Hello,
Monday is my day off, so after running errands, cleaning the gutters and
doing some yard work I headed for my hot tub. Nothing like sitting for a spell in the bubbling waters on a
warm autumn day, especially when the trees that cover the ridge are
transforming to their multi-color splendor.
I never sit in my hot tub alone.
I always have the company of the two rubber duckies that my son gave
me. This afternoon, though, the
hot tub was a bit more crowded.
After I hopped in I was joined by a stink bug. Those of you who live in this area well know these pesky
critters that seem to be everywhere and are impossible to get rid of. They are about the size of a dime, and
their distinguishing feature is the pungent odor they emit when handled or
crushed.
Unlike me, my uninvited hot tub guest was not enjoying its hot tub
experience. It struggled to stay
above the churning water, thrashing for its life. To the stink bug’s good fortune, one of my rubber duckies happened by and the stink bug was able
to shimmy its way up on the ducky’s back.. But all was still not well with my hot tubbing stink bug
friend. The hot tub’s jets turned
the water into a wild ride….spinning one way, and then whirling around the
other, bouncing up and down, water cascading over it like large ocean waves
crashing down on a helpless sailboat.
The stink bug was obviously distressed as it slid around on the ducky’s
bag, holding on for dear life.
Unfortunately, the stink bug would eventually lose the tug-a-war with the
water and it would fall back into the hot tub with me.
But all was not lost. Not a
good swimmer, the stink bug managed to stay above water long enough to cling on
again to the ducky when it swirled by.
This struggle repeated itself four times during my 30 minute repose in
my hot tub.
As I observed the stink bug’s ordeal, it occurred to me that I was
seeing play out what many people envision the Christian life to be. Christians, they say, are like that
stink bug; people who find themselves in swirling waters doing all they can to
stay above water when by chance God, in Jesus, has drawn near them and if they
are smart they will muster up the strength to hop on and then hold on to the
slippery shoulders onto which they are clinging.
If
that’s the Christian hope, then we, like that stink bug are in deep trouble,
for we, like it will fall off over and over again, until in the end we have no
more strength to climb aboard.
That is why I find true hope in the words of Scripture that paints quite
a different picture of the Christian faith. “’27My sheep hear my voice. I know
them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they
will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29What my Father has given me is
greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.’”(John
10) Far from holding on to Jesus
for dear life, the Bible tells us that Jesus is holding on to us with the power
of the one who is the giver of life.
Far safer and more hopeful would that stink bug been if I would have
scooped it up and held onto it during our hot tub soak, and that is what God
has done. The unfortunate truth
for that stink bug is that I do not share for it the love that God has for me,
a stink bug no less than it. But
therein lies the grace of God that is beyond my deserving and
understanding. God has scooped me
(and you) up with the promise that he won’t let us slip out of his hand. That is hope. That is the Christian faith.
Have a great week, fellow stink bugs!
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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