CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter
EATING SNAKES
I think I forgot to relay this story when Katie Matson first told us. She is a nutritionist, and before retirement worked in the health service at Indiana University. It’s a neat program. Any student can have a free consultation with a professional nutritionist to get help with eating problems. A grad student from a Middle East country came to see her.
“My problem is snakes,” he told her. “I love to eat snakes.”
Katie was non-plussed. She has a Master’s degree and years of experience, but had no idea about the nutritional value of snakes.
“I know I should not eat snakes,” he went on, “but I love them so. I eat them all day long.”
Katie began to wonder where he got all those snakes. Bloomington has a lot of ethnic groceries and restaurants, since we have IU students and permanent residents from all over the world, but…
“The worst is, eating snakes at bed time. I know that’s the worst…”
Then poor Katie breathed a
sigh of relief. His English was very good, but he did have a bit of accent.
What she had been hearing as “snakes,” he was saying as “snacks!”
LOOKING WITH DOLLY
I saw an interview with country singer Marty Stuart about Dolly Parton, the voluptuous philanthropist. [When was the last time you saw those two words together?]
He said, “Dolly isn’t a dumb blonde. As she herself has said, ‘I know I’m not dumb, and I know I’m not blonde.’ She looks like that to get you to look at her. She knows what you’re thinking when you’re looking, so she’s able to pull you over to her side, so that you’re no longer looking at her, you’re looking with her.”
I think that’s what Jesus
does. Jesus knows what we’re thinking, and he uses that knowledge to pull us
over to his side, to see with him, to see the world as he sees it. We call that
salvation.
LOVING KINDNESS
I usually have half a slice of homemade bread with peanut butter for breakfast. This morning I decided that I am old enough to have jelly, too.
I have avoided jelly heretofore because I have diabetes. My doctor says that my diabetes is “well controlled through medication,” which irritates me, since I think it is controlled because I walk so far every day, and also do not eat jelly on my toast.
But, I just had a birthday, and when you’re this old, how many years am I cutting off my life by having a little jelly? Anyway, it reminded me of one of my favorite sermon illustrations…
A Sunday School boy was asked to define loving kindness. He said, “If you ask someone for a piece of bread, and they give it to you, that’s kindness. If they put jelly on it, that’s loving kindness.”
John Robert McFarland
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