LEARNING FROM ALL AGES

You might want to grab something to drink or nibble on and get comfy.  This got a bit longer than normal.

I hope you have enjoyed the series on learning from all ages.  It is true from those in the Bible and those around us. 

LAUGHTER

Who doesn’t love a baby?  But they just lay there.  They cannot really teach us anything.  Sure, we can read about Isaac, Moses, and John the Baptist and learn.  But we know the rest of their story.  What about the babies here and now?  What can we learn from them?

We certainly can learn to laugh.  Babies make the cutest faces.  We shouldn’t, but we laugh when they pucker up, trying not to cry, and that ole lower lip is quivering?  We receive great joy when they lift their head, look in our eyes, and smile.  And I don’t care what the medical community says…it is not gas, it is a smile.

A BASKET

We can learn to trust.  A baby recognizes the face of a loving mother and the sound of a father’s voice.  They trust them to provide for needs.  In a crazy world, we can find people to trust.  Family, friends, neighbors, and our church family. 

SILENCE

We can learn to be silent and listen.  A single voice or sound can be heard when we are silent and when the world around us is silent.  Silence is getting harder and harder to find.  Music.  The phone.  The TV.  Video games.  Talking just to fill the quiet.  For some reason we find silence threatening.  But, it is in the silence that we can hear God’s voice.

A VOICE IN THE NIGHT

Silence – a great lead into hearing a voice in the night.  If you have children, you totally understand hearing a voice in the night.  A parent, at least mothers, because dads seem to sleep through chaos, can hear the slightest sound right before a child gets sick or the click of a door that opens after curfew.  The voice in the night also might be an older child reading to a scared brother or sister.  Or a parent listening as their almost-adult child asks for advice.  To hear these voices, we must be listening.

A LOST BOOK

I am not exactly sure how to tie in a lost book.  I doubt if any of us has found a book as important as the Book of the Law.  Well, maybe we might find something else from our past to pass to the next generation.  We might pass on a very old school bell.  Our grandson graduated from Ball State University and will be teaching history.  My grandmother taught school 1901-1904 and her school bell is now in the possession of said grandson.  He also received items from Bill’s mother, who taught school.  A lost book or a very old school bell can use the past to touch the present.

A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

Everyone knows what it is like to wait for a knock at the door or to hear an unexpected knock.  The table is set.  The turkey is in the oven.  The potatoes are peeled and the green beans are bubbling away.  Then you hear it.  Knock.  Knock.  Someone runs to the door and shouts, “Grandma and grandpa are here.”  And you realize that little Johnny left them standing on the porch.  He was so excited.  Then there is the other knock.  The one no one wants to hear and the door no one wants to open.  We will leave that door shut as long as we can.

AN ANSWER

Where do you go when you have a question?  Do you stop someone on the street and hope they know the answer?  Or do you seek a wise advisor?  Of course we don’t stop a random stranger.  We go to someone we trust. 

A JAR

“Did you hear the latest about ‘you know who’?”  “Yes.  I couldn’t believe it.  Shush…behind you.”  And with a smug smile, you nod and do not speak. 

Oh, the people we consider not worth our time and the people we consider beneath us.  They sound different.  They look different.  They smell.  They will never change.  They do not belong…. The Samaritan woman was an outcast – an outcast by community standards.   And yet, Jesus asked her for a drink.  Why don’t we do that? 

This one stumps me.  I am not sure how to tie the Samaritan woman to the society we live in.  Until – until I see someone talk to a homeless person or a family taking items to the thrift store or food being put in a food box outside the library or a church doing a service Sunday and helping the community or two children, oblivious to community standards, only seeing a friend.

PASS IT ON

This one is easy.  TELL THE STORY OF SALVATION.  LIVE YOUR LIFE SO THE LIGHT OF JESUS SHINES THROUGH. 

TRUMPETS AND CYMBALS

There are so many ways to discover the gift of faith.  We can read the Bible and go to Bible studies.  We can worship in church.  We can attend Sunday School.  We can sing.  Music is such a part of worship.  Music is the glory of God told using trumpets and cymbals and pianos and drums and guitars.  Listen to the words.  Open your heart and let the sharps and flats and treble clefs and whole notes and all that other stuff that a musician understands sink in.  Make a joyful noise!!!

HANDS

Oh, the miracle of hands.  How can anyone look at the hands of a newborn baby and not say AMEN.  Hands can bless and reach out.  Hands can give comfort and the joy of feeling a gentle touch.  Hands can work and hands can rest as a prayer is said.  Hands are a miracle and are best used as you obey God.

A CROSS

A cross is an instrument of death or the CROSS can be the instrument of receiving eternal life.  Which cross a person claims is a personal decision. 

LEARNING FROM ALL AGES

As I reread learning from all ages, I realized this can be taken two ways.  We can learn from those from past ages, the creation of mankind to today, and from all ages, young to old.  We can learn.

Or we can be a grumpy, know-it-all, who gets mad/aggravated when a sweet little child breaks off your favorite rose, brings it to the door, and, with an adorable smile, says, “I got this just for you.”

THE END