 |
 |
A special thanks goes out to Nancy Sween for sharing this eye-opening story with us.
THE EMPTY EGG
Jeremy was born with a twisted body and a slow mind. At the age of 12 he was still in second grade, seemingly unable to learn. His teacher, Doris Miller, often became exasperated with him. He would squirm in his seat, drool, and make grunting noises. At other times, he spoke clearly and distinctly, as if a spot of light had penetrated the darkness of his brain. Most of the time, however, Jeremy just irritated his teacher.
One day she called his parents and asked them to come in for a consultation. As the Forresters entered the empty classroom, Doris said to them, "Jeremy really belongs in a special school. It isn't fair to him to be with younger children who don't have learning problems. Why, there is a five year gap between his age and that of the other students."
Mrs. Forrester cried softly into a tissue, while her husband spoke. "Miss Miller," he said, "there is no school of that kind nearby. It would be a terrible shock for Jeremy if we had to take him out of this school. We know he really likes it here." Doris sat for a long time after they had left, staring at the snow outside the window. Its coldness seemed to seep into her soul. She wanted to sympathize with the Forresters. After all, their only child had a terminal illness. But it wasn't fair to keep him in her class. She had 18 other youngsters to teach, and Jeremy was a distraction. Furthermore, he would never learn to read and write. Why waste any more time trying?
As she pondered the situation, guilt washed over her. Here I am complaining when my problems are nothing compared to that poor family, she thought. Lord, please help me to be more patient with Jeremy. From that day on, she tried hard to ignore Jeremy's noises and his blank stares. Then one day, he limped to her desk, dragging his bad leg behind him.
"I love you, Miss Miller," he exclaimed, loud enough for the whole class to hear. The other students snickered, and Doris' face turned red. She stammered, "Wh-why that's very nice, Jeremy. N-now please take your seat."
Spring came, and the children talked excitedly about the coming of Easter. Doris told them the story of Jesus, and then to emphasize the idea of new life springing forth, she gave each of the children a large plastic egg. "Now," she said to them, "I want you to take this home and bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows new life. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Miss Miller," the children responded enthusiastically-all except for Jeremy. He listened intently; his eyes never left her face. He did not even make his usual noises. Had he understood what she had said about Jesus' death and resurrection? Did he understand the assignment? Perhaps she should call his parents and explain the project to them.
That evening, Doris' kitchen sink stopped up. She called the landlord and waited an hour for him to come by and unclog it. After that, she still had to shop for groceries, iron a blouse, and prepare a vocabulary test for the next day. She completely forgot about phoning Jeremy's parents.
The next morning, 19 children came to school, laughing and talking as they placed their eggs in the large wicker basket on Miss Miller's desk. After they completed their math lesson, it was time to open the eggs. In the first egg, Doris found a flower. "Oh yes, a flower is certainly a sign of new life," she said. "When plants peek through the ground, we know that spring is here." A small girl in the first row waved her arm. "That's my egg, Miss Miller," she called out. The next egg contained a plastic butterfly, which looked very real. Doris held it up. "We all know that a caterpillar changes and grows into a beautiful butterfly. Yes, that's new life, too." Little Judy smiled proudly and said, "Miss Miller, that one is mine." Next, Doris found a rock with moss on it. She explained that moss, too, showed life. Billy spoke up from the back of the classroom, "My daddy helped me," he beamed.
Then Doris opened the fourth egg. She gasped. The egg was empty. Surely it must be Jeremy's she thought, and of course, he did not understand her instructions. If only she had not forgotten to phone his parents. Because she did not want to embarrass him, she quietly set the egg aside and reached for another. Suddenly, Jeremy spoke up. "Miss Miller, aren't you going to talk about my egg?" Flustered, Doris replied, "But Jeremy, your egg is empty." He looked into her eyes and said softly, "Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty, too."
Time stopped. When she could speak again, Doris asked him, "Do you know why the tomb was empty?" "Oh, yes," Jeremy said, "Jesus was killed and put in there. Then His Father raised Him up."
