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This is one of my favorite pictures of our daughter with her grandpa. Together, this studious-looking duo was trying hard to figure out technology. Hannah is working on the television remote control and grandpa was perplexed by his flip phone. How quickly technology changes. Remotes were not widely used in homes until the 1980’s which means my dad didn’t have one for much of his adult life and now you can’t buy a TV without one. Same with phones. It wasn’t that long ago that my parents sent me to college with a bag phone. Technology has changed rapidly. That’s kind of the point and it seems to be getting better all of the time. Faster, stronger, smarter.
This picture reminds me of another favorite. A story about a little girl who was sitting next to her grandfather as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She touched her own cheek after she touched his.
After a while, she asked, “Grandpa, did God make you?”
He smiled, “Yes sweetheart, God made me a long time ago.”
She paused for a few seconds and then asked, “Grandpa, did God make me?”
He replied, “Yes, pumpkin, God made you just a little while ago.”
Feeling his face again, and then hers, she whispered, “God’s getting better at it, isn’t he?”
Sometimes we look at the old as a negative and whisper, newer is better. The old isn’t as good. Just look at how far we’ve come. Things are faster, stronger, smarter. Newer must be better. However, when I look at this picture I see two wonderful beings juxtaposed together. The old and the young, needing each other; working together side by side to figure it out.
This is the vision for God’s people as they gather together as the Church. The new ways of church are not always better just as the old ways of being and doing church are not always right. We as the community of faith are called to sit side by side, young and old and in-between, together trying to figure out a way forward to live, love, and lead like Jesus for such a time as this. Could the Church be one of the last places where all of us are together necessary and needed?
Just as God used the youth and vitality of Joshua to lead God’s people into the promised land, Joshua drew from the wisdom and leadership of Moses. Working together, so that the story might continue for the people of God moving from slavery to freedom; from death to new life. Whether God made you a LONG time ago, or you are new to the body of Christ, you play a vital role in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. What could be better!
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