Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

• Genesis 7:1-5

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

• Genesis 12:1-4

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

• Genesis 16:1-2

Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.
Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

• Genesis 31:1-2

Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”
At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

• Exodus 4:18-28

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’

• Joshua 4:1-6

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

• Ruth 1:8-9

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

• Ruth 1:16-18

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

• Mark 5:18-20

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

• Acts 1:7-9

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs had the oil changed in the car while I had a meeting with Tim, the guy that runs the food bank in our church.  We had a Bible study about how we need our spiritual oil changed.  We become new creations when we are saved.  That starts the process of our desires changing, but as the sanctification process continues until we die, each time we get rid of the old and accept the new, we become more like Jesus.  When she challenged me to write that Bible study, I was afraid it might not make sense, but I think it worked.

But this week, Babs was fidgety.

I said, “Babs, you have been pacing back and forth for the past hour.  Is there something wrong?”

Babs put a fingernail between her teeth.  “Yes, Harold, there is something wrong.  I have to get out of here.”

“Are bad men with bent noses after you and you have to go on the lam?” I joked and laughed.

She huffed, “No, Harold, but do you realize that we have never really taken a day off.  And when we are not doing something, we just hang around the house.  Please, Harold, I need to move.”

I smiled, “Babs, two days ago, we were at our dance class.  We did a lot of moving.”

Babs scrunched her nose. “But, Harold.  Can we go somewhere outside Tracy?  I hear there is a Christian bookstore in Rextown over in Stout County.  Please!”

I snickered, “Babs, there is a perfectly good Christian bookstore just north of the city center.  We could be there in ten minutes.”

Babs held out a hand for me to hold, “Please, Harold, I have not been out of the city of Tracy since I got here.  That seems to be, what?  A year and a half ago?  Two years?”

I scratched my head, “Okay, Babs, I am sensing some kind of wanderlust meltdown.  We first met, that is the two of us and not the doll representation of you, on 13 December of last year.  It has been nine months and six days.  Now, if you count the young Babs, that was two years ago.  But until nine months and a few days, you were hiding in Arizona.”

Babs nodded.  “Yeah, wanderlust meltdown.  I will just announce wanderlust meltdown, and you will know what to do, just not how far we have to go before my meltdown is over.”

I sighed, “Do you get these meltdowns often?”

Babs shrugged, “I don’t know.  I was hiding in Arizona, and I wanted to stay hidden.  Getting out and seeing the countryside seemed counterproductive, but before that time, I was always filming on location in one spot or another.  After the newness of being in bed with a guy and cameras filming from every angle was over, the exotic settings were the thing that gave me the most excitement.”

I sighed, “So, on our wedding night, you won’t be excited at all since I am the same old Harold.”

Babs gasped, “No, silly!  That was work.  Being in bed with you is what I have dreamed about ever since I got here.”

I groaned, “And I thought I had surprised you with the one knee and the ring thing.”

Babs giggled, “What you lack in romance, you make up for in silliness.  Of course, I was surprised.  We were on the roof of someone’s house so we could watch the fireworks.  It may not have been a surprise for you, but you definitely caught me off guard.  But for today, Rextown is far enough away, I think.”

I jumped up.  “Okay, we can top off with gas when we drive by the wholesale warehouse store.  Let’s go.”

Babs scrunched her nose.  “Harold!  You are wearing your beaten-up gardening clothes to a nice Christian bookstore?  What are you thinking?  When you are properly dressed, then we can leave, but make it snappy.”

I nodded, “Yes, dear.”  I went to my bedroom and got dressed, properly dressed.  But I wondered.  She was dressed ready to go, but she rarely wore knock around clothes when she planned on staying at home.  Did she rarely plan on staying at home or is she playing me?

It was a nice day for a drive.  Occasionally, we had the sun appear, but it was mostly cloudy and little to no chance for rain.  No glare and no scorcher of a hot day either, but the scorcher days were rare in Tracy this time of year.  We got to the strip mall where the Christian bookstore was located and there was a quaint coffee shoppe two doors down from the bookstore.  When I got the bill for what I would consider a half sandwich and a small orange juice and berry smoothie, I was thinking that the “pe” at the end of coffee shoppe seemed to double the price, but I smiled, paid the bill, and left a nice tip.