The recess bell rang. While the children excitedly ran out to the school yard, Doris cried. The cold inside her melted completely away.
Three months later, Jeremy died. Those who paid their respects at the mortuary were surprised to see 19 eggs on top of his casket, all of them empty.
-- Author Unknown
Gideon was now convinced that he was the one to liberate the Israelites from Midian. He gathered an army, but a large force of thirty-two thousand was not in God's plans. He proceeded to reduce the size of Gideon's army so they couldn't say that their numbers allowed them to overcome their plight, but that God was the deciding factor. Three hundred men was about the size of an army that God had in mind.
And what a rout! Gideon and his force manhandled the entire army and punished those who had denied his men food. Gideon then made an ephod - a type of idol - which led to his downfall. Let me get this straight. The God of Gideon's forefathers sent a message directly to him, proved that He would be with him, told him to reduce his army to a pitiful level for the battle, and then fought for him. Then Gideon turned down a kingship saying that God should be the only ruler in Israel. After all of this, he made an idol for himself and the rest of Israel to worship? I don't understand this guy.
Abimelech sure was a jerk, wasn't he? It served him right to be felled by a woman and killed by his own armor-bearer. And when he was gone, his army dissolved. The innocent blood he shed was paid for in full by the actions of an innocent woman.
Jephthah was a mighty warrior, but his heritage had worked against him. When the time came that his military skills were needed, though, he was a big enough man to stand up and proclaim the power of God. He was not only a mighty warrior, he was also true to his word. To hold course in his promise, he had to kill his only child, a daughter that would never marry. His faith is refreshing, but the promise he made was not one that he wanted to carry out. God looks to His people to be people of their word. I'm not saying to make promises to slaughter your families, but when you hold your course and fulfill your end of the bargain, God will bless you.
His ways are not our ways. Remember that the vow he made was not that he would kill his daughter. His vow was to make a sacrifice of the first thing that greeted him when he returned home. The sovereignty and providence of God did not fail him or his daughter that day. God's will was carried out. I won't pretend that I understand why his will took the story in this direction, but it does show the fortitude of Jephthah, and his willingness to surrender even his precious daughter at the alter of the Lord. The willingness to put God at the forefront of our lives, even before our beloved families, is the only lesson I can decipher in this. I only wish the story would go a bit further, so we could see how this affected Jephthah.
Here's a good bit of parenting, and the child isn't even born yet! As soon as Samson is promised to his parents what do they do? They deliver a "knee-mail" message to God for guidance in how to raise their son. He grew up and reached marrying age and God knew this would be a chance to begin using Samson to confront the Philistines, who had been occupying Israel.
Now that's what I call revenge. Samson's wife tells the answer to his riddle and he is obliged to produce thirty sets of clothing. Where else would he find clothes but on the backs of his enemies? I'm chuckling right now, actually. And then he sends his new bride away. He may not have realized it, but God's reason for having her in the picture was over, so her "services" were no longer required.
I'm not sure if he truly loved her or if she was just an excuse to kill more Philistines. Whenever Samson needed anything, God provided. The binding on his wrists weren't snapped off from his strength, it was strength from God that caused them to drop off. Strength alone isn't enough to capture 300 foxes alive and keep them all in place long enough to tie them together and attach a torch. Even the jawbone Samson used as a weapon was provided by God. When God calls upon you to complete a task, He assists you in the completion of the task. In Him, nothing is impossible!
Like so many heroes of the Bible, Samson had a weak side. His was Delilah. Really, he got kind of stupid, if you ask me. He knew that the Philistines wanted him captured and killed, and this woman was asking him how that might be accomplished. Duh. He told her a lie about how it may be done and she tied him up with Philistines in the same room while he slept. What that means is that he had to have found out her deception to him. Why did he return to her?
