Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, has decided that now that I am not off having adventures by chasing storms, warning people about the storm that is coming, and helping the people who are devastated by them, I should write about my Sunday School Class.  She wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says.  And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.

The Turtle Team was back on duty without me.  Easy was driving.  Dr. Ellie was in the photographer’s seat, where I usually sit, next to the driver.  B.B. was in the command seat, running both video cameras for the Storm Chasing Channel and the radar screens.  I was the only one missing from the core group.  The days were ticking down.  I would be back soon if the storm chasing could be Monday to Friday.  But only three crew members left four places for students, and B.B. was getting comfortable teaching.  Of course, if she got stuck or said something wrong, Dr. Ellie was immediately on the other side of the wire mesh cage.

But that meant the same thing as last week, but without my husband.  We had Dr. Ben and his baritone voice.  We had giggly Arabella sitting next to Michael Rowe Casey.

Menzie insisted on helping me with my hair even though I was able to fix it myself.

When we entered the room, Arabella said, “Back to normal.  Aunt Jemima needs help with her hair.  Have you ever thought of a buzz cut?”

I smiled, “No, have you, Fireball?”

Arabella said, “If Michael would like it, I’d shave my head bald.”

Michael said, “Nope.  I would not like that.”

Emmett said, “Sis, do you have to start every class with a wild comment?  Bald?!  Really?”

Arabella huffed, “It would solve Aunt Jemima’s problem of always needing a hairdresser before she teaches class.  I am trying to be helpful.”

Menzie said, “I volunteered, Arabella.  Aunt Jemima does a great job, all on her own.  But we get to talk a little, just the two of us.”  Menzie went over and sat between Emmett and her boyfriend, Samuel Farquharson.  “Besides, I have two strong men saving me a seat.”

I rolled my eyes, “How can we have a class on transcendence, when we are wallowing in high school romance?”

Arabella huffed, “I will have you know that I am still in middle school.  Michael and I can talk about high school romance in the Fall, but for now, we are taking sex education … together.”

Michael asked, in a stage whisper, “Is it too late to transfer to another class?”  Arabella punched him.

On cue, Stormie started to get fussy.  With Easy out on storm chasing duties, Jochebed was holding Stormie.  Jochebed looked into Stormie’s eyes.  “Are you hungry, little Stormie child?  Do you want Mommie, or do you want chocolate milk?”  With a  well-practiced flip of her garments, she had Stormie at her breast with no one seeing anything that they shouldn’t see.  But as for hearing what we should not hear?  That was a horse of a different color.  Oops, maybe I should have picked a different idiom to use.

I asked, “Jochebed, that joke about chocolate milk is considered in bad taste.  Umm.  Should you be saying it?”

Jochebed laughed, “I run the nursery here.  My contribution does not stop with that.  If we have nursing babies and the mother does not think to use the breast pump ahead of time, I feed the babies from my own supply.  Several times, I have had parents, especially fathers, such idiots, ask me if that would work, if the nutrients are the same, would the child get sick?  I tell them with a straight face, ‘The nutrients are not the same.  And once your child has had chocolate milk, they may never go back to white milk again.’  I just love watching their white faces turn red.  Usually, the next day, the mother arrives with a couple of bottles of her own milk.  I know everyone here might have been uncomfortable, but if any of you speak of chocolate milk, you are either talking about chocolate milk or you are enjoying my joke.  One thing for sure is that we love each other in this room. … Ouch!  Your Stormie child has teeth, and she knows how to clamp down!”

I laughed, “That she does, but I’m used to it.”

I led us in prayer even though Joseph was with us this week.

Emmett then led us, with his selected singers in a familiar song, Morning has Broken.  To mix things up, he played the banjo.

Then, Samuel asked, “What attribute of God are we studying today, Aunt Jemima?”

I smiled, “We are covering God’s Transcendence.”

Arabella’s lower lip started to quiver.  She looked like she was having an emotional breakdown.

“Arabella?” I asked.

Arabella sniffled, “Where is Mr. Dictionary when you need him?”  Then she scrunched her head between her shoulders and grinned.

I was thinking that she was definitely working on making comedy part of her career, but she says she wants to be a veterinarian.  I guess she can be the Yuck it up Duck Doctor.

Joseph was the first to answer.  “Never fear, for I is here.”  He paused, “I are here? Umm, no.  Oh, yeah, I am here.  Transcendence.  Something that transcends is something that goes above and hovers over.  Thus, God’s transcendence is that God is over all things.”

Michael asked, “Wait a minute.  We have studied God’s omnipresence.  God is everywhere.  We have studied God’s Immanence.  God is within us and within all things.  We have studied God’s self-existence.  God always was.  God always will be.  Thus, the “I AM” statements in the Bible.  So, isn’t God’s transcendence sort of redundant?  God is everywhere.  So, God has to be hovering over everything which is everywhere.  Right?”

“Wow!  We have someone taking notes!” I replied.

Arabella giggled, “My boyfriend is not just dreamy.  He’s smart!”

I moaned, “Do we have a fireman in the room that can cool off Fireball over here?”

Georges shrugged, “As a police detective, I have been trained as an auxiliary fireman.  Does that count?”

Arabella looked shocked, “Oh, no!  Here comes the bucket of water, and I just got myself ready to attend church!”

Georges picked up a red bucket in the corner of the room and dumped confetti all over Arabella’s head, while half the class was screaming “No!”

I moaned, “I can’t believe that I fell for, actually contributed to, another of Arabella’s pranks.  Do I have any control over this class?”

Angus said, “Och, Lass, if you had any control over this class, it wouldn’t be half as much fun.”

I straightened up.  “To get serious for a moment, the transcendence of God is not as much a place as it is a function of God.  Few people in this room remember the Three Mile Island nuclear incident.”

