Friday, February 24, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures) (these are yesterday’s scriptures – I got the days mixed up)
Jack is 14
And what, exactly, does that mean? Well, after graduating from Springfield Christian School on May 25, Jack will be in high school come August 2023. His years-old mowing business will continue this summer, and he will (I’ve been told) put most of his profits away for the future. He continues to spark his Scholastic Bowl team and has not-so-secret aspirations to make it to the national tournament this year.
Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law, day and night.
I like that word … MAN. Jack sometimes drives my car in the country while I sit beside him pretending to be nonchalant. Since he was four he could name all the state capitals, and then he moved on to the rest of the world. By now he and his family have actually set their feet upon 47 out of the 50 states.
Jack knows more about college and professional sports than anyone I know. He plays basketball. He loves his family and spends lots of time with his friends. He wonders where he will go to college, and what he’ll choose as his career. He has secrets, but not too many. His smile becomes a little wider every year.
It’s easy to find things to like about this guy, who is quickly becoming a MAN.
He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers.
Sometimes on his birthday morning, Chris or Melissa head out the door to procure a doughnut tower. He gets to pick their dinner destination that night. Food is fun. Food nourishes not just our bodies but our souls. Jack’s soul gets fed, as he becomes a man.
Henri Nouwen had 66 birthdays. Gradually he came to understand personally why and how to celebrate them:
Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: “Thank you for being you.” Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: “Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.” No, we say: “Thank you for being born and being among us.”
On birthdays we celebrate the present. We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen, but we lift someone up and let everyone say: “We love you.”
Perfect.
We love you, Jack. You’re too big for us to lift up, I guess. Or are you? We can all lift you up together.
Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you.
God has loved you every second of every day since before you were born, Jack Sandel. And God will never stop.
(Deuteronomy 30, Psalm 1, Matthew 4, Luke 9)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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