Okay, let's use our imagination. I'm going to buy a new car, and I'm going to pay for it with cash in full. That's lots of imagination we're talking here. I pay Mr. Dealer $20,000 for the new car, and he tells me it will be there in two weeks. Those two weeks crawl by like a turtle, but finally the day comes when I can show up for my hot new wheels. I shake hands with the dealer, and he says, "Hey, I'll be right back!" A few minutes later he comes out, carrying a big box. He sees my bewildered expression. He says, "Here it is. Go ahead. Open the box." I do, and inside I find inside two new hubcaps, a new carburetor, and a new steering wheel. This dealer and I have a problem!
During our college years, my wife spent part of a summer as a counselor at a Bible camp that was buried deep in the mountains. I mean like deep in the mountains - deep enough in the mountains that the rattlesnakes are plentiful. One day as she was hiking with her girls through the woods, they all heard what they thought was just a branch or a stick breaking. Until they realized that one of the girls had been struck in the leg by a rattlesnake. Now my wife is someone you want to have around when there's a crisis; she's got a very cool head. She ran to the nearby camp and immediately went for the box in the infirmary that said Snake Bite Kit on it. But her heart sank when she opened it; the life-saving kit was empty. Thankfully, they were able to get that girl to a hospital in time to save her life, no thanks to that empty snake bite kit!
It seems as if every summer there are raging fires in the American West that destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of timberland, and sometimes homes, businesses, and sadly, even lives. When a major fire broke out near an Indian reservation that our Native team had ministered on only a few months ago, I paid pretty special attention. Sadly, that fire spread to parts of the reservation, consuming the timber that is a major part of their already impoverished economy; along with homes and property outside the reservation. It is going to take a long time to recover. The cause of that very costly fire made the whole thing even sadder. It was started by a government firefighter who was hoping there would be a small fire that would give him some work.
My dad was a great man, and I still miss him, even though he's been gone for a lot of years now. I'll often think about his laugh, his favorite sayings, his great personality, his fun sense of humor, his unconditional love and support for me. Because he's buried in a place where I don't often get to go, it's been quite a while since I've been able to visit his grave. But I did not too long ago. And I was impressed with the simplicity of what, besides the dates of his birth and death, is engraved on his gravestone. It just says, "John Hutchcraft, husband and father."
"Good morning, Mr. Phelps." If you were a fan of the classic TV series, "Mission Impossible," you know those words always began a riveting adventure. Jim Phelps, the head of the Mission Impossible Force, would listen to a tape, outlining this assignment that seemed, well, impossible. Key word - seemed. And even in more modern times when it's not a tape anymore, and when it's Tom Cruise who's doing Mission Impossible, it's still the same idea. You begin building a team of specialists, you concoct this elaborate, perfectly-timed plan to do what couldn't be done, and every time they got it done.
One of our staff came back from his vacation and reported on how exciting it had been for him and his family to see the sights of Washington, D.C. I asked him if he had ever been to the nation's Capitol before, and he said, "No. None of them had ever seen it." He went on to explain, "You know I'm sort of a hometown kind of guy." And that's true. He actually has lived most of his life within a relatively short distance of home base. My friend said, "I sort of had to stretch to do this, but I'm really glad we did."
Our friends bought a new horse lately. Her name is Peanut. Now, what kind of horse does that suggest to your imagination? Maybe a cute little Shetland Pony? Nope. Try again. Peanut is the biggest horse in their pasture. If you've ever seen those big Clydesdale horses in commercials, you'll have some idea of the size of this big mama. She's part Belgian, part Morgan, which means she is so big my body's probably not big enough to ride her. And she's named Peanut. Something is wrong in this picture.
OK, I'll confess. I can drive by the candy store. I can drive by the ice cream shop. I can pass up the pizza place, but it's very hard for me to not stop at the bakery. Yes, bakeries are my weakness, and it's a good thing I don't work in one - I'd weigh 500 pounds. Now most bakeries have this discount stuff in a corner; it's the day old baked goods. Oh it's cheaper, but there's a reason. There's a big difference between day-old and fresh baked. That line at the bakery early in the morning; that's not for yesterday's goodies, let me tell you. Those folks are there to get the doughnuts or the bread that just came out of the oven. And I might be right at the head of the line.
It's a special thrill for a follower of Jesus Christ to be able to walk where Jesus walked. That's why, for many of us, a visit to the Holy Land is a special memory or a special dream. Years ago, one of America's premier preachers - his name was Dr. Robert G. Lee - paid his first visit to Israel. Every place was special, but when his tour group went to Golgotha, the place where many believe Jesus was crucified, he couldn't contain himself. He suddenly started running ahead of the group to get there. The guide had to run to catch up with him, and he asked him breathlessly, "Sir, have you been here before?" Dr. Lee paused and then he answered, "Yes, I have been here before. Almost 2,000 years ago."
A friend of mine and his son love to take off backpacking along the beautiful river near their house. And they've learned some interesting "tricks of the trade" to make sure they have clean water to drink without the weight of having to carry water with them all the time. They take iodine pills with them on their hikes. Apparently, they can collect some water from the river, dissolve iodine in it, and the water comes out clean. But then who would want to drink it? Iodine-flavored water I don't think is exactly the taste sensation that's sweeping the nation, right? But that's where the Kool-Aid comes in! They mix in some Kool-Aid. It actually makes that bitter water sweet, they tell me!
Our friend - we'll call her Diane - shocked her family years ago when she announced at the age of 17 that she was pregnant. Even with some folks urging her to have an abortion, she made the choice to have that child - a son. When her son was seven, Diane met a guy we'll call Gary, and she knew they were falling in love. With some fear and trembling, she told him about her son. Gary said, "Let's go meet him." And Diane's boy took to Gary immediately. Diane and Gary got married, and the boy grew up with a wonderful relationship with Gary. But something happened when he turned 17; this unexplainable rebellion that ultimately made him decide to go live with his biological father. A few months later, he returned to the home that he'd grown up in. He had made a powerful discovery in those intervening months. He said to Gary, "You're the one I walk like, you're the one I talk like, and I do things the way you taught me. You are my father!"
