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 in our ‘green room’.

B.B. was not working on my hair as usual.  She was posing in front of the mirror.  “Stinker?  Do I look fat to you?”

I snickered, “You don’t even look pregnant, B.B.  As neurotic as you are, and your OCD, I think you will obsessively compulse yourself into staying thin with a baby bump.  And do not forget what happened when you joined the Turtle team, before you accepted Jesus.  Easy said you were drop dead gorgeous and I got angry that he would consider falling over dead because he saw a girl that beautiful and that girl was not me.  I think Home Wrecker snickered that once a pregnancy or two stretched your body out of shape, then I might be able to relax.  So, now, you want me, your best friend in the whole wide world to help you not have your body stretch out of shape?  What’s in it for me, girlfriend?”

B.B. huffed, “Stinker, ‘compulse’ is not a word.  The word is ‘compel’.”

I groaned, “Out of everything that I said, the only thing that registered was a word that I made up!  Really!”

B.B. giggled and kissed me on my shoulder, “I heard the rest.  Easy loves you more than life itself.  He loves God.  He loves you.  He adores Stormie.  And then he has love left over for other people, but he is cool about that.  He is a profound introvert.  You have to get to know him before you find out that he really cares about you.  But you are my best friend.  You have been through this baby thing already.  I want to do it right.”

I shrugged, “I will help you along the way, but everyone is a little different.  I never wanted pickles with ice cream.  Those kinds of cravings come from somewhere inside your body that knows what it needs at the time.  So, listen to the cravings, but do not overindulge the cravings.  Got it?”

B.B. groaned, “I heard the words, but it’s like when Jesus told the people after telling them a parable.  Those who have ears will hear.”

I smiled, “Yeah.  Something like that.  But I will make a deal with you.  You help me get back into shape and I will reassure you that you are not getting too much out of shape.  Deal?”

B.B. giggled, “Deal, now let’s go see what Fireball has cooked up.”

As we came into the classroom, Arabella announced, “People, it has been six weeks since we had pizza.  I am getting faint.  I do not know if I can go on another minute.  Michael, are you there?  My eyes are fading.  Everything is getting blurry.  I think I am going to faint.”

Michael Rowe Casey snickered, “If you pass out, I will catch you, but I am fresh out of pizza.”

I announced, “After my suggestion last week that everyone puts some money into a donation box, we have gotten a few benefactors together.  Once a month, we’ll have something for the Sunday school class here in the den after we return from church.  We are having submarine sandwich rings delivered today in the window when the buses return after church.  After all, God is our provider.  And so far, no one needs to be keelhauled, but Belle, you are getting close.”

B.B. leaned in close and whispered, “Make mine with extra cheese and a lot of pickles.”

Arabella asked, “If you need to keelhaul me, come get me tomorrow after school.”

I asked, “Why then?”

Easy laughed, “She goes to the top of the Crystal Mountain every Monday to work with the African tropical plants.  She thinks you couldn’t climb up that high.”

Amazon snickered, “But I’m up there nearly every day, and I owe Aunt Jemima a few favors.”

Arabella shrunk her head between her shoulders and giggled, “Oops!”

Joseph led us in prayer.

Emmett’s band was great, as usual.  The song was The Lord Will Provide.

Emmett added, “How was that, Aunt Jemima?”

I said, “The song was wonderful.  And you have added two more singers, Sarah and Clay.  And Sarah has a beautiful angelic voice.”

Sarah smiled and then her tablet spoke, “Thank you, Aunt Jemima.”

Emmett snickered, “If she has a tune on her mind at the time, she can sing anything.  But talking requires assistance at times.”

Clay said, “Her tablet is epic!  Sometimes the teachers ask her to answer the question a second time, and they will look over her shoulder while she silently talks to the tablet, and then the words appear, and she corrects a couple of mistakes.  Then she tells the tablet to speak.  It’s bossin’.”

Emmett looked at my confused look, “That means it is the best.”

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

I laughed, “Samuel, we are looking at God as our provider.  Arabella, do we need Mr. Dictionary?”

Arabella shrugged.  “You said God was providing lunch.  Is that it?”

Easy, my husband, a.k.a. Mr. Dictionary, said, “You just sang about it, Fireball.  God has what you need.  He knows what you need.  And He provides it to you.”

Arabella shrunk her head between her shoulders and giggled, “Thank you, Mr. Dictionary.”

Georges (Ruth 4:13-15) “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.’”

Georges said, “Naomi starts her journey of returning home to Bethlehem by wanting to be called Mara.  Naomi means ‘pleasantness or my joy.’ Mara means ‘bitter’.  She lived a bitter life of loss.  The famine caused her husband to take them to Moab.  The two boys married Moab women.  Then all three men died.  Now, with no means to support herself, Naomi goes home and Ruth insists on going with her.  But what started as a poor woman’s daughter-in-law gathering grain so that she and Naomi would have food turned into a love story between the owner of the field and Ruth, the Moabitess.  Boaz and Ruth had a son named Obed, who would become Jesse’s father and King David’s grandfather.  God provided for the kingly line of David to be started while providing for Naomi and Ruth.”

I smiled, “Thank you for tying all that together.”