When we got to the store, Babs said, “I am getting a new Study Bible.  I don’t know which one, but I want something different.  What are you going to get, Harold?”

I shrugged, “Since I have been planning this trip for weeks, I thought I would look through their clearance items and see if I can get lucky.”

Babs scrunched her nose and said, “I thought we should rely on blessings instead of luck.”

“Okay, Babs.  Maybe I will be blessed.”  I laughed.

We then went to opposite ends of the little bookstore, for a while it was as if we did not even know each other.  We were both totally absorbed in our book buying.  She had an account now at a community credit union near the church where we attend.  With good weather, she could walk there.  But Babs having her own account allowed both of us to purchase our own books without consulting a joint budget.  We had discussed combining our accounts after the marriage, but we had not decided anything for sure.  So far, I balanced our expenses on my income alone, not counting the rent that she paid.  So, we were not in a hurry to figure out the financial end of our relationship, but I had a feeling that today might be a bump in our budgetary spending.

We found some chairs in the “gift” area to compare purchases.  I got about fifty dollars worth of clearance items and one study guide for the book in the Bible we were covering in Sunday school.  It wasn’t the book we were using, but I liked to be informed.

As Babs pulled things out of her shopping basket, she placed them next to her face, like she was advertising each book.  She had gotten his and hers coffee mugs from a shelf very close to where I was sitting.  And she got a commentary, the NIV Application Commentary, but then the big purchase was the Woman’s Study Bible.  She was excited about her purchases, but I thought it touching that she thought of a gift for me.

Babs giggled, “What do you want to do for a Bible study, Harold?  I don’t think they will mind.  Let’s look at the word ‘go’ in your Bible search app on your phone.  I can turn to that part in my new Bible.”

One correction.  They did mind.  This was a bookstore, not a library, but they felt two people having a private Bible study might be distracting, but they had a couple of tables outside the store entrance and underneath the awning so that people could enjoy their purchases before going on their way.  Like I said, it was a beautiful day, so we gladly sat outside.

I groaned, “Babs, my search engine app is not understanding ‘go’.  It does not understand ‘go to’.  Hmmm.  How about ‘Lord said go’?  Yep, that works great.  That gets ‘The Lord said good,’ but we can pick what we want.  Frankly I have an idea what might work.  I will see if it fits.”

I continued, “Babs, find Genesis 7:1-5.”

Babs read the passage, and she said, “Great!  This tells us what God told Noah before he got into the ark with his wife, his three sons and their wives.  Everybody concentrates on the forty days of rain, but this says a lot of the water came from underneath the ground.  Well, later on, once it started raining.  I wonder if it was cloudy when they went into the ark.  If there was no cloud in sight, can you imagine the step of faith they were taking?”

I snickered, “Babs, you are forgetting that thee estimate on how long four grown men with the tools of the day would take to build the ark is 75-90 years.  I heard an engineer explain it as no less than 80 years.  He used the estimate of dressing one log trimmed to finish and then based on the size, calculating the entire thing.  I was so convinced by his details, that I might throw out numbers less than that.  But some think it took 120 years.  In the chapter before what you read (6:3), God is angry at all the people on earth.  While wanting to hit the reset button, which the global flood basically was, he says that He was going to limit the length of a man’s life to 120 years.  Since Noah was already 600 years old and a few prominent people in the Bible lived beyond 120 years after that, some biblical scholars think that was God telling Noah that the flood would come in 120 years, so he better be ready.”

Babs smiled, “You always have something to add.  Thank you, Harold.  What’s next.”

About that time, a large, heavy-set man sat at the table just behind me.  A couple of other people stood behind Babs, leaning against the glass store front.

I said, “Turn to the beginning of Genesis 12.  That’s when God told Abram to take his wife and flocks and God would make him into a great nation.”

Babs read the passage.  She said, “Again, Abram and Sarah must have had a lot of faith.  They left their family.  Wasn’t Sarah Abram’s sister?”

I smiled, “Babs, she was called Sarai when they left Harran.  She was his half-sister.  Both had Terah as their father, but they had different mothers.  Sarai and Nahor were sister and brother.  Nahor was the grandfather of Rebekah and Laban.  And Laban…”

Babs interrupted, “Was the father of Leah and Rachel.  But where does Lot fit in?”

