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“Mommy, give me a big word that starts with J.”
“Justified.”
“Give me a big word that starts with E.”
“Envelope, no wait, embarrassed!”
“Give me a big word that starts with S.”
“Sanctified.”
“Give me a big word that starts with U.”
“Unfailing.”
“Give me a big word that starts with S.”
“I already did.”
“Give me ‘nother one, Mom!”
“Ok, let me see, S, um, Supreme.”
Ten year old Amber was consumed with learning new words and devouring the meaning of those delicious words. She loved to create new games to help her learn even more words. This game she was playing required her to take a word that she already knew, find a new word for each letter in the word then learn the meaning of the new words. Next she would try to tie the new words back to the original word.
“Okay dictionary, talk to me, be my friend, help me learn all these new words. Ready? Here we go!”
Carefully lifting back the top right edges of the delightful book, Amber found the J’s.
Jo…Ju…Jus…Just…Justified
“Let’s see what this word is all about… ‘to declare innocent or guiltless; absolve; acquit’ …oh yeah that’s it!”
Gotta flip back near the beginning…C,D,E..Em…Embarr…Embarrassed
“feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious”
P,Q,R,S …Sa…Sanc…Sanctified
“to make holy; set apart as sacred”
S,T,U…Un…Unf…Unfai…Unfailing
“not falling short of expectation; completely dependable”
U,T,S…St…Su…Supreme
“Greatest in power, authority, or rank”
Amber's light blue eyes compressed to thin lines as she studied these words and their meanings. It was easy to see that Mommy had grabbed some really good words from out of nowhere. Almost all of Mommy’s words described the things that she had learned about Jesus in her Sunday School class.
He died so we could be thought of as innocent so ‘justified’ was a good word to think of when she thought of Jesus.
Her teacher had taught her a song that said we are ‘set apart, made holy’ by Jesus so ‘sanctified’ was a good word to think of when she thought of Jesus.
They sang songs in big church that said stuff about always being able to count on Jesus and that means He must be dependable so ‘unfailing' was a good word to think of when she thought of Jesus.
Of course she had learned very young that there is no one higher or better or more powerful than Jesus, not even Superwoman or Powerpuff Girls, so ‘supreme’ must be a very good word to think of when she thought of Jesus.
But what about embarrassed? She knew that Mommy didn’t know the rules of her made-up word game, so Mommy just gave her big words, which was exactly what she asked her to do.
“Mommy… What does embarrassed have to do with Jesus?”
“Huh? Embarrassed and Jesus? Who said anything about those two words going together?”
Amber rolled her little eyes. “Just help me find how they go together will ya! They need to have a connection!”
“Well, let’s see. Do you know what embarrassed means?”
“I looked it up and wrote it down. It’s feeling or caused to feel uneasy and self-conscious.”
“Does Jesus feel uneasy”?
“No, of course not!”
“Do you feel uneasy with Jesus?”
“A-gain, N-O, of – course – not.”
“Hey, don’t get testy with me little girl. I’m just trying to help you think this through.”
“Sorry Mommy.”
“Do you get uneasy when you tell others about Jesus? Like when you try to invite other kids to church with you and they say that they have better things to do? Does that make you uneasy, self-conscious, embarrassed?
“Yeah, I guess I do…”
“Most people do until they realize that the best thing in the world that you can share with friends is the awesome love of Jesus. Let me see your paper. Let’s look at what Jesus does for us… He declares us innocent. He sets us apart. He is dependable. His power is better than Superwoman’s. And we should never be uneasy or self-conscious about sharing His story.”
“You did it, Mommy, you did it! You found the embarrassing connection to Jesus!”
Her mother couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “I guess I did Amber. I guess I did.”
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2 Timothy 1:8a (The Message) So don't be embarrassed to speak up for our Master…
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