Jochebed (2 Corinthians 9:8-9) “Et Dieu peut vous combler de toutes sortes de grâces, afin que, possédant toujours en toutes choses de quoi satisfaire à tous vos besoins, vous ayez encore en abondance pour toute bonne oeuvre, selon qu’il est écrit: Il a fait des largesses, il a donné aux indigents; Sa justice subsiste à jamais.”

Clay asked, “May I translate what Mamma Jochebed read from the Louis Segond?”  I nodded, thinking this might be their routine from now on.

Clay (2 Corinthians 9:8-9) “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.’ ”

Jochebed smiled, “When you have nothing, you guard what you have.  When God has freely given to you and you realize where the abundance came from, you share more willingly.  But with God in your heart, you tend to share even when there is not much abundance because your heart goes out to the poor.  Which comes first, Aunt Jochebed?”

I smiled, “God moving your heart to give to the poor comes first.  As you said.  When you have little and God is in your heart, you share what you have.  But if you have a lot and God is not in your heart, you hoard what you have to become richer.  Paul was praising the Corinthians here, but he was reminding them and us that we get what we need from God and giving some of that abundance to the poor is important.  In doing that, God’s love contributes, through us, to providing what the poor need.  Do we have anyone who has been in need?”

Thomas ver Waarloosd said, “Maybe half the class?  Aunt Gwen was penniless when she arrived to be Mommie Pinkie’s companion.  Catherine and I were penniless when we arrived.  The Daltons lost their farm in the big Tracy flood before Catherine and I ever got here, and Emmett lost a year of school as a result.  Michael Rowe Casey lost his parents in a flood down south.  The Drivers lost their house in a hurricane, and they had already taken in Mary Jo who had lost everything when she would not give up her baby.  Penny and Blake thought they would never have a child and now one is on the way, and Penny is here in a motorized wheelchair.  This room is filled with people who now have an abundance because Mommie Pinkie shared in her abundance when we had little or nothing.”

I said, “Thank you, so much Thomas.  And Aunt Pink’s abundance has become even greater.”

Dr. Kildare (1 Kings 17:13-16) “Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.”’
“She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”

Dr. Kildare said, “Everyone, call me Dr. James.  I am like Pastor Joseph, or as Home Wrecker calls him, ‘No Joe’.  I do not answer to Jim or Jimmy, but since I am the head of the department who will be handing Stinker and Easy their diplomas in the Spring, Aunt Jemima is very formal with me.  Please, we are Mags and Dr. James.  But this story is one of my favorites.  I have seen it in my life.  In college, I looked into the liquid detergent bottle, and my first wife and I had enough detergent for a couple of loads.  We were low on cash.  It was either eat or wash clothes.  But for six weeks, we washed two loads every three or four days.  Then one day, I got a stipend that I was not expecting.  We would be able to eat something other than Ramen noodles.  That night, I tipped the laundry detergent bottle over and it was dry.  Maybe my estimating skills were off, but I immediately thought of this story.  Even when it is something that can be explained, it is made into a God moment when we think of a Bible story that is eerily similar.  You do not have to have a verifiable miracle in your life for God to let you know that He provides.”

I said, “Wow! Thank you, Dr. James.  I like it when we have personal stories that relate to the topic.  Has anyone else had something happen like that?”

Jochebed said she and Tyler Hill had the same thing with their water supply.  They had one bottle to share between Tyler, Resurrection, Esther, and herself.  They went through the jungle to a town where they could hitch a ride to the city, and they did not run out of water, even with the children thirsty, until they reached the mission headquarters where there was plenty of supplies.

Mags (Matthew 7:11) “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Mags smiled, “In reading the verses before this, I have never given my children a stone or a snake, but when you have a substance abuse problem, you sometimes give gifts that are not appropriate or bad for the children.  But what we get from God is good gifts.  And they are timely gifts from God.  They happen right when you need them.  I guess if it did not happen right then, you might not think of it as a gift from God.”

I nodded, “I think you’re right.  It is one of those things that is not really a miracle, but when it happens just as you need it or maybe the moment after you first prayed about it, then you know without a doubt that God gave the gift.”

I smiled, “Is Grannie Fannie behind me?”

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

I asked, “Grannie Fannie, can you lead us in our 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.  And Liam, Lympie, and Ellie Rain are with her.”  Then, she ran to Grannie Fannie and hugged her.

Brooke came over and got Stormie’s carrier.  “Hi, Stormie.  Did you want to go to church?”

Stormie laughed.

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.  I used just a few sources.

I had enough Scriptures to keep going on this one and enough examples of God’s provision.  Maybe I can save those stories for another lesson.

The bottle of detergent not running dry happened to me while my wife was in kidney dialysis, and I had to go to the laundromat due our dryer being broken. And the bottle ran out weeks later, after I got my monthly Social Security check. And the timeliness of God’s gifts happened so many times that I could not think of a tenth of the times, but my wife always talked about us getting an envelope to mail the keys to our house in South Carolina that had not sold in two and a half years, and just before we mailed the bank our keys, the real estate agent called to tell us we had a buyer. That was perfect timing, God’s timing.

Here is Passion and Landon Wolfe singing The Lord Will Provide.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.