Losing the Precious

Funny what is precious to you when you are nine. My black and white plastic Rat Fink out of a gumball machine was precious. Everybody had at least one, but no one had one like mine. (We all had those little trolls with the big hair, too.) It was that uniqueness that made my RF precious. And I lost my Rat Fink. I was crushed, but there was no one I could tell.

In the Tolkien stories, Gollum calls The Ring his Precious. Of course, it is unique, something like my RF. Irreplacable.

It is no surprise then, to hear Jesus tell the story of the Pearl of Great Price. The idea of a Precious, unique, astounding thing that is worthy of struggle and sacrifice is a story line that runs through human experience. O. Henry wrote the same story in "The Gift of The Magi." Look around for this theme. Tell me what else you find.

It is written about because it is hardwired in us. There is something worth sacrificing for, worth living in a remarkable way for. There are so many hardwired themes.

All Jesus was saying is that The Kingdom is that thing which we were hardwired to seek. The Kingdom of God is The Precious.

But the best thing, the thing that sets The Kingdom apart from every other answer to the question, is that The Precious Kingdom of God CAN NOT BE LOST.

That is the Greatest Story Ever Told. Thank you for giving me a suitable replacement for my plastic rat, Father.

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Where is Mom? Just watched a program with a "strong mom" theme. The are everywhere you look, popular, and without societal rejection. Humans like moms, and strong moms.

The thing that I am pointing to is that human stories reflect the God story, His-Story, all of the time. The themes are about good fathers, and about super heroes, redeeming ordinary people from death. And they are about good strong mothers.

It is also not hard to find a TV program featuring a stupid dad (d'oh) dominated by a smart mom. and stories of moms gone bad. Then there are the super heroes who are not very super. Frankly, I believe all of these pictures of failure end up guiding us to the only pictures of perfection.

But part of this stream of thought goes back to last night. I have to deliberately grow nearer to the Holy Spirit. Somehow I think there is momming there. Though at the same time there is momming going on in Fathers lap.

No real destination here. Just a hunger to draw and stay nearer to God, and find all that I need in all that He is. Thank you for the Way.

Call on the Name

I saw my boy do the only thing he could do tonight. He needed to do something, there was nothing in the natural he could do, so he did what he has been taught. He called on the name of Jesus.

When he did that, he walked out into the wilderness and came back leaning on the arm of his Beloved. It is that simple.

I know that in the world of rationality, it does not "compute." It is not supposed to. If it made sense to humans, it would be a human thing. The thing is, when a human runs out of things that can be explained, they have nowhere to turn.

What is really joyous for me is that calling on the supernatural is not a place to turn in time of need. It is the normal place of abiding. It is the trusting place where all of the Christian spiritual life rests. My boy did not go panicking, desperate for an answer to a crisis. He just externalized the conversation that his spirit and the Spirit were already having.

Thank you, Father for this perfect place you have made, full of healing, wisdom, peace, joy, love, patience, goodness, kindness, longsuffering. Like a hot mineral spring where all of the various helpful minerals just soak into the pores and become part of the soaker. And thank you for my boy.