OUR MONTANA BETH

“Middle age is when you’ve met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else.” --Ogden Nash

Old Ogden may be right, but this has been happening to me for years, long before I reached mid-life (just a few!!) years ago. Because I mention so often that this person or that person looks or acts or talks like another, it’s pretty much considered just another “mom-thing” in our family.

However, when both my husband and I recently encountered our good    Florida friend, Beth, working as a guide at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch in Deer Lodge, Montana—now that was more than just a “mom-thing” - that was a “something!”

No, Beth was not really in Montana. But her doppelganger was. (In German, the word “doppelganger” literally means “double-goer.”  In some traditions it’s seen as a thing of bad luck or impending doom, but in contemporary use it merely identifies someone who physically or behaviorally resembles someone else.) This Beth Doppelganger served as our docent for the Grant-Kohrs ranch house tour. She smiled and laughed like our Beth, sounded like our Beth, possessed facial expressions like our Beth and had mannerisms like our Beth. In fact, I think I will have to ask our Beth if she has any cousins working for the    National Park Service in Montana! As we were leaving, I turned to my husband and said, “Who did she remind…” Before I could finish he smiled and replied, “Beth!”

She wasn’t Beth, of course. But because this guide was manifesting some of the same Beth-like          characteristics (like kindness, humor, joy, as well as some similar physical attributes) - we thought of Beth. We were reminded of Beth.

All of this made me think: do I remind others of anyone, especially of Jesus? Do people think of Him when they talk to me or think of me? When they witness my actions or when they hear of something I’ve done?

The Bible tells believers that they are to walk like Jesus (I John 2:6), love like Jesus (I John 3:16) and live like Jesus (Philippians 1:21). The Apostle Paul urged the Ephesians to “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us…”

A young man named Drew, age 8,  says: "My grandma reminds me of God's love because she always reads the Bible, and she loves us. She is always kind to other people, and always says 'please' and 'thank you.'" Eight year old John’s grandpa takes him fishing. And cooks “awesome eggs.” Patrick’s mom reminds him of God’s love “because she will never stop. Also, because she loved me first like God." Doing what’s right. Honoring God. Being kind and caring. Thinking of  others. Constancy. Faithfulness and fidelity. And love, pure love—in action. If we name the name of Christ, those things are to show, like they do in Him.

I don’t know if my friend, Beth’s, Montana doppelganger knows Jesus but I know Beth does. It shows, and I think of Him when we’re with her. My prayer is to be a “double-goer” with Him, too, wherever I go—and I want it to show!

 

 

Little Things Will Get Ya

“Enjoy  the little things in life…for one day you’ll look back and realize they

were the big things.” – Robert Brault

Oh, Mr. Brault, I’m so sorry. We did not enjoy that little thing. And right away we realized that, yes, it was a very big thing!

Here’s the story. My husband and I were on vacation, soaking up a gorgeous week of Florida sun in one of God’s best places on the Gulf Coast (according to our winter-weary, warmth-deprived souls, anyway). But sometimes, even on vacation, one needs clean underwear. Our hotel not having any coin-operated laundry facilities (one strike against that place!), we were forced to take a      vacation morning and seek out a local laundromat.

We’ve long had the luxury (and it is surely a luxury for a great part of the world) of in-house laundry equipment and hadn’t had the need for a public laundry facility in years. Though we  didn’t know what to expect, the business turned out to be pretty clean; the machines were, if expensive (I guess I never pay attention to how much washing and drying laundry at home actually costs), fairly modern and up-to-date. After loading our items into two         machines (as long as we had to do one load, why not do two?), we sat down for a pleasant wait reviewing the news from 2011 (in other words, reading outdated magazines even too old for doctors’ offices). What we did not do was check for a little thing.

And, boy, did that little thing cause big trouble. A previous patron had, for whatever reason, left one of those BLEACH INCLUDED laundry pods in a wash machine, the very one we used. (Who would think to check for that? I will, that’s who. Next time. If there is a next time.) When the “I’m Done” beeper sounded, we found that most all the items (and of course they were the dark load items; not the white underwear) had large, splotchy, obvious “someone-doesn’t-know-how-to-use-bleach-properly” stains on them. Only a couple items of clothing in that load were of the old, we-don’t-really-care-about-them items. Included were several newly purchased and now-ruined tops of mine (how many mowing or painting shirts does a person need?) and a dark blue (now turned dark blue and white) “This Old Cub” T-shirt, which had been presented as a special gift by our daughters to their Old Cub father. Boo. Hiss. Why hadn’t we washed just the underwear as originally planned?

Ernest Dimnet once said that “the     happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.” While we weren’t exactly happy about the laundry “oops,” this “little thing” surely wasn’t a “great     catastrophe” or a “fatal error.”           Destructive, yes, and will not be       repeated if we can help it. But, what about other destructive “little things” that might be in my life?

“Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching,” warns Paul in I Timothy 3. “Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.” Pastor David Whitehead agrees: “Pay attention to the details of everyday life,  for it is when we pay attention to the little things that we are preparing for the moments when our light shines the brightest.” Little things...like my words? My attitudes? My thoughts? My desires? My activities? Are they bright lights or...big, ugly laundry splotches?