Deep Calls Out to Deep

My dad loved to get us treats. He didn’t really get treats when he was a kid and so he swung the pendulum for us. One of our favorite treats was Baskin Robbins. We didn’t have one near us. So, when we would take a long journey say 32 miles away, hey to a hyper kid that’s a long way, we always got Baskin Robbins before we went home. I don’t remember what we had done this particular time in the big city of Rock Hill but we got to Baskin Robbins somewhat close to their closing time. The lady said they had run out of milk. Milkshakes were our favorite. Believe it or not my dad raced to the closest grocery store and got back just in time with milk.

They made us milkshakes. A man walked in and also asked for a milkshake. They said we can’t make you one, we don’t have any milk. The poor guy looked from the milkshakes in our hands to the jug of milk in hers completely confused. The lady told him this gentleman brought his own milk. The guy had the strangest look on his face like when did Baskin Robbins start requiring you to bring your own milk. My dad said please just make him a milkshake. I have often wondered if that guy to this day takes his own milk to Baskin Robbins just in case.

Do you ever feel like you’re inside of something and you don’t quite know the rules or what is expected of you? When my dad got sick and later terminal, there were so many decisions I had to make. People say just unplug me when it gets that bad. He wasn’t well but he also wasn’t machine dependent. We would have had to take him out intentionally to live up to, just unplug me. There was nothing to unplug. So we plodded along making decisions as they came at us. I often say becoming a caregiver is like taking finals in a class that nobody let you study for in advance. Like a guy believing he was supposed to have brought his own milk to the ice cream store. How do you know what to do?

I think the disciples felt like that frequently. Jesus kept trying to tell them the plan. They just didn’t seem to get it. In Matthew 16 the scripture reads from that time Jesus began to explain to the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law. He must be killed and raised on the third day. But they went on their way thinking He was going to perform miracles and change the system of oppression they were under.

Mark 8 shows their lack of insight into His words. In Mark 8 they realized they forgot to bring the bread. Jesus gave them a warning, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They said He is saying this because we have no bread. This scripture makes me laugh so hard. I envision the disciples I thought you were bringing the bread, I thought you were, then Jesus gives this wise warning and I imagine one disciple hitting another saying I told you that you were supposed to bring the bread, Bonehead, now we have to get it from the Pharisees and they have bad yeast. I think of Jesus saying that is not what I meant.

If you don’t get it sometimes, know that you are in good company. Jesus gave Himself for us long before we ever got it, like a guy getting a gift of milk unsure why he needed it to be a gift in that moment.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8