Briar Bushes

If every child could be reared on a farm, the world would be a far different place. On the farm, because of intimate contact with planted seeds and newborn animal life, you have a better understanding of the mystery of nature, the sovereignty of God. You learn the adaptations of all animal life, from the smallest insect to the totally dependent calf or kitten. You, yourself, become a fast learner in adapting to the memory of snares, hedges, and thorn bushes. Animal sites are as important to your survival as a large spiderweb wherein the spider traps its prey.

Nothing could be more exciting to the Christian and more unexciting to the evolutionist than nature's migrating life. In the Arctic, I was amazed to see mountain sides right next to the frozen ocean almost black with a population of terns...birds who circumnavigate the globe each year (44,000 miles), seeking a summer season in both the Arctic and Antarctic. With a wingspan of about 10 inches and weighing about 4 ounces, a tern is able to survive the winds and weather of such oceanic paths, a feat unbelievable to human nature.

Much like the terns, the much smaller monarch butterfly, found on several continents demonstrates the same type migratory skills. Inheriting the biological wiring to fly from Canada to Mexico, the newborns are endowed with the instincts necessary for their survival. You can recognize the male monarch from the female simply by their coloration. Birds stay away from these butterflies because of their poisonous secretions, all animal life is blessed with certain natural defenses, the briar bushes of an unfortunate predator's memory.

Sheep always recognize the voice of their shepherd. The hound always knows the scent of home. The baby chick with a brain about the size of a pinhead, from the first minutes of hatching, knows the cluck of the mother hen. Life is a matter of storing up memories, knowledge which we can google instantly from the billions of dendrites in our neurology.

I still remember the Elwell ferry, the smallest ferry in North Carolina, located near here in Kelly. In 1949, riding in my 1941 Plymouth which was filled with bibles, hymnbooks, dictionaries, bible storybooks I would go across the two car ferry, as I was paying my way through the university by selling books every summer. The two car ferry works by cable, and has been in operation since 1905...much cheaper than building a bridge (A new bridge just south of my home is estimated to cost over a billion dollars). I remember when the cable was pulled by a mule, but I understand that now a motor is used.

I remember, in India, the grass at one Maharajah's palace was being cut by a water buffalo pulling a lawnmower. I am sure that they use a motorized lawnmower today. Just this week, and almost ever year, ferry and barge collisions occur in many places. Indonesia, a country of 5,000 islands uses mini-ferries. I still remember my many crossings of the Hong Kong harbor by ferry. Pity the human being, whether migrating or not, who does not store up briar bush memories...remembrances so intransient, so indelible that you will not forget.

For some, nothing is memorable, nothing is sacred. At the front of almost every church you will find a communion table, and on this table, carved, are these words: “In memory of me”. It was on the night of the last supper, the night before his crucifixion that our blessed lord shared his last acts of love with his twelve chosen disciples. This was the ordaining of these twelve to carry on his work. He even washed the feet of Judas, who would shortly thereafter betray him for the price of a hog, pieces of silver given to him by the Jewish leaders. One should memorialize this greatest act of love known to man, every man possible. Every time you encounter the briar bushes of life, even the holly thorns at Christmas time, if you do not think of the thorns on his sacred brow, you have missed everything you need to know about the pain of life, the message of Christmas.

The Old Testament, and indeed the gospels are all just background for the body of Christ, the Church, as preached by the apostle Paul. According to the modern calender, Christ would have been crucified in 33 AD, Paul would have began his ministry around 40 AD. There was no written New Testaments involving the church and the guidance of early believers until around 55 AD. This makes 1 Corinthians 13:8 much clearer: “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” I believe that we usually think of prophecy as something in the future, but I believe Paul was speaking of personal preaching and witnessing. The written Word was coming, the greatest knowledge we can have is that we can have Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:24-28). Just think, the very One who created the world and everything in it, we can know “the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering” (Philippians 3:10) We should learn to be kind to people who fail, even those who have heard the message of salvation and still have hard hearts, unforgiving, unforbearing, unthankful.

One missionary found a village in Kenya, Africa which the Word of God had never reached. One woman said, “why did it take you so long to get here? We so need this news.” In reaching a remote tribe in Ecuador, the Huoroani, it was Dr. Jim Elliot and Nate Saint along with three others, for the sake of proclaiming the Gospel to people who had never heard it. Even today, survivors of this tribe are proclaiming the Gospel, even today, with more persecution than ever, Christianity is growing in Iran, in Morocco, in China. Christianity has always grown during tough times, times of persecution.

There are things you do not forget, I picked up a large board once and found a large rattlesnake under it, I climbed up on a stupa in Burma (a religious shrine made of stone, more stupa in Burma than people) and encountered a cobra. With blindness, I have become increasingly alert about steps, walkways, loose wiring, dangers such as thorn bushes. I know that with one fall at this advanced age, with broken bones, I can stay in a nursing home for a long time.

The toughest briar bush, the most difficult mission field in the world, is the street on which you live, and members of your own family. Observe the face of Christ in every one you meet, no matter what your contact with them. Six of the most important words known to man: “you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). Our fasting, giving, prayer should take place in the closet, but it is time for the Christian to come out of the closet and let others come into contact with the thorn bushes of the effective witness.