A Pepper Grinder Post
New Pepper
This was supposed to be the week that I posted the third and final money posting. However, something interesting happened. A little before 4 AM on Monday, we got a call that the newest Pepper grandchild was on the way. So we packed up, got in the car, drove about six hours, and then spent three days hanging around with the grandchildren and their parents. It was very nice. The only downside is that my editor wife and I had very little time to work on the blog piece. So, assuming that nothing else stunning happens, I plan to post the money piece next weekend.
For now, you get to look at my new grandson and hear me blather about babies.
Here is what struck me. The first day we saw our new grandson, he had bruises on his face (as newborn babies often do) from the birth process. The next day the bruises were mostly gone. I can guarantee you that if I had bruises on my face, they would take a lot longer to go away.
It may be my grandfatherly imagination, but it seemed to me that my grandson was more aware of his surroundings at the end of our visit than at the start. We tend to think about the helplessness of babies, but the truly astonishing thing to me is how much they learn to do in such a short time.
Think about it. Within a few years, a child learns to walk, eat, go to the bathroom (in the right place), talk, and relate to people, among many other things. Imagine that you were kidnapped by aliens and plopped down on a planet where everyone spoke a totally different language that you had never heard before, and walked on their hands. On top of that, these aliens have a way of relating to each other that makes no sense to you. You can’t even tell if these creatures are happy or sad or angry, or even if they feel any of those emotions.
Now imagine that you are given to understand that you have 2 years to get good enough at walking on your hands that you can get around pretty well, including going up and down stairs. Oh, and also in that time, you should learn to understand the language pretty well, and speak simple sentences. And don’t forget the need to learn to relate to those in your family unit.
It sounds pretty intimidating to me. Or think of how difficult it is for a person who has had a stroke to learn to do everyday things again. And yet babies and children learn things so quickly. To me, it seems as though life is like a toy that has just been wound up. It moves so quickly at first, but then gradually slows down. The longer we live, the more time it takes our body to heal and our mind to learn new skills. As if this thought were not poignant enough, I learned hours after first writing this piece that my 94-year-old father had fallen and broken his hip.
I think that this winding down is the result of the fall of man. I believe that if people had not rebelled against God, their bodies and minds would work as well 5 decades after birth as 5 days after.
But I don’t mean this post to be one where I talk about what a bummer it is that we live in a fallen world. If you have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, you are serving someone who is making a new, perfect heaven and earth. You have sworn allegiance to a Lord who has promised to give you a new body. It will be an unfallen body with a mind to match.
I may be winding down now, but one day I will have a body and mind that will surpass my grandson’s. “The spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’”
- Pepper
Posted 2014-02-22