“My
Friend Slim”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you
are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians
3: 26- 29
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
See the
photograph above? It is from a section in my old K through 8th school
memories book. I was writing in it at home one afternoon when I was a little
girl and a friend of mine asked about it. I told him that it was a book
to keep my school things in. He mistook it for a high school yearbook and asked
if I wanted him to sign it. Of course, I did! To this day it is my
absolute favorite autograph, bar none. Hmmmm…..don’t see the signature in
the photograph? It is there….He signed my book with an X. Two Xs to
be exact.
Growing
up in the 70s in rural Cameron in central North Carolina, the number of folks
that I saw on a regular basis were quite limited. I saw school friends on
weekdays and a few church friends on Sundays, but for the most part I was
surrounded only by immediate family. There were a few exceptions, one of
which was my friend Slim.
I knew
Slim was not my blood relative, but I considered him more than a friend to me and
my family. He didn’t drive or own a car, so my mama took Slim and
his wife Essie to their doctor’s appointments. He didn’t own a phone, so
he made his calls from our kitchen. He was incredibly tall (to me as a
child). Even though he was in his 70s, I’d seen him do physical tasks
that took awesome strength. He had dark black skin and tough, leathery
hands. His eyeglasses were so thick that it was difficult to make out the
shape of his eyes. He wore flannel shirts with overalls and a pair of
scuffed clodhoppers. He talked differently than anyone else I’d heard and didn’t
have all of his teeth. He raised a fat pig in his front yard and got his
water from a red pump outside. His simple, 4 room concrete block home was
in a pecan orchard about 200 yards from my house.
Slim
smiled and laughed a lot. He would sit in the crook of a tree and watch
me play with my dolls. He gave me a stray kitten he’d found. (This
kitten followed him back home so often, he had to re-gift her to me several
times!) Week-to-week life for me included Slim. My affection for
him developed as a result of his kindness toward me, his presence in my life,
the time he spent at my home…..our relationship with each other.
When Slim’s
wife Essie died in her sleep it was me, my mother, and a neighbor that were the
first ones to respond to his calls for help.
We were there as he explained how he’d tried to wake her with no success. I was too young to be of much assistance in
the house, so I stood at the end of his sand driveway to direct the ambulance
into the orchard and up to the little house.
I was there when the paramedics took Essie away and it began to dawn on
Slim that Essie had already gone on to meet her Savior. His anguished face hurt my young heart.
Slim was
my friend. He was not my old “black” friend any more
than Michelle was my young “white” friend or Andrea was my “friend with blue
eyes.” Slim was a part of my life and never once did it occur to me to
think of his skin color nor his financial poverty. I thought relationally---he liked me, and
I liked him. He was in my life. I was in his life.
Slim
signed my schoolbook with an X. He did so because he was unable to
read. He was unable to write. Thinking back, the gravity of the
experience humbles me: Slim, the great grandson of an enslaved couple once sat
beside me, a tiny white girl, at my dining room table and signed my school book
with his X. Slim, my friend, once cared enough about me and knew so well
that he was an important part of my life, that he asked if I wanted him to sign
my school book.
I don’t
know where the autograph is packed away that I once got from the longtime North
Carolina Governor Jim Hunt. I don’t even know where I stored my autograph
from the Dukes of Hazard’s Bo Duke (that’s saying something). But, I know exactly where I placed my school book
with Slim’s X.
Slim went
on to be with the Lord a couple of decades ago.
The little concrete block house has long since been knocked down. All that remains physically of those idyllic
years are the timeless pecan trees with sweet Essie’s lavender roses trailing
in between. But, the memory of my friend
Slim continues to live safely in my heart in a place where progression of years
hasn’t quickly led to decay.
Growing
up, I was able to see Slim the way the Lord sees all of His children: with
affection. I cared not about his physical appearance. I cared not how
much money he had. We had a relationship and that was all that I cared
about.
As a child I
developed my opinion about the boys and girls, men and women in my life based
upon our relationship with one another.
Do I still do that to this day? As an adult, am I able to see past
world-determined shortcomings and differences, to the man and woman made in God’s
image? Or do I permit more worldly eyes
to assess the people with whom I interact based upon appearance, finances,
power, or influence?
What about
you? When you look at another person, do
you instantly see them as Christ sees them?
Or have you thought of others as less
in one way or another?
We live in a
fallen world. The influence of which has
certainly had its effect on man’s perceived valuation of man from the time Cain
devalued the life of Abel. Thousands of
years beyond the lives of Adam and Eve’s sons, the Apostle Paul addressed this
issue with the Christians of Galatia. Please
open your Bible and read Galatians 3: 26-29.
~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Have you found yourself mentally valuing
others using an imperfect-human scale?
If so, what is one example of your thoughts toward someone else?
_____________________________________________________________
2. Have you outwardly treated another as not
“worthy” due to reasons of race, ethnicity, language, or poverty?
___________________________________________________________
3. Have you witnessed friends or family treat
others with inequality? Have they spoken
of prejudice in your presence? What has
been your reaction?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
4. Have YOU been treated differently based upon
characteristics or circumstances beyond your control?
_______________________________________________________
5. If prejudice has been used toward you, how did
it affect you? How did it make you feel?
__________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Galatians
3, Paul is addressing the Christian church in Galatia. It has come to his attention that the
Galatians have continued to cling to the idea that their salvation lies, at
least in part, in their adherence to the Mosaic Law. He reminds the church that
through the Spirit they came to faith and with that shared faith, they all became “children of Abraham.” As Abraham was blessed by God’s promise, so
are the faithful nations blessed.
