October 15 – “The performance”

I have to add one more story about our first day here in Waco.  At bed time we all gathered in the living room of the new house for family worship time.  I was elected for the honor of reading the story this time, and it was about those friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha.  You know, the sisters who were so different.  Martha always spent her time in the kitchen and being the perfect hostess.  Mary, though spent her time sitting right next to Jesus so she could listen to him.  Martha didn’t like that, and complained to Jesus about it.  But he stood up for Mary and said she was doing a good thing by listening to him. 

Now it just so happened that the story was the very one the kids had had that morning in Sunday School.  Caleb, in particular, was quite excited about it.  Seems his two teachers had really gone all out in their presentation of the lesson.  They were both dressed in period costumes, one playing Martha and the other Mary.  “Mary” talked to the kids and told them the story, while all the while “Martha” stood off to the side and made everybody pancakes.  Now that’s my kind of Sunday School lesson.  I’m not sure if Martha whined about it or not, but it sounded like a great object lesson.  Anyway, since I had to follow something that incredible, I did my best to turn it up a notch, and really get into the roles.  The challenge was on.  Can DadDad can compete with not one, but two creative teachers?  I pulled out all the stops.  I held every dramatic pause for an extra second.  I added appropriate inflections and furrowing of the brow.  I even used my best whining voice for Martha approaching Jesus to complain.  All in all it was a masterful performance, if I do say so myself.  When I finished there was a long pause of about two seconds, a time when I was certain that my audience was basking in the overflow of my masterful performance.  Finally it was young Caleb who broke the silence with his esteemed estimate of the re-enactment.  Rolling his eyes, shaking his head side to side, and falling to floor in true 4-year-old form, he made his official declaration:  “Dramatic, dramatic, dramatic.”  Ouch.

Psalms 116:12-14 says, “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?  I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.   I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”

Father, thank you for blessing those teachers with the gift of creativity that reflects your own.  Amen.