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| My Brother's Birthday |
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Did you ever see the faces of the children,
They get so excited.
Waking up on Christmas morning
Hours before the winter sun's ignited.
They believe in dreams and all they mean
Including heaven's generosity.
Peeping round the door
To see what parcels are for free
In curiosity.
And Tommy doesn't know what day it is.
He doesn't know who Jesus was
Or what praying is.
How can he be saved
From the eternal grave?
"Christmas" by The Who (video here)
Today, exactly 6 months before and after Christmas, is my only brother's birthday. Chris is 28 years old. As has been our custom for the last few years, we talked on the phone since we are separated by about 2000 miles.
I was curious to know what gifts he was getting, since Chris usually starts thinking about his birthday months in advance. What was on his mind the most, though, was how this was his first birthday without Granddaddy, and he is looking forward to putting up some pictures of Granddaddy and Mom in his room at the program.
He has been in an assisted living program for the last few years because he has what is probably best described as a kind of autism. Don't think of the movie "Rain Man" in imagining him; while his reading comprehension is poor and he has some significant difficulties in interacting with others, he is able to go to a fast food place and order his own lunch, for example. Nevertheless, he doesn't drive, he works at fairly low-level jobs and he couldn't live on his own at this point.
Chris tends to get fixated on certain items, movies, etc., so I was expecting that he would tell me about getting things like CDs. Mostly, though, he was glad to have celebrated his birthday with my dad (with a cake and such) and glad that we talked on the phone.
We have been talking for the last few months about the things of God. He is concerned about "being ready" in case he dies or in case Jesus returns. My dad and I are concerned about this, too. So, Chris and my dad are working together through an illustrated version of Luther's Small Catechism that my wife and I got Chris awhile back. My dad and I also are discussing how to get Chris to a church so that he can be baptized, start taking the Lord's Supper, learn more, etc. It's not so easy given my dad's busyness, my brother's living a couple of hours away from him, my dad's current lack of a church home, and so on. What will Chris be able to understand? Is there a church that he can be a part of, where the pastor can be a good shepherd to him given his unique condition?
All of us know people who are "deaf, dumb and blind" in various ways (like the character Tommy in The Who's rock opera), and it can be worrying when we feel like there's no way to communicate the important things with them. But, Jesus brings His healing to all of these conditions (Mark 7:31-37, John 9). And, when we feel like people are not old enough or smart enough or wise enough to "choose Jesus," He reminds us that "the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him" (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV) but that even infants receive the Kingdom of God through childlike faith that is born of the Spirit (Luke 18:15-17, John 3:1-8).
Chris told me that he wants to be ready so that we all can be in heaven together. I don't think that I could have put it any better than that. |
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| To add a comment to "My Brother's Birthday" |
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| June 25, 2007 |
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| WIshes of blessings and a perfect church family this year for your bro Chris. |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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Thanks, Carebear! :-)
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| June 26, 2007 |
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| Awesome to hear that your brother is interested in the things of God! Fantastic! Praise be to God. I will have to check out this LutherAn Catechism :) |
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| June 26, 2007 |
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Thanks, Sue! It's definitely the grace of God that he wants to be sure of his salvation.
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| July 03, 2007 |
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It was great to talk to him tonight. We talked some more about our past church experiences as well as the book that my wife and I gave him. God only knows how many times it has happened, but tonight was another time when the difficulties of the world caused people to call upon God. And, He was gracious!
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| July 03, 2007 |
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| He always is! Yes, thanks for linking to this blog jam, somehow I missed it first time. ~mike |
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