Crydrops
I woke this morning to the pitter-patter of raindrops on the walkway outside my house. I could hear them as I lay in my bed. It was tempting to just close my eyes and listen to that soothing sound, but I pushed the duvet off my body and rose to my feet and wobbled out through the bedroom door in the dim, gray light seeping through the blinds and found my way to the kitchen. As I sipped my orange juice, I looked out the kitchen window and watched the rain splatter on the panes and drizzle down. When he was a little guy, my nephew Austin pointed out the "crydrops" running down the kitchen window to my Grammy Dunbar. I loved that child-coined word - crydrops - and I still do, because it was so expressive.
I saw teardrops running down the face of man last night in a movie, and I thought to myself about how raindrops, drawn by the force of gravity, trace watery trails down a pane of glass just like teardrops wend their ways down a man's face. The movie was "End of the Spear" and told the story of Nate Saint and the other missionaries who died as martyrs in the Ecuadoran jungle and how the people of the Waodani tribe who killed them came to know Christ.
There was a very powerful scene at the end of the movie where Nate Saint's son, Steve, travels upriver with one the natives to the place where his father had been martyred at the end of a spear. The native told Steve that his father had not defended himself when attacked, had not shot the natives when his life was taken from him, and then the native told Steve that he had been the man who killed his father. He put a spear in Steve's hands and pressed the spearhead against his chest and told Steve to take his revenge and kill him.
In momentary rage, Steve considers piercing this man's chest, but then begins to weep as he sees the genuine remorse this man feels at taking Nate Saint's life. He tells the man that nobody took his father's life - that his father gave his life, and both men weep for the sacrifice that was made, not only by the missionaries, but our Savior, Jesus Christ. I wept too - crydrops like the rain running in silvery rivulets down my kitchen window.
This week in elementary chapel we are going to be talking about "esteeming others better than ourselves." I am thinking of putting on a brief skit entitled, "The Estimator and the Esteemer" to contrast the choice we have to see others as having limited value or seeing others as having inestimable value. The Estimator calculates in relationship to self benefit while the Esteemer ascribes priceless value and seeks to benefit others without counting the cost. The Esteemer is generous with his love, his forgiveness, his kindness, his mercy while the Estimator only gives what he thinks he can get back and withholds from those who cannot repay in kind. At GGCA, we want our children to learn to see others as Christ sees us - as treasures of inestimable value, as ones worth paying the price for. We want our children to be kind and forgiving and generous of spirit. Who knows? Perhaps we have a Nate or Marjorie Saint in our midst...
I saw teardrops running down the face of man last night in a movie, and I thought to myself about how raindrops, drawn by the force of gravity, trace watery trails down a pane of glass just like teardrops wend their ways down a man's face. The movie was "End of the Spear" and told the story of Nate Saint and the other missionaries who died as martyrs in the Ecuadoran jungle and how the people of the Waodani tribe who killed them came to know Christ.
There was a very powerful scene at the end of the movie where Nate Saint's son, Steve, travels upriver with one the natives to the place where his father had been martyred at the end of a spear. The native told Steve that his father had not defended himself when attacked, had not shot the natives when his life was taken from him, and then the native told Steve that he had been the man who killed his father. He put a spear in Steve's hands and pressed the spearhead against his chest and told Steve to take his revenge and kill him.
In momentary rage, Steve considers piercing this man's chest, but then begins to weep as he sees the genuine remorse this man feels at taking Nate Saint's life. He tells the man that nobody took his father's life - that his father gave his life, and both men weep for the sacrifice that was made, not only by the missionaries, but our Savior, Jesus Christ. I wept too - crydrops like the rain running in silvery rivulets down my kitchen window.
This week in elementary chapel we are going to be talking about "esteeming others better than ourselves." I am thinking of putting on a brief skit entitled, "The Estimator and the Esteemer" to contrast the choice we have to see others as having limited value or seeing others as having inestimable value. The Estimator calculates in relationship to self benefit while the Esteemer ascribes priceless value and seeks to benefit others without counting the cost. The Esteemer is generous with his love, his forgiveness, his kindness, his mercy while the Estimator only gives what he thinks he can get back and withholds from those who cannot repay in kind. At GGCA, we want our children to learn to see others as Christ sees us - as treasures of inestimable value, as ones worth paying the price for. We want our children to be kind and forgiving and generous of spirit. Who knows? Perhaps we have a Nate or Marjorie Saint in our midst...
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