Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Love (04/27/06)
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TITLE: Being Loved Ain't Such A Stretch | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynda Schultz
04/29/06 -
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“Sock stretchers—”
“Why would anyone wanna stretch their socks?”
“When I was a boy, socks were made out of wool. If my mother washed them and didn’t put them on sock stretchers to dry, they would shrink. Shrunk, they’d only be good for hand-me-downs. Good news for my little brother but during a cold winter not so good for me.”
“So man, how come ya still got them sock stretchers? Gonna wash your old woolies?”
“It’s redemptive.”
“Re-what?”
“Sorry. I’m saying that since woolen socks are preshrunk today, no one needs sock stretchers. Most people would throw them away. In fact, I bought these in a junk shop for a couple of dollars. Paid for them and rescued them from somebody’s garbage heap so that I could restore them.”
“Sorta like me, eh? What’d it cost ya to bail me out of jail? Whatever it was, they took ya to the cleaners. Who’d have figured I’d git to work off my time in the basement of a church with some old … umm. Okay, so what good are they? Even a guy with yur connections to the Man upstairs can’t make them sock things into nothin’ else.”
“No matter what I do with them, they’ll always be sock stretchers — but different. But you’re right about “the Man upstairs”. A man, is a man, is a man, but he will be a different man when God goes to work on him. It’s a question of conversion.”
“There ya go again with them big words.”
“Sorry, it’s what I do. Here, I’ll show you what I mean with the sock stretchers. Take this brush and paint both sides of the wood with the stain.”
“I gotcha there, preacher. Shouldn’t be messin’ around with stain. Should be somethin’ clean, white. Ain’t you guys supposed ta be cleanin’ things up, not stainin’ them? Somebody’s goin’ be callin’ in yur license to practice preachin’.”
“Patience, my friend. The sock stretchers get rescued — that’s redemption. They get changed — that’s conversion. Then it’s time to work away at making that conversion something beautiful that people can see — that’s sanctification, and it’s a long process. You’ll see.”
“Don’t count on it! What’s next?”
“Three coats of varnish to make them bright and shiny.”
“Gettin’ seriously sanctified, right?”
“You got it. Better all the time. Once the varnish dries, we’ll send them off to a higher authority to sanctify them a little more.”
“Higher authority? Birthday present for the warden?”
“No, my wife. She’ll make them even more beautiful with ribbon, dried flowers and such.”
“Then what?”
“Then she’ll display them alongside all the other things we’ve rescued; the washboard, the scythe and the axe. Instead of being ignored and discarded, they’ll be things of beauty for all to see.
“Just be beautiful? They don’t have ta be good for somethin’?”
“Not being good for something doesn’t mean being good for nothing.”
“Lots of people call me good for nothin’. I don’t get it.”
“You will. It’s all part of …”
“… being the same, but different — convicted!”
“Almost. Not convicted, but converted. The same, but changed.”
“Awful lot of trouble to go ta for some old chunks of wood nobody needs or wants.”
“Even an old chunk of wood has value, just like you and I are valuable to God. His Son paid with His own life to save ours.”
“That’s the redemption stuff?”
“That’s right.”
“So why’d he wanna do that? Most people think I’m just another scum bag, not worth payin’ one plug nickel for.”
“God looks at you like I look at those pieces of wood thrown in the garbage. I care about restoring them so that they can be something of beauty. He cares about making you what He meant you to be — rescued, changed, beautiful. ”
“Me? Why’d he wanna make me beautiful?”
“It’s as simple as this — God loves you.”
“Love? Ain’t ya heard that love’s blind, too stupid to see what’s really goin’ down. Ain’t sayin’ he’s stupid, but for sure he don’t see too well if he loves me!”
“That’s the difference between man’s love, and God’s. He sees you perfectly well covered in all that ‘scum’ as you call it, but He loves you anyway.”
“Just like I am?”
“Just like you are.”
“Know somethin’, preacher?”
“What’s that?”
“Ya finally used a word that even a guy like me can git a hold of. Let’s go to it.”
“To what?”
“Showin’ some love to a sock stretcher.”
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Lynda, I love this! Everything explained in a nutshell. This goes in my "favorites!"