The Bungee Cord. 7-11-23

Hello,

I woke up the other morning with an itchy rash running across my chest. The culprit….a caterpillar!

I had been picking blueberries the day before. We have six blueberry bushes, and if you have ever picked blueberries, you know what a labor-intensive job it is. The first task is to open up the netting that keeps the burglar-birds away, and then to get down on your hands and knees in order to start picking. The blueberries often grow in clusters, but not all of the blueberries in the cluster are ripe. So, you have to carefully extract the blue ripe ones without dislodging the purple, pick, and green unripe ones. To get to some of the ripe ones, you have to get on your back and scrunch around the bushes. The berries are intermixed with branches and leaves, so it takes some focusing skill to get your fingers on some of them. It is an every other day task when they start to ripen, a task that is hot and awkward.

As I was picking the berries, I noticed a small hairy caterpillar resting on my right wrist. I had heard these caterpillars could be pesky, so I quickly brushed it off. Apparently not in time. My wrist soon showed two small red bumps. It bit me!

The bumps started to itch, but I didn’t think much of it, because bug bites itch. When I came inside, I rubbed some ice on them to relieve the itch. It sort of worked. It worked, at least, until the morning, when I woke up with itch running across my chest, and when I got out of the shower, I saw the reason for my itching…..a rash.

I went to the internet and found out that this sort of itchy rash is caused by these “cute” caterpillars. To make things worse, these caterpillars have little quills that they leave in your skin that increases the problem. Nothing one can do to illuminate the itch and the rash. You just have to wait it out, which I have been doing, and although the itch and rash have diminished, they are both still with me…..more than a week later!

A caterpillar! A little caterpillar has the power to impact my life for more than a week, causing me discomfort and leaving me fighting off the inclination to scratch.

I know that some people find the possibility that one man could impact the universe as he bit into time. They find it a stumbling block to the Christian faith to believe that the death and resurrection of one man could cause a rash of Divine mercy that would bring an itch of hope, peace, and joy in all space and in all time. They find it hard to believe that the rash and itch of grace is one that cannot be resolved by any amount of goodness or evil done by the rashee.

But when I consider the negative and torturous impact that that one little caterpillar had on me, or when I think of the impact one little virus or bacterium carries, it does not seem so far-fetched that there is a life changing impact of grace and mercy that comes with the contact of one cross-hung man. Of course, not just any man, just like not just any caterpillar, but a man who embodies the life-giving power of creating the universe and whose heart pulses it with death shattering love. And that is the Christian witness. When Jesus took his place on the cross, he dug his teeth into the skin of this evil word, bringing to an end the pain and torture that that evil’s rash creates, and injects forgiveness and mercy that creates an itch of hope, peace, and joy that nothing can overcome.

One caterpillar disrupted my life with aggravation for a short time. One man, Jesus, has disrupted by life with grace for all time…and beyond.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Like

Comment

Share