Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Scriptures will be embedded in the story.

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 played the part of Morticia Addams at the church’s Trunk or Treat.

This week, Babs was hosting a birthday party for Joe Painter, who still calls Babs his Ornery Grandma, but I think he knows the mistake he is making.  It makes Babs laugh, so I hope he never quits.

Joe disappointed Babs a little bit.  Joe wanted kids from Lily the Pink, and he had no friends from his school that he wanted to invite.  He had been going with us to Lily the Pink.  The large FHAT (Feeding the Homeless at Tracy) kitchen downtown at the mission was not completed yet.  And the advantage to Thomas ver Waarloosd using both the kitchen at the Big House and the kitchen at the cider house conference center, Thomas got a lot of children helping him in small ways.  Thomas got some help, and the children learned how to measure, add, subtract, and even multiply.

Besides, Joe went to a Sunday school class on Sunday mornings with Tony and his new girlfriend, Mary Jo Lynn.

So, we had invited Clay Bell, Sarah Dalton, Thursday, Friday and Saturday Wednesday, and Grace and Gretchen Grunge.  Joe was going to walk with Grace Grunge at our wedding, so she and Grace usually both jumped at the chance to work in the same crew when cooking for the homeless.  Georges Evident, Sally Dalton, Jim Wednesday and Griffin Grunge were here at the house to see how their children adapted to the group of children.  Of course, Tony and Joe Painter were here.

We had the usual games.  We had four girls and four boys as it turned out.  So, we started with Simon Says.  We did some egg in spoon races, using plastic eggs filled with slime, same dynamics with hilarious mishaps.  We did a freeze dance.  I think they liked the egg races the best.  After the first couple of serious races, they were making mistakes just to have the eggs fall and the slime to come out.

We even came inside after the silliness to make slime, but we had strict rules to have no slime above the elbow.  The rules were violated a little, but no party dresses were ruined.  Everyone was going home with a jar of slime, in the color of their choice.  Everyone was getting a small gift bag.

We had a cake from the Lily the Pink Bakery, a special cake just for little Joe.  We called him “Little Joe” because he was small for his age, which probably led to him being picked on in school, which probably is the reason he wanted no one from his school at the party.  The cake was a German Chocolate Cake, with vanilla ice cream.  We were thinking of spaghetti ice cream, but the “engineer” couldn’t get the extruding device working.

Ummm.  Spaghetti ice cream is vanilla ice cream extruded into “noodles.”  The firmer the ice cream, the harder that the machine must work to extrude the noodles, but less firm and the noodles do not stay noodles.  But then you add a strawberry sauce over the noodles.  And if you like to have cheese on your spaghetti, there is grated white chocolate.  It looks like a bowl of spaghetti, but it is delightful.  I am thinking next year, I will either have the mechanical issues resolved or I will talk to someone who will talk to someone who knows Tensie of “Design by Tensie.”  I hear that Tensie is in Tracy, but no one knows who he is.  But to get a message to him, you have to go through a lawyer in NYC.

Joe then opened his presents, and he thanked everyone.  Even with Tony’s wife dying of cancer when Joe was just starting elementary school, Tony had done well in teaching him manners.

But then, Babs did her normal Babs thing, a Bible Study.

She asked Georges Evident to read Psalm 90:1-2.

Georges read, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Georges asked, “And where is this verse going, Babs?”

Babs smiled, “I want to talk to the children about the difference in our timing and God’s timing.  We are celebrating Joe’s birthday, but when did God first celebrate Joe’s day of birth?  In your verse, we see that God created the earth before He created the mountains.  And the earth is our dwelling place.  Now, we could get into the science of it, but in my thinking, God made hills and valleys during the third day of Creation Week, since He separated the water from the dry land.  But, with everything going on during Noah’s flood, he created the mountains in the process of packing away the water into underwater aquifers and such, a lot of seismic activity to cause all that to happen.  If you have any questions, my fiancé is an engineer.  I couldn’t explain it.  I will not try.”

