Shell Talk

Bible Reading: John 8:31-32

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32).

Herman the crab stormed across the sea floor and under the family rock.

“I want to be free!” he screamed at his father. “I don’t see how you can expect me to wear this stupid shell twenty-four hours a day! It’s confining! It cramps my style!”

His father, Fred, inhaled deeply and draped a heavy claw on Herman’s shoulder.

“Son,” he said, “let me tell you a story.”

Herman rolled his eyes. “Dad, not another…”

“It’s about Humphrey the human, who insisted on going barefoot to school. He complained that his shoes were too confining. They cramped his style, he said. He longed to be free to run barefoot through fields and streams. Finally, his mother gave in to him. He skipped out of the house barefoot. Do you know what happened?”

Herman opened his mouth, but his father continued before he could answer.

“Humphrey the human stepped on pieces of a broken bottle. His foot required twenty stitches, and some other guy took his girl to the prom while Humphrey sat home watching reruns of Flipper.”

“That’s a pretty lame story, Dad,” Herman said.

“Maybe, Son, but the point is this: Every crab has felt this way at one time or another, thinking life would be better if he could be completely shell-free. But that’s like a sailor getting tired of the confinement of a ship and jumping to freedom in the sea. He may think that’s freedom, but if he doesn’t get back to ship or shore, he’ll drown and end up as crab food. What kind of freedom is that?”

Herman pondered his father’s words.

“Soon you will shed your shell, Son,” Fred said, thinking how hard it would be to say that five times fast. “It’s called molting, and all crabs do it as they grow up. But,” he said with warning in his eyes, “when that happens, you will be more vulnerable than at any other time in your life. Until your new shell hardens like this one,” he tapped his son’s armored back,”you’ll have to be much more careful and watchful than usual. You’ll be less free without this shell, not more free.”

“That’s weird, Dad,” Herman said. “I never thought of it that way. You mean that some things may seem to limit freedom but really make greater freedom possible?”

Fred smiled broadly and patted his son on the back with a mammoth claw. “How’d you get to be so smart, Son?” he asked.

REFLECT: What, according to John 8:31, must happen before you can know the truth? Think of John 8:31-32 like a math problem: Obeying Jesus’ teachings + knowing the truth = FREEDOM.

PRAY: “Lord, I really do want to be free. Help me to learn all about your teachings so that I can obey them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT A WAY TO GO!

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Bible Reading: John 14:1-4

I am going to prepare a place for you . I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. John 14:2-3

WHERE’S YOUR HOME? Finger? Eyebrow? Coldfoot? (Those are real towns in Ten­nessee, Saskatchewan, and Alaska.) But a Christian’s better-than-Worms hometown is only a temporary residence. (Worms is in Nebraska.) It’s not temporary because you can’t wait to get out ofBoring (in Oregon), but because Christ is preparing a per­manent home in heaven. Paul said, “We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior” (Philippians 3:20).

Way back in the dark days, Christian youth groups used to gather around a large, floor-mounted acoustic instrument called a “piano” and sing a peppy little chorus about our other “home”:

This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through;

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me from heaven’s distant shore;

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

Where is “heaven’s distant shore”? And how do you get there?

Once again Jesus Christ steps in to show you the way. Jesus is the way to the Fa­ ther. He’s the way to know what the Father is like. And he’s the way to bring glory to the Father as you pray in his name. But after all this, he won’t leave you stuck in this place where at times you “can’t feel at home.” He won’t abandon you with no hope of finding your way to heaven. When his time is right for you-either when he returns or the moment you die, whichever comes first-Jesus promises to take you to where he is. He’s your way to go home.

Do you realize that Jesus couldn’t show you how to get home if he hadn’t come down to earth? See, you need more than a map to find your way to God. You even need more than somebody to tell you the way. You need somebody to meet you where you are. Jesus finds you and takes you to where you need to be. The Son of God left his home in heaven and came into your world to show you the way home.  And he came looking for you because he loves you.

REFLECT:  Since Jesus came all this way, doesn’t it make sense to follow him to that heavenly home?

PRAY:  Jesus, I want to make your way, my way.  I want to follow you — through life, to heaven.

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