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.

B.B. and I were talking in the “green room’.  The ‘green room’ is Aunt Pink and Aunt Gwen’s restroom outside the den where the Sunday school class was now held.

A voice came from one of the stalls.  It was Arabella, “Can you two take your conversation into the hallway?  I really have to go.”

I groaned, “Then go!”

Arabella replied, “I can’t when people are watching.”

B.B. laughed, “Belle, look around you.  Do you see any eyes?  We are not watching you.”

Arabella moaned, “Please, I really have to go.”

I snickered, “The next time we go on a storm chase with Fireball, we know how to get even with her when she makes goofy unkind remarks.”

Arabella gasped, “You wouldn’t dare!”

B.B. turned to me, “Should we give her a break?  She sounds like she is in pain.”

I nodded and as we went out the door, I said, “Bye, Belle, and Sunday school starts as soon as I get in the classroom.  Don’t be late.”

Almost before we went across the hall and opened the door to the den, Arabella was right behind us.  Arabella moaned, “I told you I had to go.”

I groaned, “Did you wash your hands?”

Arabella growled, “Yes.”

The three of us were laughing when we entered the classroom.

Joseph led us in prayer.

The lead was sung by Sally Mae, Wilma, Arabella, Menzie and Carla.  At alto, there was Brooke, Mercedes, and Mags Lothrop Kildare.  At tenor, Michael, Mike Lothrop Kildare, Samuel, and Emmett.  Dr. Ben, Fred, and Darrell sang baritone.  And then Dr. Kildare sang bass.  The song was All Creatures of our God and King.  Mike Kildare kept the beat with one thing or another.  Mags played the cello.  Darrell played the guitar.  And Emmett was at the keyboard.

Emmett added, “Did that set the mood, Aunt Jemima?”

I asked, “That was lovely.  It gave us the reason why we are studying our topic today.”

Samuel said, “Aunt Jemima, what Attribute of God are we studying today?”

I laughed, “Samuel, we are looking at God – the Creator.”

Easy, my husband, a.k.a. Mr. Dictionary, asked, “Does anyone need a definition?  The key thing we need to focus on is that we cannot create anything.  Even if we create a fictional world, it was God that created us.  God created all things, and we just rearrange the molecules.  And this entire world belongs to God.  We just think we own stuff, but when we die, we cannot take it with us.  We need to live like it is His before we die.”

I asked, “Who made you?  I am asking the entire class.”

Arabella giggled, “Mom and Dad got horny, and then nine months later … Here I am!”

I smiled, “Thank you, Arabella.  Crude, technically satisfactory, but not what I was looking for.”

Michael Rowe Casey, Arabella’s boyfriend, said, “I think Aunt Jemima was looking for ‘God made us.  Like the Scripture says, “He knitted us in our mother’s womb.”’”

I smiled, “That is Psalm 139:13. ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.’  Thank you for adding that.  And if you ever look at the placenta through a microscope, it looks like woven fabric.”

“Now let’s get started with some verses…” I added.

Boaz (Genesis 1:1-2) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Boaz said, “God created the heavens and the earth.  The rest of this chapter speaks of how He did so.  He spoke them into existence.  But God had some wonderful plan in creating each thing.  Many things have great beauty.  There may be no other reason for that beauty than to get God to smile.  Then there are other things that are ugly.  Maybe they were invented to make God laugh.  But here in the first two verses of the Bible, we see God the Father and the Holy Spirit, but it is not specific.  The John passage differentiates with Jesus and the Father, Jesus being referred to as the Word.”

I nodded, “Thank you for the segue.”

Cassie (John 1:1-5) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Cassie said, “As my loving husband said, Jesus is to what the ‘Word’ refers.  Nothing was made unless Jesus was part of that process.  And it also talks about Jesus being the light unto the world.  And I appreciate you giving me the longer passage. I thought Blaise got all the long ones.”

I laughed, “No, Blaise complains about getting all the long passages.  There is a slight difference between that and reality, but you know how it goes.  He complains and then the next week you have a long passage to assign to someone, and since he talks about reading the long passages so much…”

Margie said, “I told you, darling sweetheart, that if you just ignored the issue, it would go away.”

Blaise replied, “Yes, Marguerite, my love, my sweetheart, my one and only, you have made an astute observation.  I will have to make note of it in the future.”

Joseph groaned, ‘Counseling those two is not for the faint at heart.  You give them a morsel to chew on and they turn it into a lifeform all of its own.”

Wilma (Colossians 1:16) “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”

Wilma smiled, “See, Fred, I found it.  After Romans and the two Corinthians, you get to the Greeks Eat Pop Corn.  If you get to the “T” books you went too far.  Ha!”

Fred replied, “But I think Aunt Jemima wants your thoughts on the verse, not just finding the verse in the Bible.”

Wilma sighed, “And I thought I had really accomplished something.  But I think it’s straightforward.  Jesus made everything.  Everything in heaven.  Everything on earth.  Everything that you can see.  Everything that you can’t see.  Wait!  What does that mean?  Jesus created invisible things?”

