03 December 2014

I've Been No Prize, Either

by The Late Frank Turk

You know something: this Christmas will be exactly 7 Christmases since I closed my bookstore.  I was thinking this week about my bookstore on Christmas Eve day a couple of years ago, and we were rockin'. I mean, best day before Christmas ever from a purely angels-get-their-wings standpoint, if you follow the cultural idiom. And I'm busy personally – helping people, encouraging them, being nice to them. (I know you can't imagine that, but that's what was happening)

And as people were throwing money at me and I was throwing merchandise at them – in a nice way, very jolly – these two women walked into the bookstore with a little girl. My helper greets them, and I notice them because they don’t act like middle-class people. They burp when they talk, they talk too loud, that kind of stuff.

Eventually, the wave of business subsided, and I caught a breather, and I took a walk around the store to check on the people who were still browsing – because people usually appreciated that. As I chatted with the handful of people still in the store, I noticed the two women and the little girl still browsing, and I asked them if they need any help. They didn't, but as I traded service talk with them, I noticed that they needed a bath more than they needed a book. They also prolly needed to give up the half-pack of cigareetes they smoked driving over here, but I ignored that and moved on. I've come out in public when I've been no prize, either.

So I went about my business, and one of the women came to the desk to ask for some help, the little girl in tow. We chatted some more, and the more I talked to her, the less I was impressed with her social skills, and I started to get a little antsy about her parenting skills. She wasn't smacking the kid around or anything, but I was pretty sure I had never talked to my kids that way unless they were on the verge of being crucified – which was an interesting word to think of there, given the season, but it's the one that came to mind as I was sort of forced to eavesdrop on this slice of life. Not unless I was on the verge of crucifying them.

And I started to think to myself, "How can she not know better?" So she put this book about Christmas on the counter along with a Bible and some other plastic junk, and I looked at the Christmas book, thinking about the Sunday School lessons I had been teaching the last 3 weeks.

Because the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. We have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

That is, God has made himself known to those of us -- people like me -- who probably need more than a bath and to give up a half-pack of cigarettes to get right before him, and who know better than to talk to our children as if we were about to crucify them. The One who did crucify His one and only son has made Himself known.

I'm the one who ought to know better, because He has made Himself known to me.







15 comments:

DJP said...

Good, thoughtful essay, Frank.

This is related — Christmas, Gospel, Christian book stores — and I didn't want to bump Frank's post.

Over at my blog I'm asking for Christmas tract recommendations. Please share, and explain.

FX Turk said...

You always said, "good post."

DJP said...

Don't get saucy with me.

FX Turk said...

Bean Counter.

Unknown said...

I'm still no prize - well, maybe my wife thinks I am, sometimes.

Thanks for helping me with my job today.

Morris Brooks said...

A good antidote for the Christian smugness that infects us all.

Scenes like this always remind me of my mother telling me so many times, "There, but for the grace of God, go you."

Unknown said...

A hearty "Amen" to the post, Dr. Turk.

Since it is totally off topic, I should probably be smacked down for this, and may well be, but I really found Chantry on Voddie to be thought-provoking:
https://chantrynotes.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/what-voddie-said-and-didnt/

FX Turk said...

I'VE BEEN TURKED!

DJP said...

Yes. Yes, you have.

< /voice of experience >

DJP said...

BTW, The Quiet Man is one of our favorite movies. Ever see it?

FX Turk said...

I have never seen it ...


... DOH! TuRKED AGAIN!

Unknown said...

One good Turking deserves another.

Merrilee Stevenson said...

Kinda reminds me of our family favorite, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Makes me cry every time I read about how the meanest nastiest character gets overwhelmed by the gospel, and the average main character gets humbled at the sight of it.

FX Turk said...

S O C K
P U P P E T
! ! ! ! ! !

FX Turk said...

Never change, Sock Puppet. Not the pipe, either.