THROUGH THE CRACK
Some people slip through the crack.
I don’t know how this is possible - but some people slip
through the crack and end up with amazing powers and knowledge - that nobody
else has - and we have no idea how many people down through the centuries have
these unique powers.
I would think it’s very rare.
I’m sure God wouldn’t want - anyone to know - what these
few people on our planet - who slip through the crack - know.
Actually, it would
be unfair to them. It would be too much
to know what they know.
It might bring joy - but then again - it would also bring
sorrow.
Tears sometimes; smiles at other times.
What am I talking about?
Well, right now, there are right now some 7.7 billion
people on the planet.
It’s estimated by skilled researchers that there have
been some 108 billion people who have lived on planet earth so far.
It’s estimated - numbers wise - that there have been 15
dead people - who have gone before us - for ever living person on the planet right
now.
Now that’s a lot of people - but that’s not what I’m
about to get at today. But I’ll be sliding into that in a moment or two.
In these 7.7 billion people on the planet right now -
today - and in these 108 billion people who have lived on this planet so far,
every once and a while there is a special person who slipped through the cracks and they have
powers and knowledge that very few other people have.
There might be one exception: babies. What do babies
know? We don’t know what they know, but
sometimes we wonder.
Some think all babies have what these few people have -
and then as they age - week and after week - month after month - babies lose this gift. It simply disappears
- but not for these other people.
What gift? What are you talking about?
What do you think babies are looking at - and
thinking about as they look around - all the time - and sometimes they cry and
scream?
I don’t know about this - but it’s possible - but I sort
of doubt this.
What are all those little babies we see in supermarkets
and in church looking at and wondering about? They are staring at something -
to their right, to their left, to their up and to their down. What are these
babies smiling at - sometimes - and we didn’t do anything to cause that
smile - or that scream?
Okay it’s time to fess up and tell you just what these few people on the planet
know - these folks who have slipped
through the crack and know what they know and see what they see and wonder
about what they wonder about.
They see futures.
They hear all the trees on the planet asking the age old
question everyone asks every little kid when they are little kids: “What are
you going to be when you grow up?”
They hear every tree give their hope. For example, “I
want to be a dining room table - so I can be in on everything: meals, card
games, homework, people doing their taxes. I want to be a great table that
every family member wants when their mom and dad pass away.”
They hear another tree say: “I want to be a baseball bat.
I want to get into every game free - and hit lots of home runs. The Orioles
could use me big time.”
“But,” some other tree says, “Baseball bats break and are
tossed.”
“Not me,” that future hall of fame bat from that tree said, “I’m thinking
positive. I’m going to last. I’m not going to break.”
So for starters, this person can not only hear every tree, but they can hear every rock,
every watermellon, every grain of salt, talk about their future.
Think about it. This could be very stressful. This person
with all these voices coming at him or her, would have trouble hearing their own family members.
They could be constantly overloaded with TMI - too much information.
And these people who slipped through the cracks - whom
God forgot for a moment - felt double whammy pain in their heart and mind -
because this tree here - who wanted to be a Grandfather’s Clock - in a great
mansion hallway - could end up being wood for a fire for a family whose electricity
went off for a week in the middle of winter and they had to cut down this tree
for fire wood - to stay warm.
Then there was that 5000 acres of trees in Arizona -
which had thousands and thousands of stories and dreams on what they were going
to become - all were burnt up in a late autumn forest fire. Dreams of being
pianos, violins, ladders, pencils that were used to write prayers in the back
of churches - they all went up in flames.
They never became their dreams.
Then there were those pessimist trees who felt they would
never amount to anything. This person
who feel through the cracks - this person whom God didn’t notice - knew that
this pessimist tree would end up being a frame for a 2 million, 3 hundred and
50 thousand painting by Renoir - in a big Paris art museum - hanging there for
a couple of hundred years.
And this was just trees and wood.
This person who slipped through the cracks could hear
cats and dogs, birds and bees, gold fish and salamanders, talk to themselves
about their future - their hopes to be in mansions or be the poodle of an old
lonely lady or the gold fish or guppy of and only child in Bejing or Boston.
And this person who fell through the cracks - in time - discovered
that trees and apples, all got calls
from God - sometimes tree whispers or
wind sounds - that life is all about
giving one’s life for others - to
be canes and crutches - banisters and benches - for others - or to be firewood
and matches - or newspapers - all for others.
And this person who fell through the cracks - knew - and
this was the most beautiful knowing and the most painful knowing - they knew -
that the God - who fell through the cracks and appeared in Mary in Bethlehem
and Nazareth, this Jesus told us what it’s all about.
Each of us is not called to be a selfie - but
to be an otherly - and the greatest love
in life is to know this and do this - to lay down our lives for others - to die
to self - so others can rise.
That’s what we’re growing up to be and to do. And those
who didn’t like this, hung him on a tree
and no tree wanted to be that tree of the cross.