Babs next asked Sally Dalton to read Isaiah 49:1.

Sally read, “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.”

Babs sat down with the kids gathering around her, like she does in her Sunday school class.  “So, here is my question.  The Bible says that God first loved us.  A lot of people will say that He loved us while we were sinners.  That is true.  That is in the Bible.  But what does this verse say?”

Sarah’s eyes brightened and seemed to whisper into her tablet.  The other children were looking at each other.  Then Sarah’s tablet spoke for her, “Isaiah was called by God before he was born.  God called him by his name while Isaiah’s Mom was still trying to figure out if he was a boy or girl.”  Note: Sarah has had selective mutism since her family lost their farm in a flood.

Gretchen asked, “Mary’s baby inside her?  And Mamma Missy?  And Cassie?”

Sally nodded, “Yes, Gretchen, Mary Jones, Missy MacDougal, and Cassie Yeggs are all expecting babies in the Spring.  So, God already knows those children’s names.  He already knows if they are little boys or little girls.  And if they are called to be in God’s service, He knows that too.”

Saturday turned to Jim Wednesday, “Daddy? Did God know I was Saturday Wednesday when I was in my mommy’s belly?  She wasn’t even my Mommy!”

Jim explained to the few giving him questioning looks, “We have let the children know that they are adopted, but Thursday, Friday and Saturday all have the same birth mother, who was murdered.  Tuesday fell in love with the three children.  Tuesday solved the murder, convinced me to marry her, and adopted the children.  So, Saturday, God knew you when you were in your mother’s womb.  And she knew you would even get a new name, Saturday Wednesday, all before you were born.  And Saturday, you are a very special child of God.  Don’t ever forget that.  Now as for the two little ones that are back home, Tuesday is their birth mother.”

Babs then asked Jim to read Jeremiah 1:5.

Jim read, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Babs said, “So, Jeremiah is like Isaiah.  God knew him before he was born.  God even knew he would be a prophet.”  And then Babs read, “But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.’”

Babs smiled, “That was Luke 1:13-15.  So, Elizabeth will have a baby, but Elizabeth had been unable to get pregnant.  So, even before you are formed in your mother’s womb, God knew you.  You are all special in God’s eyes.”

Griffin said, “It’s like that old saying, ‘before you were a twinkle in your Daddy’s eyes, God knew you.”

“Yes!” Babs exclaimed, “That’s it exactly.  And while you have the floor, I have one Bible passage left.  Can you read Romans 9:11-13?”

Griffin read, “Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’”

Griffin said, “Ouch!”

Babs smiled, “God knows the bad and the good.  But He still loves us.  Harold, what does Romans 5:8 say?”

I did not even open my Bible, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Babs laughed, “You were showing off a bit, but I think you have used that verse a lot with those you talk to at food banks.  Folks, Harold has not memorized the entire Bible.  But that verse says a lot.  God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to earth to pay the price for our sin.  No matter how bad we might be at times.”

Thursday said, “That’s a relief!”

Jim sighed, “Thursday, you might be in your mother’s doghouse, but she still loves you too.  For everyone else, he was not being nice to his siblings yesterday, but we all have our off days.  Overall, Thursday is a good kid and a good big brother.”

Thursday brightened with that reassurance.

Babs smiled, “So, what I want you all to know that your birthday is just once each year, but God was loving you before you were born and He loves you like every day is your birthday.”

We sang several children’s Christian songs.

Then Sally whispered to Babs as she was getting ready to leave, “Babs, can you host my children’s birthday parties?  This was the best I ever attended.  And the children were hanging onto every word you said.”

Babs laughed, “Do you think I should hang out a shingle, ‘Birthday party host for hire’?”

Everyone laughed at that, but I wondered what Babs was thinking.

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.

I loved the spaghetti ice cream at an ice cream parlor near the city center in Karlsruhe, Germany.  I succeeded in making a small batch, after many mistrials, but it wrecked my homemade extruder in the process.  And if I did not eat my version fast enough, the noodles melted quickly.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.