8-11-02 Sunday Journal
Watermelon Communion
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
When
Dave James was seven he stole a watermelon from a neighbor's garden. His mother
caught him and made him go to the neighbor and confess and offer to pay for it
out of his allowance.
As soon as his neighbor opened the door he blurted out, "I stole one of
your watermelons and I'll pay for it." The sweet lady told him to come on
in and asked if he wanted a piece of pecan pie. He was ashamed to eat and said
no but she just went on fixing him a piece and loading it down with whipped
green.
She said, "The watermelons are not ripe yet, Son, but when one does get
ripe, you and I will have a big piece."
As he left she said, "You don't have to pay me back but will you promise to
visit me from time to time?"
So many times when we do wrong, it doesn't amount to much but it can make us
feel terribly bad. Our guilt and shame separate us from each other and make us
feel God is down on us.
Dave said, "Some may think my first communion was at church but it was
really in that widow's kitchen when I confessed, was forgiven, and was asked to
come back from time to time."
CAN'T HEAR AND GLAD
On this date in 1995 "Papa John" Popham sat next to me at a luncheon.
Everyone was talking at once and he turned up both of his hearing aids. Still he
couldn't hear because so many people were talking at once.
He saw me watching him as he turned down his hearing aids and said, "I
can't hear a %&*!# word....and it's wonderful!"
Silence is wonderful. We are bombarded with so many sounds most days of our life
that our neurological system takes a horrendous beating.
The only way to know God is silence, if I understand this verse right: "Be
still and know I am God."
During my years in politics, my least favorite activity was going to political
things where the bar was open and everyone was walking around with a glass of
wine or a drink and their pinky sticking out and all of them talking at once.
Babbling would be closer to it. No one was paying any attention at all to
anything anyone else was saying.
If Papa John had been there, I'll guarantee you he would have turned off both of
his hearing aids.
If you have no hearing aids, I have good news. From long experience I can tell
you it is possible to totally turn off your brain. Think of things like when you
were a boy sitting on a creek bank with a cane pole in your hand.
You just need to remember three words. Just walk around grinning and saying
"How about that," and you will get through it with flying colors.
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