Because many
in the church in Galatia were reluctant to accept their faith as a gift from
God, but rather insisted on being under the law, Paul reminds them that
salvation under the Law would require perfect, continuing, complete
adherence. Failure to do everything as
written would result in being cursed. The Galatians are lovingly asked to
recall that Christ became cursed FOR us and that He redeemed us from the curse.
Following the Law is reliant on what man does and ultimately results in man
falling short of salvation. Faith in
what Christ Jesus did is righteousness and is our redemption. It is this faith that permits the faithful,
including Gentiles, to partake in the blessing given to Abraham.
Paul brings
special attention to the fact that the promises are made to Abraham and his seed, rather than Abraham and his seeds.
He explains that God does not mean seeds as in many people, but instead seed as in the One Christ.
The promise that God made to Abraham and his seed precede the giving of
the Law by over 400 years. The Law was
not given to do away with the Abrahamic covenant or promise. God’s blessing was assured by God as a promised
inheritance to Abraham and his seed and not based upon Law.
The
Galatians were assured that the Law, though not the source of salvation, is not
in opposition to those God-given promises to Abraham and his seed. The Law was given to deal with the issue of sin
in the years prior to the arrival of Christ.
Man was held in custody under the Law before Christ justified the
faithful. With Christ’s redemption, the
Law no longer retained custody of the redeemed.
The focus of
our study in the chapter are verses 26 through 29. In these verses Paul makes the assertion that
in Christ Jesus all faithful….ALL that have come to Christ by faith…are
children of God. ALL that are baptized
into Christ are now clothed with Christ.
Clothed with
CHRIST. Our Christian brothers and
sisters are clothed in Christ! That is
exactly who we should see when our eyes gaze upon another Christian—We should
see Christ. We shouldn’t judge them
based upon their skin color, hair color, the quality of clothing, or the
accessories that point to a particular culture or ethnicity. We should see Christ upon them.
In Christ we
are NOT where we came from, but rather where we are going. We aren’t how much money we have in the bank,
but how much treasure we are storing in Heaven.
It isn’t an issue of being a man or a woman, but about being a
Christian. All that belong to Christ are
Abraham’s seed. All that are Abraham’s
seed share in God’s Promises. When I
look at my Christian brother and sister, I should see a person that shares
equally in my promised inheritance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please
complete the following:
1. True or False? Man has the ability to gain salvation through
close adherence to the Mosaic Law?
__________________________________________________________
2. True or False? One must be genetically Jewish to become part
of the nations blessed by God’s promise to Abraham.
_________________________________________________________
3. Fill in the Blank: Breaking a law leads to punishment in our
modern world. Breaking a Mosiac Law also
leads to punishment. That punishment is
_____________________. No man will
perfectly keep all the Mosaic Laws and will find himself/herself facing this
punishment. Christ accepted our
punishment and paid for our crime of breaking the Law with His death.
4. When we are baptized in Christ, we become
clothed in _________________________________________________________.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is
important to understand that valuation is quite different from observation. Valuation
is making a series of decisions as to worth.
A person may be valued of increased
or decreased importance as compared with another person based upon the
perceived worth of his or her skin color, education, finances, language,
etc. Value is subjective.
Observation
is noticing those very same characteristics or circumstances without using
those observations to assign a value to the person being observed. Observation is not subjective.
Once a
person engages in assessing the value of another human, it is a natural
progression to appreciation of those of perceived higher value and dismissal of
those of perceived lesser value. With
observation alone, one can see the differences in man, without treating (or
thinking of) people differently.
As an
example, one should be able to walk into any cultural setting, interact with others
of any race, share life with people on all economic levels in such a way as to
demonstrate mutual respect and acknowledgement that all are equal in the eyes
of the Lord. We may not all agree, may
not all like the same things, may not all look or talk the same way, but first
and foremost it is important that we recognize all are created in the image of
God and all that come to Christ by faith are in our Abrahamic family.
Slim was different
from me in many ways. I knew the deep
sound of his voice. I knew the fuzzy
texture of his flannel shirts. I found
him fascinating and smiled when I saw him walking down the road to my
house. He was a welcome, familiar
site. I observed much about Slim. I
didn’t assess value about what I observed about him physically. I saw him through the eyes of my relationship
with him. Christ saw Slim through the
eyes of a relationship, too… Slim’s
relationship with Christ.
Personally,
I love all the colors, textures, and patterns that come together in the
tapestry of man. I delight in the fact
that God cared enough about us all that He took the time to craft such a wide
variety of facial features. I appreciate
the vibrant palette He used to color the eyes, hair, and skin of His
children. My ears pick up on the musical
tones in different languages. Even the
wide variety of circumstances He prepared for us with respect to finances,
education, and rearing gives each of us the opportunity to demonstrate His love
in action. The One creator cared enough
to bless us with variety. How it must
pain Him to see His children despise His creation. In the same way, how it must please Him when
His children take pleasure in the work of His hands.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. From this point forward, how will I view those
that are different from me? How will
that view change how I think about and treat others?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
2. In what ways can I help family and friends to
think about and treat others the way that Christ would have them to do?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
3. How do I believe treating and thinking about others as equal heirs and beloved
children of God, will improve my relationship
with Christ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lord,
Thank you
for creating Your children as unique individuals with characteristics that
display Your creative glory and in circumstances that permit us to demonstrate
Your love. Help us to be ever mindful of
the fact that all that come to Your Son by faith are a part of our family and
equal heirs to Your promise.
It
is in Jesus’ Holy Name we pray. Amen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then Peter began to speak: “I
now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.”
Acts 10:34
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