Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good afternoon, dear people.

Obviously, the morning got away from me again. Part of the added pressure today was my need to comply with a 9am doctor’s appointment for an annual physical. My doctor say’s I’ll probably be living a little longer. I could have told her that. Yup. My doctor is a she.

I just had a call that may hassle the sawmill work I did yesterday. When I go up to where I’m doing that work this afternoon, I’ll be able to determine whether or not I have a problem.

Yesterday morning, Thano and I performed some impressive feats with the crane truck…removing undesireable trees at a property. It’s actually kind of fun.

Have a great rest of your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Is it possible to carefully read this historical record with a confidence that it is accurate and not be afflicted with feelings of sadness—even feelings of deep frustration at seeing people so blind and self-centered as to reject the lessons of good history and plunge ahead with impunity to repeat ugly history? It’s just crazy! And when it is so clear that those who deliberately choose this dead-end course of bad while at the same time being in possession of good instruction and good role-models—it’s just plain stupid! The damage they cause both to themselves and to others is so absolutely unnecessary. But there you have the “nature of the beast”—the beast being the NATURAL SIN NATURE.

Jehoram is another sad example of a young man (Age 32 is very young—getting younger all the time.) who absolutely blows it—absolutely wastes his life on his stupid narcissim. He was a bad dude—not at all like his father, Jehoshaphat. Once his dad is gone, and he is established on the throne as King of Judah, he proceeds to subject all his own brothers to post-partum abortions—he had them all executed. I can only assume that his motive for doing was to eliminate the risk of having anyone rise to threaten or question his hunger for absolute rule.

There is something very sobering here. I’m impacted by the quip that says, “When we die we leave behind all we have, and take with us all we are.” Each of us is here for only a very short squirt of time. We’re all creating an album of memories—snapshots of who we are—or were. Quite often, the collection of those memories is reduced to an epitaph—a brief statement of value given to one’s brief existence—often inscribed on a grave marker. Imagine reading head-stone inscriptions in cemetary and coming to one that says, “HE PASSED AWAY, TO NO ONE’S REGRET.” That’s what was said of Jehoram. What a dismal description of one’s contribution to human history!

Be reminded that you are a legacy in the making. Can you imagine what might be appropriately said on your grave marker?