Thursday, May 7, 2015

Let It Go!

"Look at this funny video," I called to my husband.  I had to laugh at a man starting an electric lawn mower (obviously a self-propelled one) and being immediately jerked to the ground and dragged across the street. I guess it was the surprise element (and the look of surprise on the man's face!) that made me laugh.

"Why didn't he let go?" Howard asked, to which I responded, "He couldn't! Haven't you ever seen someone who couldn't let go in a dangerous situation like that?" It must be a fear mechanism that makes them hang on, or their hand is frozen to the spot and won't respond.

"I remember a time when I was in third grade and we were living in Colorado.  My dad and brother-in-law were working out there in the sugar beet harvest, if I remember right.  One day my sister's husband pulled out on to the highway in his car, and to our horror, there was my 3-year-old brother Jimmy hanging on to the bumper!"   Everyone screamed, catching the driver's attention, and Jimmy was rescued, thoroughly terrified, and having only scraped knees for his misadventure. He had been unable to let go!

For some reason the little boy was fascinated with Odell's big car. One day he was discovered with a paint brush and some paint he had gotten into, and the headlights of the car were covered with white paint! From then on, Odell referred to him as "My little 'panker.'"

My brother Roy was about 4, and one day our mother went into the convenience store nearby.  "Ma'am, I have something for you," the proprietor said, handing her three $1 bills. "Your little boy gave me these and said he wanted three candy bars."  A dollar back in the forties was probably worth $10 today, so I'm sure Mama was glad to get them back.  I'm not sure how many of the 5-cent candy bars she was able to return!

I can't help but think of images I have seen of men hanging on to ropes being pulled up by the dirigible Hindenburg that crashed in the air disaster of 1937.  They were too terrified to let go before they got too high to turn loose.

Obviously, my little brother wanted candy, and he knew money had to pay for it, but I doubt he knew right from wrong, although I'm sure he learned a lesson from that experience.  Sin is like hanging on to a rope one is afraid to release.  There is a saying, "Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay."

The Bible says in I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Verse 5 says, "...God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." That light cannot be put out by a coat of white paint, nor can sin be covered by a coat of white paint! He is stronger than the sin that wants to enslave us!

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