The Bare Witness (click to comment)

It was bath night. A four-year-old and his younger brother were all wet. The older was constructing a bubble beard on the younger. I couldn’t help over-hearing their conversation: “Did you know that you have done sins?” “Ya.” It is one of three words one-year-old Jeffrey knew. “And you shall go to hell.” “Yep.” The one-year-old was making a hole in the soap bar. “But you can go to heaven. Do you want to go to heaven?”Jeffrey sipped some bath water before responding: “Uh huh.”“Then ask Jesus into your heart.”“I’ll pray for you, okay?” “Yep…” Moments later an excited dripping four-year-old stood before his parents, wearing…a smile. “Guess what?” “What Stephen?” “Jeffrey asked Jesus into his heart.”

“Rachael!”  Stephen was on a roll and he wasn’t about to stop at mealtime. “Did you know that you’ve done sins?” “Haven’t.” Rachael knew a few more words than Jeffrey. “Yes, you have.” “No. Haven’t…” “YES!” “NO!”  “YEEEEEESSS YOU HAVE!” The witnesser threw a sesame seed bun at the witnessee. The bun missed. There were sesame seeds everywhere.

I was stunned. “Stephen. Come with me,” I mumbled. Down the hall we went, hand in hand. I couldn’t think of a thing to say. Kneeling down, I held him tight. “Uh, don’t throw things at your sister.”  “Okay,” he said, and wiggled free. “And Stephen, you will sweep up those sesame seeds.” Evening came. I was in bed reading , when a pajama-clad figure poked his head around the corner. “Hi,” he said. “Whatcha readin?” “Come here and see.” I pulled down the covers and he crawled in.  “I was reading from a book called Matthew. Remember the song you like, ‘I don’t wanna be a Pharisee, ‘cause they’re not fair you see…?’ Well, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus what the most important thing was. Do you know what Jesus said?” “What?” “He told him to love God with everything he had, and to love others like he loved himself. Don’t you think it’s more important to love others than to just tell them about Jesus? You’ve been telling Rachael and Jeffrey about Jesus and that makes me glad. But they need to see how kind you are to them before they’ll believe what you say.”

If you’re reading this today, don’t hear me saying that we should stop telling people about Jesus. Please, keep talking about him. But remember the apostle John’s words, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” How are doing with this? Do you just flap your lips? Are you a bun slinger? or is it evident that Jesus lives in you because of your love?