I smiled. “That new Bible suits you, Babs.  You are quick today.  Lot was the son of Haran, Abram’s brother, but Haran died in Ur.  After he died, Terah packed up the entire family and they moved to Harran.  Terah stopped there.  Then Abram heard from God and moved to Canaan, the land God promised his descendants, but at the time, Abram did not have any descendants.”

“Goody,” Babs smiled. “What’s next?”

I sighed, “What is next doesn’t fit.”

Babs sighed, “That’s disappointing.”

The guy behind me said, “That ain’t right.  You disappointed the lady.  What makes the next thing on your phone not fit?”

I turned around, “I do not even know your name, sir.  And being behind me, it is hard to have you in our conversation.  I’m Harold Dykstra.  I am a retired sales manager for an engineering company in Tracy.  Babs is my fiancée.”

Babs added, “We are going to be married in February at Lily the Pink.  They have what is called the Crystal Mountain there.  It is a lovely venue for weddings.  And your name, Sir?”

The heavy-set man smiled and extended a hand.  Babs was about to shake, but he lifted her hand and kissed it.  As for me, he shook my hand, firm, not bone crushing.  “My name is Turnip Greens.  Most people in Rextown don’t have to ask, so that pretty much confirms who you are.  I’ve heard of the Crystal Mountain.  Ain’t never been there, but I heard it’s a nice place.  Do you live there?”

I checked to see if I had gone to the bathroom in my pants involuntarily.  I was talking to the head of organized crime in Stout County.  He could snap his fingers, and I would be dead.  Of course, he has never been to the Crystal Mountain.  The truce between the Leafy Greens of Stout County and the Rotten Apples of Tracy means no one crosses no man’s land, that strip of land on either side of County Line Road.  I looked.  He had a sizeable bag from the Christian bookstore. The sales receipt was hanging out the top of the bag.  He had bought something at least.  “No, we are involved with a charity that she is a major donor.  Babs and I work food banks all over Tracy, since we are both retired.”

Turnip Greens smiled, “Babs reminds me of someone, but the look is off.  For one, Babs is prettier than the girl I remember, and I doubt if that girl could spell B-I-B-L-E.  But your Babs does not look like she is old enough to retire.  She must have been a child movie star and bankrolled a load of cash.  Now, what was the verse that don’t fit?”

I said, “Genesis 16:1-2.  The way ‘Lord said go’ fits is that Sarai ‘said’ that the ‘Lord’ had not granted her a child, so here is my Egyptian slave, now ‘go’ and sleep with her.  That has nothing to do with God telling someone to go somewhere.”

Babs asked, “It is a fitting follow-up to the last set of verses, since God promised them a nation of people.  But I agree.  What do you think, Mr. Greens?”

Turnip Greens smiled, “You can call me Turnip, Babs.  Harold here is still stuck with Mr. Greens, no offense.”

Babs seemed to bubble up.  Did she know who she was talking to?  Did she know that Turnip Greens was the kind of person to know what she used to do?  Babs said, “Charmed.  Welcome to our Bible study, Turnip.”

I sighed, “The next passage is Genesis 31:1-2.  Jacob hears Laban’s sons talking about how Jacob had cheated their father.  Laban was getting irritated with Jacob.  And then God told Jacob to go back home and take his family and livestock with him.”

Babs smiled, “Okay, and we know Laban chased them to get his household dogs back and kiss the grandkids goodbye.  And they swore to never cross that point again or they might kill each other.  What’s next?”

Turnip just chuckled, a deep heavy rattle of a laugh.

I sighed, “How about Exodus 4:18-28?  You have a lot of people saying ‘go.’  Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law tells Moses he should go home since God said he should.  Then the command from God is repeated.  Then God tells Aaron to go out and meet his brother halfway.  And of course, Moses’ request to Pharoah is for him to let Moses’ people go.”

Turnip Greens mumbled, “That crazy Aaron Rodgers.  Playing in Pittsburgh of all places.  I wonder if that guy will ever retire.  Some people don’t know when to quit.  Babs on the other hand.  She got it right.  Harold, you are a lucky man.  Excuse me, a blessed man.”

