Thursday, January 31, 2013

Undertakers, Judges, and Defense Attorneys, Part One. Also, what not to take into a courthouse.

The undertaker and the county judge. Two respected men. Two men you hope are coming for someone else. I saw them both today, Mr. Thompson with his metal gurney and maroon body bag, and Judge Shoemaker looking down at us from behind his massive wooden desk. 

As I listen to my favorite little lady's heart last night, I wondered how many times it had beat total.  If her heart has been beating 54 times a minute for a century that's 2,838,240,000 times.

As I turn her over to look at her skin, she grumbles, "Are you trying to kill me?" 

"No," I say.  "I wouldn't try to kill anyone, but certainly not you."  She thinks I'm trying to kill her. She doesn't know I'm her defense attorney, arguing with time, for my favorite clients, making sure that her skin--her best defense  against the prison of infection--is intact. 

Across the hall, time is running out for someone else, and Mr. Thompson will be coming in the morning. But tonight for this little lady, her heart keeps beating. 2,838,240,101....2,838,240,102.... 2,838,240,103....

In the morning, Mr. Thompson rattles in with his metal and maroon, wearing his suit and his smile and his cologne. I like him. He's nice. But I'd rather his role stay in the lives of other people.

I'm arguing with time again this morning as Mr. Thompson signs paperwork, because I have to make it to the courthouse to watch a defense attorney argue in front of Judge Shoemaker for my friend who might get sent to prison. 

I jog down the cement sidewalk in the biting wind, under the courthouse trees, and up the dozen cement steps that always leave me winded.  I burst through the doors, afraid her case has already been heard, throw my keys in the plastic gray bin and step under the metal detector.

It beeps.

Oh, I forgot to take off my nametag and watch. I hurl them into the bin after my keys. I'm still catching my breath from dashing in through the cold and up the dozen steps.

It still beeps.

I pat my pockets and realize I forgot to empty them. I dump a fistful of scrub pocket contents into the gray bin--Let's get on with this--And then I see that I just threw a bandage scissors up on the courthouse counter under the deputy's eye. 

To Be Continued....

Friday, January 4, 2013

The God Who Is Not Who We Expect

Is anyone else reading the first chapters of Genesis right now? Or Matthew?  (This must be the time of year when the most Christians are reading from the same books of the Bible.)

Fresh from the beginnings of Genesis and Matthew, I find myself once again surprised by God.

Of all things....Adam and Eve had expressly disobeyed God and ruined the beautiful world. Now, is there any reason why God should work with them in their disobedience by making them clothes?  It's not like they didn't have the fig leaves.  But for some unknown reason, God goes out of his way to help fix a problem caused by something he had expressly forbidden them to do.  He comes up with a better solution than theirs to a problem they would have never had if they had listened to him. He walks with them through a darkness of their own making that he had specifically asked them to avoid. 

I find this steadfast love shocking, something I would have never expected on my own, or written into the world's plot as feasible.

Over in Matthew 2, there's a story more horrifying. One of the world's most powerful leaders kills all the babies in his country but the one he wanted.  Now think for a minute, about this powerful and ruthless state ruler, this Hitler.  Who has ever heard of a leader killing only babies?  It's the most bizarre story.  Yes, children are sometimes victims of atrocities and war, but always along with adults...by-standers that everyone agrees are innocent. Not here. 

I have no idea why God set the birth of his son on such a bloody and gruesome stage.  I know it shows God's power, to have his Son delivered "from the dead" so to speak, since such a full-scale killing could not have been escaped by human strength.  I guess too, it shows the world's great need for a Prince of Peace.

But it is still something I would not have expected. 

This astonishing creativity is one of my favorite things about God!

Ever just the same, ever a surprise! 
Ever as before, ever just as sure, as the sun will rise!