Blaise said, “I studied it in class this past semester.”

I groaned, “That doesn’t count, little bro.  But the government required an additional person in the control room of nuclear reactors to see the big picture.  They hover over what is going on, so that if someone else gets tunnel vision, chasing a symptom of the problem, this advisor can then step in to prevent wasting time on the wrong symptom when something else is the bigger issue.”

Otto asked, “Is that what Uncle Dev does as the police lieutenant?  My brother Poached says that his big problem is getting tunnel vision while investigating a case, and Uncle Dev looks like he’s not investigating.  Jim and Poached do all that, but Uncle Dev looks at the big picture.  He looks at how all the evidence fits together rather than studying the evidence in a lot of detail.”

I smiled, “Great example, Otto.”  Zuzka smiled and squeezed Otto’s hand.  In a way, she was still Otto’s teacher, helping him be a contributor rather than being rotten.  I continued, “God is everywhere.  God is interested in every hair on your head.”

Tamara asked, “Even mine?”

I laughed, “Especially yours, Tamara.  And how is it going?”

Tamara shrugged, “It’s growing, but it’s like God mixed up His promises.  I don’t know about my sins being washed as white as snow, but my hair is.  The doctor says that will change eventually.  So, it’s still wig time until the color changes.”

“Okay, that’s good news, just more testing of our patience.”  I said, “But God hovers over us at the same time that he watches us and is concerned with our lives on a microscopic level.  He sees the big picture, and even with our free will, God looks over us to guide us.  That is done by the Holy Spirit, and the angels protect us.  When God is infinite in every way and Holy, which we will get to later, God wants our big picture to fit into His overall plan.  I may have a little thing to do, teaching a Sunday school class, being a Mommie to Stormie, and maybe the key is that Stormie is that big cog in God’s plan, and God transcends me to make sure Stormie is brought up in the right way.”

Dr. Ben (1 Chronicles 29:11): “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

I said, “We will get to God’s sovereignty in a month or so, but for now, we are answering how God can be sovereign from a technical point of view.  He is ‘head over all.’”

Angus (Job 11:7-8): “ ‘Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?”

Angus asked, “What can we do or know?  Only what God reveals to us, and only what we have the capacity to do and know.”

Missy added, “See there, Arabella.  You aren’t the only one who has a lad who is dreamy and smart.”

Arabella said, “Yeah, but yours talks funny.”

Angus laughed, “Och, Lassie, if you visited where I am from, you would be the one talking funny.”

Arabella turned to me, “Did he just call me a dog?”

I cleared by throat, “Moving on.”

Momma Missy MacDougall (Job 26:14): ^“And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?’”

Missy asked, “Why is that, Stinker?  Why does God boom the thunder, but when He speaks to us, telling us something that is really important in our lives, He whispers?”

I smiled, “God wants us to actively seek Him.  The casual person who claims to be a Christian, but they do not actively seek Him would hear a shout, but only those that trust in God so much that they praise Him with each breath…  Only those people will hear God when He whispers.  That’s why it is important to be still, be quiet, and wait for God’s answer when we pray.”

Missy smiled, “Okay, I’ll buy that.”

Arabella added, “But when I do that, I fall asleep.”

Blaise (Psalm 145:3): ^“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.’”

Blaise said, “Look everybody!  The teacher gave me a short one.  She didn’t pick on me by giving me a long passage to read.  I have finally ascended!”

I snickered, “No, Blaise, you got me all wrong, again.  You may have ascended, but I wanted Mr. Brainiac to explain to the class how your short little verse shows how God transcends even you, little bro.”

Blaise groaned, “Okay.  In knowing that we are looking for transcendence, regardless of how far and how deep we look for God, you know, how we try to understand who God is, God transcends that.  You can’t make a box to put God in because God transcends the box.  So, no one can fathom God.  Whatever we can imagine, He is greater still.”

Joseline (Isaiah 55:8-9): “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Jos added, “So, God’s timing is not our timing.  God’s understanding is different than ours.  But that is because He sees the big picture?”

I said, “If you are asking, then ‘Yes!’”

Unseen by everyone, Jochebed had taken Stormie from her breast and was burping her.  As I said ‘Yes!’, Stormie punctuated my answer with a large belch.  Half the class, it seemed, said, “Sounds like Stormie likes chocolate milk!”

Jochebed calmly said, “What did I tell you?”

Kevin (1 Timothy 6:16): “who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.”

Kevin said, “So the cosmonaut who said he had been to outer space and there is no God.  That’s because God is unseen.  It’s like God is in the sun, an unapproachable light, and since God is everywhere, He is in the sun.  But no matter how far we go in life or in our career or physically moving on the planet, or our thoughts, God is greater still.”

I smiled, “That’s a great way to end the lesson.  Besides our bus alarm is about to say something.”

Lauren came over from the play area and patted Menzie on the knee, “Mommie!  The buses!”

I smiled, “As we have been doing, let’s end with our benediction.  Everyone bow your heads in prayer.  ‘“‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”’” (Numbers 6:24-26)

And everyone said, “Amen.”

I added, “This was a great lesson today.  I wish you all a double portion of God’s blessing when you go to your individual churches.”

Credits

I am using suggested Bible verses from The Attributes of God, A Journey into the Father’s Heart by A.W. Tozer, in two volumes. My two volumes have a Study Guide by David E. Fessenden, which is designed for each chapter of Tozer’s book. I may review those chapters to keep Stinker from straying too much, but the nature of her class is that the class tends to stray anyway. I am not using Rev. Tozer’s comments directly.

And here is Morning Has Broken sung by Órla Fallon.  I thought she was playing a piano at first, but she is a harpist. I can imagine Emmett playing it in a similar fashion on the banjo.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.