Babs smiled, “Okay, my blessed man.  What is your next one?”

I smiled, “Well, we have God telling Joshua to have twelve men, one from each tribe, go into the Jordan River after everyone had crossed on dry land, except the priests are standing in the middle of the river with the Ark of the Covenant.  They are told to get a stone.  Joshua takes the stones and makes a pile of stones as a reminder that God had stopped the river from flowing during flood stage, and the ground was dry beneath their feet as they crossed.”

Turnip Greens laughed his deep laugh again.  “Yeah, they drain the river or the lake, and the ground is going to be wet for weeks, maybe months.  You’d sink into the mud knee deep right after it drains, unless you step into quicksand.  But them priests stepped into the water by faith, and the ground was dry with each step they took.  I think that was more miracle than the water stopping.”

Babs said, “Wow!  You know your Bible, Turnip.”

Turnip smiled, “I read it a time or two in my youth.  Then I picked up a Bible again after my wife died.  She would read it every night.  I think she knew something.”

I asked, “Yes, she might have known something.  We can hope.”

Turnip Greens said, “Yeah, we can hope, Harold Dykstra.  But what about Ruth?  Naomi told her to go home, and she did not follow that command.”

Babs smiled, “No, Turnip, she told Naomi that Naomi’s God was now her God.  Ruth made a clean break with the Moabite way of doing things.  And I think there is hope for you, Turnip.”

Turnip Greens asked, “What else you got, Harold?”

I smiled, “Two more, but again one does not fit.  In Mark 5, the man who had been demon-possessed of many demons wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to stay and go tell all how he had been healed.”

Turnip laughed, “That’s the one with the pigs.  I always liked that one.  And the one that doesn’t fit?”

I sighed, “It is not a ‘Lord said go’ in that the word ‘go’ is only implied, but in Acts 1, Jesus tells His disciples to preach the Gospel even to the ends of the earth.”

Turnip said, “I think you should do that, Harold.  I guess you don’t make it over here much.  I may need to find my own Bible study.  But I wish you all the blessings in your marriage.  What’s the charity you work for with Pink Lady?”

Babs smiled, “Harold is in charge of writing the ad copy for the police and fire auxiliary’s feeding the homeless.  They are up to twice each month, but they want to do it weekly.  We are thinking in a couple of years.  The young man who wants to run it is going to college.  Maybe the growth would coincide with his graduation.”

Turnip Greens pulled an envelope from his coat pocket.  “I trust you two will not spend this, but give the charity a little something from me.  Just don’t say where it came from.  Understand?”

I replied, “We agree.  We thank you for your input in our Bible study.  We wish you many blessings.”

Turnip Greens and I shook hands again.

Babs gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  He mumbled something about how I was blessed, as he walked to a limo and was gone.  Oddly the two behind Babs, who said nothing, were also gone.

On the way home, I told Babs who Turnip Greens was.  She nodded.  She did not know for sure, but she got that feeling from what he said.  She wondered if he had ‘buried’ people in a lake that got drained.  But she was putting on her actress face.  She knew Turnip recognized her and she was grateful he never said anything.  Then she remembered the envelope in her shopping bag.  She opened it and gasped.  “Harold, it’s a full strap of bills.  I haven’t counted, but it looks untampered.”  I asked what denomination of bills.  She said, “Benjamins, Harold.  One-hundred-dollar bills.  If nothing is missing, this is $10,000.  I don’t know if we can add this to the fund without saying where it came from.  What are we to do?”

“Do what Turnip said to do,” I replied.  “Turn it in to the charity as an anonymous donor.”

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

My wife was in a constant state of wanderlust.  She had lived in Indonesia and Holland, living in each twice before the age of six, before moving to the USA.  She and I lived in Germany for three years, and she lived in every one of the four contiguous time zones.  I miss Mountain time as a home, but we travelled through that time zone many times.  Near the end, her two most precious memories were two spontaneous trips that I took her on.  One was from Avella, PA into West Virginia, down the mountain road to Wheeling and then back.  The other trip was to Cumberland, MD.  She would get so sick of staying in one state too long, and with her kidney dialysis schedule, we could not have overnight trips without a place for dialysis there before we came back home.  Those day trips were long, but she was able to rest in the passenger’s seat.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.