Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, 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 den was working out great for our Sunday school classroom.  The restrooms were nearby.  Jochebed selected some age-appropriate toys to keep in a decorative chest in the corner of the room.  That kept the little ones active and quiet for the most part.  But as for the babies, and that bunch was growing, the mother’s hold them, except for me and Stormie.  Since I teach the class, either Menzie or my husband, Easter Yeggs, takes care of Stormie.  Catherine keeps Levi by her side.  He is pulling up, but he isn’t walking yet.

When B.B. and I walked into the room, Arabella asked, “Is this thing on?  Check, one, two.  Check, one, two.”

Michael asked, “What is your problem, Belle?  Have you forgotten how to count past two?”

Arabella said, “I am just checking out the sound system.  The table is rigged to amplify your voice so that everyone hears you, but where are the microphones?”

B.B. said, ‘Please do not take anything apart to find the microphones.  Just enjoy it, Fireball.”

Michael replied, “Did you catch the part of her ignoring the challenge that she cannot count past two?”

Arabella stuck her tongue out, “I can count beyond two.  How about three, four, five?  But there is just one number that describes us, two, you and me.”

Michael corrected her, “But we have the goats.”

Arabella said, “Good grief!  I forgot our children.  I would have to take my shoes off to count them.”

Michael moaned, “We have more than twenty goats, Belle.  And technically, they are my goats.  And even though a lot are kids, they are not our children.  They are livestock.”

I turned to B.B., “And I had the hope of one Sunday when there was not an interruption in the class until after we started.  I think the odds are against us on that one.”

Joseph laughed, but then he had everyone bow their heads in prayer.

I asked Emmett.  “What is our song today?”

Emmett said, “I was thinking of a song that since we are studying God’s immensity, why not sing How Great Thou Art.  I know.  ‘Great’ in the hymn is more than size, but it might get us thinking in those directions. He led us with How Great Thou Art by Carl Boberg.  The little choir sounded like a big choir.  And all it took was adding Carla.  She was confident and loud, so everyone else could follow her with the tune.

Samuel asked, “Aunt Jemima, what attribute of God are we studying this time?”

I said, “We are studying God’s Immensity.”

Arabella said, “I think I know that word, but where is Mr. Dictionary.”

Dr. Ellie said, “Easy and my husband have some students out on a storm chase.  The conditions are quite juicy for severe weather.  Kevin is on the camera, so that Aunt Jemima could be here for the class.  But come on, Arabella, you will be in high school in a few months.  You should know what immensity is.”

Arabella shrugged, “I just wanted the dictionary definition.”  She shrunk her head between her shoulders and giggled.

Joseph said, “I have been told that I am a poor substitute for Mr. Dictionary, but Oxford language says that immensity is ‘the extremely large size, scale, and extent of something.’  Our universe is still expanding, and God is much greater than the universe.  I think of it as God working in His workshop and our universe occupies a little spot on His workbench.  Does that get your imagination cranked up, Arabella?”

She giggled and nodded.

I announced, “For the sake of our new participants, I call someone’s name and a Bible verse.  They then read that verse.  Then, somewhere near the beginning of these classes, the person that reads the verse says something about that verse.  It is okay to say that you do not know.”

Missy (Matthew 16:25-26): “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Missy said, “In these verses, when you focus on your own soul, you don’t see much about God’s immensity, but then you must think.  Jesus compares losing your soul in comparison to gaining the entire world.  Sure, gaining the entire world and then passing away means you lose everything that you gained.  But I think Jesus is saying that we have so much more in store for us than what the entire world can offer.  Since most of us cannot conceive of anything bigger than inheriting the entire world, you get the idea from these verses that God has even more instore than what we could ever imagine.”

Arabella balled her hands up at her temples and then made a soft explosion sound while spreading out her fingers.  I guess that meant that Missy just blew her mind.

I said, “Let’s move on while Arabella tries to put the pieces of her mind back together.”

