew 

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

The internet is buzzing with emails about a forthcoming movie starring Nicole Kidman based on The Golden Compass by British author Philip Pullman. After doing some independent research for a possible gracEmail review, I discovered that my friend Sam Snyder, age 14, not only had read the entire trilogy of which The Golden Compass is the first book but also had written a review. The third son of my long-time friends Eddie and Leah Snyder, Sam is home-schooled, well-read and insightful. I have great confidence in Sam’s analytical skills and judgment, a confidence confirmed by long conversations the two of us enjoy from time to time over Saturday morning breakfast at a nearby restaurant. * * *The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials trilogy)
by Sam Snyder

His Dark Materials was written by Philip Pullman, a fairly aggressive atheist who portrays his views in his books, in which God as a supreme being not only doesn’t exist, he’s marketed as the bad guy. What a paradox. In Pullman’s universe, God was simply the first being (an angel) to appear after a pseudo-Big Bang. He convinced the angels who formed after him (I use the lowercase to note that in Pullman’s world, he isn’t really God) that he was their creator, and they should bow to him. He soon removed himself from the universe, preferring to let another govern — a man who became an angel.

If you ask me, this is a lot like the Christian view of Satan (or the Wizard of Oz, if you prefer a more benign character). Satan was the highest angel in Heaven, before he persuaded other angels to rebel with him. Every falsehood has some grain of truth in it, and this is one in Pullman’s. The main difference is that Pullman’s version is an idealized one in which humans are the highest, the most powerful, not supernatural beings. (A note: contrary to the rumors flying across the Internet, the characters in this series do not kill the individual styling himself God. He dies of old age in their arms, possibly a metaphor for Pullman’s own loss of faith. Pullman did say “My books are about killing God,” which may be where the misconception originated.)

Pullman doesn’t completely deny the existence of the church. His imaginings of the church portray a dystopian holdover of the Spanish Inquisition — no freedom of thought, no freedom of speech, and every part of daily life is dictated by the Pope, who, along with most other key figures in politics (yes, the pope is a politician), doesn’t actually believe in God. All scientific studies are examined closely by the church, and if something is found that goes against the church’s doctrine, the scientists involved are silenced. One of the main characters is surprised to meet someone who was free to leave a nunnery when she stopped believing in God. Interestingly enough, some members of the clergy have lauded this aspect of the book, calling it a warning of what the church could become.

Another point: Pullman’s created world is a multiverse, every universe its own distinct existence. One of Pullman’s characters marvels that all of it was created randomly — and there’s the rub. By Pullman’s own argument for the nonexistence of God, that it was created randomly, he inadvertently and contradictorily presents a striking argument for God’s activity in Creation, namely, that it’s too complex to be random. Another character wonders about human consciousness, and is told it, too, was random. As my mom has said to my brothers and me on numerous occasions, “Once is okay, twice is obnoxious.” If an argument doesn’t work the first time, why use it again? The array of the products of human consciousness in His Dark Materials is again proof that it’s too complex to be the product of a bunch of atoms randomly tossed together.

To sum it up, Pullman presents at his strongest a weak argument for atheism; at his weakest, proof of God’s existence. This is not to say that his writing is completely see-through. Younger children under the age of ten or so should probably not be encouraged to read the series (if they would even be interested — the writing may be difficult for them).

Postscript by Edward — My friend Mary Charlotte Elliott, who taught Middle School reading for 20 years, suggests: “I hate the premise of these stories, but I think we make a serious mistake when we give all kinds of free advertising to something like this by campaigning against it. Kids have been ignoring that series for years! The movie will be a flash in the pan unless we help it out and give it credibility by stirring up controversy.”
__________________ Copyright 2007 by Sam Snyder and Edward Fudge.

the Muppet Show, Albino Squirrels, and Jesus

Um – yeah – crazy title.  Anyway…  In our subdivision there is an Albino Squirrel.  I’ve seen him for weeks and he’s a pretty big squirrel, as squirrels go.  The kids always laugh when we see him running across someone’s yard, and I got to thinking recently about Jesus’ words about God’s love in the mountain message of Matt. 5-7:

Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?   (Matthew 6:25-28)

Granted, Jesus didn’t talk about Albino squirrels…  but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the (too many) roles I have.  I’m tempted to worry about them a lot, and to fall short in many of them.  Elizabeth was gone last night and I had time to think a little bit.  I was looking at the kids lying in the bed last night, and thinking about them crawling all over me while we were watching the Mark Hamill episode of the Muppet Show, and how they love their Daddy.  In spite of his flaws.  In spite of his failures.  They want time; time cuddling, time horsing around, time laughing together, and time – doing nothing – together.  They are so innocent and such perfect creatures of God.  They were given to us to mold, to train, to teach in “the way he should go”.  Yet when they exhibit the same types of failure that one sees in himself – that hurts… badly.  So it was a time of reflection over the simple, really important things. 

So the way this ties into the Albino squirrel is this – the Father has blessed us with so many things; far greater than the birds or the flowers, or the albino squirrels.  He has given us jobs, food, children, spouses, cars, 2nd and 3rd cars – and how do we repay him?  With attention spans that are short and focused only on what WE want.  That squirrel sticks out like a sore thumb.  I’m not sure where they are in the food chain, but I’m pretty sure he’s not as safe as his cuddly brownish grey counterparts.  He was probably laughed at by the other squirrels when he was in school!  And yet – God provides for that crazy looking squirrel’s needs irrespective of his own shortcomings, failures, or genetic mutations.  How much MORE will God provide and take care of me?    As the greatest of all of God’s creations, couldn’t I begin measuring up to the standards laid down by his matchless blessings? 

I’m so thankful for what God has blessed me with.  In meditation and prayer last night; I was humbled to realize that I need his strength to do several things: 
1)  Trust in Him implicitly, with no stipulations
2)  Obey – and resist Satan’s crafty and subtle deviations
3)  Return to scripture and become the spiritual pillar for my family that I need to be, and have always wanted to become.

Father, help me in my weakness.  Bless any who might be reading this with the same focus, to allow you to be King of their lives, and for us to be your children who love their Father, like my little ones love me.  Bless the growth of the Spirit in my heart so that I may overcome and grow deeper into the unsurpassable riches of Christ.