Joseph smiled, “Okay, the following part of the sentence explains some of it with thrones, powers, rulers, authorities.  There could be a physical throne, but the power associated with the one who sits on the throne is kind of invisible.  There may be a photo of the president and an office and a desk.  People may call you president, but the power associated with that position is invisible.  And yet, that power is real.  God ordains it, even when it is a bad ruler.  In some ways, if we elect someone really bad, we deserve that person’s bad decisions.  And we deserve it even when we are among the millions that did not vote for the person.  We did not campaign for righteousness and justice in our community, for instance.  We silently voted.  But in the first century, there was no thought of microscopes to see a person’s cells in their bodies.  The MRI was not around.  So, the intricacies of our bodies were invisible.  Without imagery, that stuff is still invisible until you dissect the body, but God saw it in intricate detail because He created it.”

Wilma giggled, “Thank you, Rev. Jones.”

Joseph smiled, “Thank you, but that is not until the end of the semester.  I hope everyone can make it to the ordination service, which will be on a Sunday afternoon in mid-December.  They are going to have a get-to-know-you dinner afterwards.  Besides giving Rev C.S.L. a break once a month with a sermon, I will focus on pastoral care and Christian Education.  I wanted a focus on disaster relief and missions, but Rev C.S.L. said that when I take unpaid time off from work to be a storm chaser, I would be doing that anyway.  I think he was joking, but not joking.  So, even if you do not attend the First-Third, you are welcome to attend the ordination service and dinner as my extended family.”

Zuzka said, “The members of First-Third probably half the class anyway.”

I added, “Knowing my Dad, he was not joking in a joking way.”

Easy announced to the room, “Let me know what size you wear.  We are coming up with T-shirts for the dinner.  The shirt has a zombie-like face on the front with the words, ‘I have been counseled by Rev. Joseph.’  If anyone gets offended, we can say that the T-shirt is my before picture and now look at me!”

B.B. said, “Can I order a half dozen.  One in each color.”

Joseph groaned, “My own wife has turned against me.”

I chuckled, “B.B. is experiencing having a baby on board.  It does weird things, well beyond strange food cravings, but the ordination is months away…  Looking around, Carla and Brenton are out playing golf with their respective golf teams, a get-to-know-you thing there.  It’s great that Carla made the team as a walk-on.”  Then it dawned on me, I had just asked Wilma.  I should ask Fred.

Fred (Isaiah 40:28) “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”

Fred said, “This says He made everything, but it also says He is everlasting.  I guess that means that God was around before time began, so He was here to make things.  But it also says that He never gets tired.”

I replied, “We covered God’s Eternality, Infinitude, Omnipotence, and the fact that the Heavenly realm is outside time and space before you joined the class, but a lot of these verses talk about a few of God’s attributes.  Thank you, Fred.  And thank you for doing the majority of the driving this next semester, Easy is going to have a chance to get his double major along with me.  Then, next year, we will be graduate assistants like B.B.”

B.B. said, “Oh, definitely not like me, but given time, you can catch up.”

I raised an eyebrow, “So that is the way you are going to play it.”

B.B. cringed, ‘Can I claim that pregnant ladies occasionally get bossy?”

Joseph added, “If you say yes, it clears up a lot of our late-night discussions.”

I said, “For the sake of your marriage and our friendship… Sure, pregnant ladies can get bossy.  I never did, but sure.”

Easy said, “She did get bossy, but she would apologize and try to pour syrup on the bossiness to make it sound sweeter.”

I looked at him with my meanest look, although I really cannot pull that one off.  “Next time, I will withhold the syrup!  Now is Grannie Fannie behind me.  We might need a benediction.”

Grannie Fannie snickered, “You know I am right behind you, Jemima”

I asked, “Grannie Fannie, can you lead us in our new benediction?”

Grannie Fannie (Romans 15:13) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Lauren ran up to Menzie and Samuel, “Mommie!  Daddy!  The buses!  The bus driver is here.”  Then she ran to Grannie Fannie and hugged her.

Brooke came over and picked up Stormie’s carrier and went with me to the bus.

I asked, “Where is Goober?”

Brooke said, “He is on his way home.  T.R.U.S.T. had a late night game on the west coast.  They won with a late field goal.  Goober got three sacks, and one was a strip-sack.  That’s where you make the quarterback fumble while you are tackling him behind the line of scrimmage.  The other team recovered the fumble, but they lost a lot of yards.  But as I tell you that, I can tell you have no idea what I am talking about.”

I shrugged, “My Dad visited people in the hospital on Sunday afternoon.  And since Easy and I have been married, we look at clouds.  For some unknown reason, Easy watches the Sunday Night Game.  Otherwise, I would be clueless about football.”

Credits

The nature of the blog from Sweet to the Soul Ministries gives only one verse.  I used various searches and cross references for the other verses.

Here is Sovereign Grace Music singing All Creatures of our God and King.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.