“Good evening to You-all. See, I am from the south, south Phoenix that is. We start off with scratching your head and remembering back 20-30-40 years when you were still a kid. How long ago was that! Oh, well . . . “
The couples sitting in the backroom of Della’s Diner did expect a humorous start to their weekly meal and fellowship hour. Jackie went on to explain. “Give us something you recall, and prune it down to maybe a dozen sentences.
Howard was the first to volunteer. “When I was a teenager I discovered why I’d been such a well-behaved kid. Every Sunday in church I heard the people say, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, Howard be thy name.” I was amazed that mom and dad had named me after God. I knew my reputation was important to them!”
Lola spoke up, “When I was a little kid I remember my cousin Carrie coming over with Aunt Amy and Uncle Martin. When they got in their car to leave my mom would throw her a kiss and she showed me how, too. It means ‘I love you.’ So, after that I’d throw a kiss to the LORD, after my bedtime prayer.”
For Ronnie it was suppertime that he remembered. “I thought mom said we were having Chicken and Doodles. Later when I was maybe 10 or 11 I understood it was noodles. A couple of years ago I found a website on the computer “How to Doodle.” It just takes some paper and some kind of markers. You can turn on your artistic skills and have fun. Your history teacher thinks you’re taking notes; well, you can listen and doodle at the same time.”
“That Sunday School Song, ‘Jesus loves the little children, red and yellow, black and white’ is probably how most of you learned it. At First Federated in Des Moines our teacher taught it, ‘red and yellow, brown, black and white, you are precious in His sight.’ A few years later I found out she changed it because my skin is brown, not black.” This comment from Carlita brought smiles.
Here’s where Randall stood up and announced, “OK, gang, I’ll wind up with this. I recall my old Uncle Wilson explaining as we listened to the radio, ‘Boy, that’s gen-u-wine politics. You know? Poly means many, and Tics are those bugs that bite ya.’”
“And now, here’s Calvin to lead our little Bible study. You do remember Calvin? He was a great Christian guy, born 1509, died 1564, The name Calvin means ‘little bald one.’ I found 34 men with that first name on the Internet.”
Coming to the front, Calvin began, “In the Bible John’s name appears 110 times in the four Gospels, and 34 times after that. And in church history I can remember three famous guys named John: John Huss, John Wesley, John Wycliffe.
Any of you named after somebody famous? Any of you plan to become famous and you’ll have some grandson named after YOU?
Any of you named after somebody famous? Any of you plan to become famous and you’ll have some grandson named after YOU?
“What does it take to become famous? What do we find about the disciple John that showed how he loved the LORD and faithfully shared the Gospel?”
And it turned out to be a good topic for study. If you had been there what would you have shared with the group? + + +
by Elaine Hardt ©2016