Angus (Colossians 3:3): “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Angus said, “Och, Lass, if you ever took all the people who have accepted Jesus into their hearts and you placed them along with Jesus inside God, God would have to be immense for all of us to be hidden there.  When the little ones play hide and seek, they go around and they find a few hiding places, but most of their hiding is rather obvious.  But think of millions of people hiding and all of them are successful.  That makes the greatest of us appear to be wee beasties by comparison.”

Missy said, “What a Scot calls wee beasties are midges.  They are tiny flying bugs, like gnats.  I understand they are quite the nuisance in the warmer months in Scotland.  And I like my husband’s way of putting it.  We are insignificant in size, but we can be a nuisance when we sin.  Yet, God loves us.”

Jochebed (Philippians 3:8): “Et même je regarde toutes choses comme une perte, à cause de l’excellence de la connaissance de Jésus Christ mon Seigneur, pour lequel j’ai renoncé à tout, et je les regarde comme de la boue, afin de gagner Christ,”

Jochebed said, “That was the Louis Segond.  And now for your English version in the NIV, “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ”

Jochebed said, “I have lost everything many times and at least twice for the sake of my Savior.  I wish all of you to pray for this child I am carrying inside me.  May this child show the hope of a future.  Many here do not know my story.  My mother was very sick.  My father, who was a trader in goods, had hard times, losing things he wished to trade, and when the witch doctor said that he could cure my mother, I was given to the witch doctor as a wife when I was thirteen in exchange for the witch doctor’s medicine.  I heard that my mother was healed, but I never saw my parents again.  I learned to love my husband, and I gave him four sons, all before I was seventeen, but soon after I became his wife, we both became Christians.  Then, when raiders came, my husband and the missionary were both killed, and they killed my four sons as I tried to gather them to me.  Their bullets had missed me, but I was covered in blood, and they did not mutilate my body.  That was the second time that I lost everything, and the first because I was a Christian.  When the evil men were not looking, I ran into the jungle.  I kept running until I saw a nice little village.  The pastor and his wife had two children, and the younger, little Esther, was malnourished.  I became wet nurse and part of their family.  Then shortly after Tyler Hill came to do some missionary work, the same raiders came to this town.  The pastor was killed first.  I recognized them and we took the children.  The pastor’s wife, Tyler, me, and Resurrection and Esther.  We thought we got away cleanly, but the pastor’s wife had been shot and was bleeding out.  Tyler swore to her as she lay dying that he would take care of us.  And Tyler and his wife Anna, who runs the Washington state cider operations, adopted Resurrection and Esther.  I get to have face time with them, but I miss holding them and loving them.  But now there is hope for a new day.  Georges and I are about to be parents.  This child cannot replace those that I have lost, but my new life in Christ is all that matters now.  I do not know how this relates to the immensity of God, but this is my testimony.”

Georges added, “And I do not know if Jochebed and I would have started our romance if it were not for me learning French in high school.  God provides for His wee beasties, right, Angus?”

Angus nodded, “Och, aye, Lad, that He does.”

I asked, “Now for anyone that wants to contribute, how does God’s immensity change the way you look at God?”

Mary Jo said, “I trust Him more.  If He is that big, and He still loves little me, then He can handle any problems that I might face.  I will always remember how Darrell tried to not show that he was scared, but he was.  One road blocked because Frank’s father ran away and left me behind, but his RV flipped in the wind and the road was blocked.  Other roads were already washed out.  We were trapped.  Then we spotted light in a window.  God led us to Dr Ellie.”

Dr. Ellie laughed, “But I am not that kind of doctor.  But Jochebed guided us.  She is a certified midwife, and B.B. and I only followed her instructions.”

B.B. said, “Yeah, and since I had the smallest hands, I had to reach inside and turn the baby.  You thought Darrell was scared.  I was scared out of my wits.  But then again, I did what I had to do with God giving me the strength.  If it was me, I would have fainted.”

Jochebed smiled, “But that is how God works.  He chooses the least of these to do great things.  God is great, and He shows how great He is by giving the young girl with small hands the courage to reach inside the womb to save the baby’s life.  And Frank is a darling little child, growing up to be strong himself.”

