Tin Tin or Bust!

 

"I want to read Tin Tin!  I want to read Tin Tin!"  The voice of my youngest daughter was insistent in her demands for fairness.

Surprising as it might seem, her issue had nothing to do with banned books in Florida or even with her parent's restrictions on reading material.

The issue as it appeared had everything to do with the fact that her four older siblings were looking at Tin Tin "books" while she had none at hand.  I had gotten a used set of these comics by Herge for our children to look at.  I thought they seemed a little advanced for a three-year-old young lady who, at this moment, prefers Richard Scarry to nearly any other author.

"Here you go," I told Elise, handing her a copy of Tin Tin and the Cigar of the Pharaohs.  

She took it and looked curiously at the cover, then opened the book and flipped idly through it.  I could tell that she was anything but excited by the book, despite her apparent excitement a few seconds earlier to gain a copy.  

Maybe it was the wrong one.  "Do you want to look at this one?"  I asked her, offering a copy of The Secret of the Unicorn.

"OK," she said and exchanged the books.  Quite quickly she put down the book to engage in other more interesting activities, like poking her sister.

I wasn't surprised.  Tin Tin is a bit advanced for a three year old -- even one as precocious as Elise is.  Of course, what had triggered her interest was not a New York Times book review or even word of mouth from other three-year-olds she hangs out with.  No, the only thing that made her want to read one was the fact that all of her siblings were reading these books

Proverbs 13:20 says, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed."

Over and over again in the book of Proverbs, Solomon lets the reader know that they will be influenced by the people they spend time with.  If those people are wise and good, then they will tend to follow that path, while if they are prone to foolish and impulsive acts, then that is the direction they will tend towards.

So it is that we must choose our companions wisely, for they will impact the course our lives will take.  They might even encourage us to read the comics of a Belgian author from the 1930s.

Judging the Cymbals

 

"I want to play the cymbals!"  My three-year-old daughter said, in a very upset voice.  Her older brother had just confiscated the play instruments.

Elise likes to sit on the floor and crash them together at regular intervals while she sings snippets of songs that she knows.  Some of her favorite songs are Happy Birthday and There is a Balm in Gilead.  

"But you're making too much noise with them," Elliot said.  "If I give them back, will you stop banging them/"

"Just give them back, Elliot," I said.  "She'll make noise with them, but so did you at that age."

"I did not," Elliot said in an aggrieved tone of voice.  "You never gave me cymbals when I was three.  I still don't have cymbals today!"

"And for good reason," I said.  "Mom and I probably wouldn't have chosen that musical instrument as a toy of choice to give to Elise either, but someone else was kind of to give them to her for her last birthday.  I'm sure if you had had some at that age, you would have used every opportunity to make noise with them."

Elliot still wasn't convinced.  Childhood behavior is a little like snoring -- since you don't remember doing it, it's questionable if it really happened or if other people are just giving you a hard time for no reason.

I often think about Jesus' command in Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that you be not judged."  I think this passage is commonly misinterpreted.  Jesus wasn't telling us not to be discerning or wise in our relationships.  

We need to make decisions about other people and whether we should have a close relationship with them.  Some are acting in ways that won't help or actually deter us from achieving our goals.  Even as we judge other people, we need to make certain that we judge ourselves just as hard or harder than we do others in our lives.

If I don't like a behavior in someone else, am I willing to eliminate it from my own life?  Am I good at excusing my own dysfunction and even sin, while coming down hard on other people?

Often, when we begin to judge ourselves first, it will give us grace when dealing with others with similar issues.  It might even give a twelve-year-old boy patience when dealing with his three-year-old sister who wants to play toy cymbals in an annoying fashion.

The Empty Tomb

 

“Would it be OK if I pray with you both?”  I asked my older patient and his wife.  Calvin had recently been enrolled in a hospice program and I could tell that both he and his wife were uncertain as to what that meant – other than that he didn’t have long to live.

“Of course,” Calvin said.  There in the exam room, I prayed for them both – asking for peace and courage, asking most of all for Jesus’ nearness in these last few months of Calvin’s life.

I finished and there was silence in the room.  Then, Calvin began to share a little with me.  “Dr. Waldron,” he said.  “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.  I’ve had a good life and I still feel pretty good.  Most of all, I know where I’m going when I die, and I know who is waiting for me there.  The only thing that makes me sad is saying good bye to my wife, but I know that I will see her again.”

I smiled.  It was encouraging to hear the faith of someone who had served God for his whole love and continued to live in that faith, even as he faced death.

This little story came to mind as I thought of Easter and its meaning.  Something that happened a couple of millenia ago still is fresh and impactful today.

About two thousand years ago, a group of women woke up early one Sunday morning to take care of some post funeral preparations that they hadn't finished due to the Sabbath day.

As they made the short journey to the garden tomb, they conversed among each other about the horrors of the last week.  Then, one of them asked a question that almost stopped them in their tracks.  “How are we going to roll the stone away?”

They remembered the large stone that had been rolled in front of the cave that served as a tomb.  None of them were strong enough to move the stone away from the mouth of the tomb.

This slowed them, but still they continued.  Maybe there would be a gardener or someone else who would be able to help them.

At last, they came to the tomb, but to their surprise, they found the stone pushed aside and they were able to peer in to see the startling reality.  The tomb was empty!

In the thousands of years since this time, many have looked into that empty tomb.  Some see only emptiness.  Some see some sort of deception.  Those who truly know Jesus look into that space and see victory.

The tomb is empty and because of that, those who follow Jesus need have no more fear of death, because they are following the one who conquered death.

Calvin knew that he was dying and he was unafraid.  He had looked into the tomb and read its lack of an occupant as a message for him. The tomb is empty, Jesus is risen, and death is vanquished!