Eventually he told her the truth of his strength. Keep in mind that this was after she proved to him her un-trustworthiness no less than three times. His lustfulness was his downfall. He was captured and imprisoned, but did get some revenge at the end. Samson is one of the better-known characters in the Bible, but I don't think he is one we really want to emulate.
He was one of the judges, though, and the following chapter definitely shows why the judges were necessary. They weren't perfect, but the people they watched over were downright pitiful! Yeah, like I'm one to talk. The oppressive sins of the world are overmatched by the limitless grace of our Lord and Savior. Just remember that the next time you watch the news!
What a mess! A Levite was seeking his fleeing concubine and found her after some delay. She was later killed by a mob of men who had wanted to perform some disgusting acts with the man. This sparked a war of Israelites against Benjaminites, who were also Israelites if you recall.
God delivered the Benjaminites into the hands of the Israelites and they were nearly wiped out. I was taken aback about the way they ended up preserving the line of the defeated Benjaminites, though. Telling them to kidnap a woman and take her for a wife brings up images of cavemen bonking women over their heads and dragging them off by their hair. I'm not saying that it was funny per se, it was more than a little bit absurd, in my opinion.
Hold on to your hats! We're going to race through Ruth today. Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Elimelech and Naomi, living in Bethlehem with her married family at the beginning of her story. A famine caused them to flee the area, and in that time all of the men in the family had died, which was a pretty sobering situation for three widows in those times. They couldn't go out and work like a man could, so they became beggars, trying to survive as best they could until they were redeemed (married to someone who would support them and have children with them).
If you'll notice, Ruth was a gentile. She was also just a couple generations removed from David. Jesus was a descendant of David. This is one of two recorded gentile women who were ancestors of Jesus. Ruth was a virtuous woman who followed the men in the fields without asking them to aid her. She didn't realize it, but Boaz, the owner of the field, had instructed the men to be a bit careless with the harvest, so she could have extra. What a wonderful man! He assisted her in such a way that her dignity would not be compromised.
Another note, Boaz said that she was a good woman, but Ruth didn't mention that to Naomi. This shows her humble spirit. To be honest, I read this book and wondered what kind of lessons could be learned from Ruth's experience. Looking back, I see her willingness to reject the false gods she grew up with, her commitment to care for her mother-in-law, her diligence in work and her humbleness. Let's just say that this was a great woman. Nobody was truly worthy to be an ancestor to Jesus, but her virtues make her as good a candidate that I've seen!
Here we have more of the genealogy that is so hard for me to write about. To be honest, I don't know what lessons they have on their own. Of course, they support the rest of the Bible and show lineages that were so important in those times for prophesy and for the Levite priests. The birth of the Messiah was to be of the house and lineage of David, David's ancestry was not always the best, so on and so forth.
But toward the end, we come across the parents of Samuel. His father, Elkanah, had two wives, and their family chemistry was rather acidic, to say the least! Elkanah had children through Peninnah, but not Hannah. Elkanah loved Hannah as much as Peninnah, perhaps more. He gave her a double portion of the meat to her compared to his wife with children. I'm sure Peninnah resented this, because she would mercilessly taunt Hannah about this. More to follow!
Weekly Link"Where does the idea come from that if what we are doing is fun, it can't be God's will? The God who made giraffes, has a sense of humor. Make no mistake about that." God Laughs Dot Net is the website of Pastor Rus D. Jeffrey, a man who is convinced that Christianity is meant to be fun. This attitude is shown in the defining phrase of this web site: "Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused." If we cannot express joy in the Lord, are we truly praising Him? If our time serving God is an emotionless affair, is God glorified? I receive the newsletter from Pastor Rus every week or so, and it never fails to put a smile on my face. I trust that this will be a web site that will serve to glorify God and help the visitors there lighten up just a tad. |
I hope you enjoyed this e-zine. If you know anyone else who would enjoy this newsletter, please forward this e-mail
to them or direct them to http://www.coffeeswirls.com/weeklybible/ where they can sign up and/or browse my archives.
Thanks for sharing my goal of reading the Bible in its entirety this year!