Brenton asked, “Who in your family was named Frank?”

Mary Jo laughed, “No one.  That was the name of the hurricane that was pounding the house when Frank came into the world.”

Carla said, “Brenton and I are new believers, and we are just starting our journey of faith, but I think what nudged us toward accepting Jesus was that we realized that there were things that we just could not handle on our own.  I guess that speaks to God at least being bigger than both of us put together.”

I said, “I thank everyone for their comments, but I see our uncanny bus alarm approaching.”

Lauren came from behind Menzie and patted her on the knee, “Mommie!  The buses!”

I smiled, “As we started last week, let’s end with the Mizpah benediction.  Everyone, bow your heads in prayer.  “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.’” (Genesis 31:49b)

Arabella asked, “Mr. Dictionary isn’t here, and you promised he would explain the Mizpah benediction.  What is Mizpah and what does the benediction mean?”

I smiled, “I am ready for you Arabella.  Mizpah is the name for several places in the Holy Land.  Mizpah means ‘Watchtower’, so the Mizpah benediction means that those saying it were building a watchtower, at least figuratively.  When Jacob ran away to Paddan Aram, he married the two daughters of his uncle, Laban.  Laban cheated Jacob.  Jacob cheated Laban in return.  But then, Jacob got the message that he needed to return home.  He escaped at night with his wives and servants and his great numbers of herds and flocks.  But unknown to Jacob, Rachel had stolen her father’s household gods, false gods.  Laban went in hot pursuit, and he caught up with Jacob.  Genesis 31:47-48 states ‘Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed.’  Jegar Sahadutha is the Aramaic name, for the Hebrew name Galeed.  Galeed has a couple of meanings in Hebrew.  Angus, what is a cairn?”

Angus smiled, “A cairn is a pile of rocks.  The cairn terrier is a wee dog that loves sniffing out his prey in those piles of rocks.  And thus, that is how the dog breed gets its name.”

I nodded, “Galeed means cairn or a heap of witnesses.  Laban left without retrieving his household gods.  He was angry, but Jacob was angry that Laban had cheated him so much.  They basically were swearing a treaty.  Neither of them would go past this pile of rocks.  If that happened, they would be at war with each other.  So, God would watch out, like the watchman in the watchtower, although it was simply a pile of rocks…  Okay, for the sake of Angus, it was a cairn, not a watchtower, but as long as they went no further, each party in the agreement would live and let live.  So, God watches us while we are absent, one from the other.  Using this as a benediction, it takes on a different meaning.  God protects us until we meet again.  God did so with Jacob and Laban, but not because they liked each other.  God protects us, and we say this benediction because we love each other in this room.  And we want God protecting everyone else so that we will see them next week, including those like Dr. Ben and Easy and Kevin.  This becomes our prayer for them too.”

Arabella giggled, “Thank you, wife of Mr. Dictionary.”

I looked around and I saw Darrel holding their newborn, born soon after last week’s class.

I smiled, “I am so glad you are here.  I remember the first time we left our apartment with Stormie.  It must have been hard since you have not been home a week yet.”

Sally Mae said, “We wanted to start Ellie Kay off right.  And I cannot think of a better place than in your Sunday school class.  We love you, Mr. Dictionary, and everyone else in the class.  But as you said, this was a lot on us.  I think I’m going to go back to our apartment instead of continuing on to church.  Ellie Kay is asleep, and I need a nap.”

I gave her a hug.  I knew what she meant.

Credits

I am now starting to use the David E. Fessenden study guides for The Attributes of God, A Journey into the Father’s Heart by A.W. Tozer, in two volumes. Again, no quotations, just some Scriptures that keep the flow going.

And here is How Great Thou Art sung by George Bev Shea.  I had so many to choose from, but when I hear this hymn, I think of George Beverly Shea.  The choir was probably from New York City, since Billy Graham had an extended crusade in NYC in 1957.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.