Saturday, February 04, 2023

Seeing A Need and Giving a Hand

 

The following excerpts are actual answers given on tests and in Sunday School quizzes by children of the 5th and 6th grades in Ohio. They were collected by two teachers over a period of three years. * Ancient Egypt was old. It was inhabited by gypsies and mummies who all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sahara Dessert. The climate of the Sahara is such that all the inhabitants have to live elsewhere. * Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandos. He died before he ever reached Canada, but the commandos made it. * Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines. He was an actual hysterical figure as well as being in the Bible. It sounds like he was sort of busy too. * The Greeks are a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn’t have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a young female moth. * Socrates was a famous old Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. He later died from an overdose of wedlock which is apparently poisonous. After his death his career suffered a dramatic decline. * Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because hey thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out, “Same to you, Brutus.” Joan of Arc was burned at the steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw for reasons I really don’t understand. The English and French still have problems. * It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. * Sir Frances Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper which was very dangerous to all his men. * Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 until the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. * Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf that he wrote loud music and became the father of rock and roll. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

[Galatians 6:2] When I was a young boy, I remember the death of a funeral director in our city. To a young mind this seemed strange, almost impossible. He was the one who was supposed to be there when other people died. He wasn’t supposed to die himself. And now his family needed the services of an undertaker. “What will they do? How do they know what to do? Can it be done?” were questions that ran through my mind. Have you ever wondered who cuts your barber’s or hair stylist’s hair? To whom does your doctor go when illness strikes? Who puts the filings in your dentist’s teeth (in case they fail to follow the instructions given to you)? When a tow truck breaks down can the driver call for a tow? Yes, those who usually serve, at times, need to be served. This is just as true in the church as it is in the world. Remember that Paul admonished us to, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” What about the person you usually rely on for support? Do you try to observe moments when you can serve him or her? There are times they need you – don’t you know. All of us, including elders, deacons, preachers, and their families, plus everyone in your life need someone to talk with, cry with, laugh with – somebody who has no particular agenda than simply to care for and be concerned for others. Are your eyes open to the needs of others or just fixed on your own needs?

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