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“Salmon Says”…

By January 22, 2017August 30th, 2022Devotional

It’s a beautiful week-end here in central Indiana and the temperatures are in the low sixties. We have been able to get out with Lexie and take walks both yesterday and today. And earlier this week-end, Andrew and I were able to wet a fly line in the lake for the first time in several months, at least. It felt great to be able to head into the back yard and start fishing again. I did catch a small blue gill, but it was much more about the outdoors and being able to enjoy the experience with Andrew than it was about catching fish.

But today’s post isn’t about my fish story – rather, it is about a wonderful man who assists with bagging groceries at the local store and then always helps us to the car with our purchase. Frankly, it’s about his fish story, as you’ll see a little later. You see, he has worked there for years. And never once have I ever seen him in a bad mood. Quite the contrary, he always has a smile on his face and a story in his heart.

Our friend at the store is one of those special people who you just can’t help but love. Whenever he sees you in the aisle, he always wishes you a great day and stops to ask if he can assist you with anything. He is constantly on the move – talking to people and keeping busy. And he doesn’t shuffle along – he is “on it” – moving from place to place to lend assistance wherever and whenever he can.

Everybody loves him. He’s kind of like a community treasure. People give him tickets to local events and he asks his folks to go with him. He isn’t married – he lives at home with Mom and Dad and he has a whole neighborhood of people who care about him.

He is truly one of those people who is almost childlike in his faith and love of life. He tells stories about his friends and family – and if you are really lucky, he may even have a joke for you. And that’s exactly what happened to Janet and me late last week. We had seen our friend as we were shopping and sure enough, when it came time to check out, he wanted to bag our groceries and help us out to our car.

I have never seen anybody take the care he does to make sure everything is in the right place and protected from damage on the way home. What a great guy… So as we were walking out, he just had to tell us a joke. He asked, almost with glee, “What kind of game do fish like to play?”… and before we even had time to think about it, he blurted out the title of my post tonight – “Salmon says”…

Of course, we laughed. Yes, the joke was cute, but to see the obvious joy on his face was all we needed to break out in smiles and laugh. How wonderful it must be to live life with such wild abandon and not worry that something you say may sound silly or meet some arbitrary standard that society “expects” from us. I don’t know that I have ever met someone as lovable as our friend – and Lord knows that I am not alone. People actually stand in line to make sure that he can bag their groceries. He relishes the chance to help…

God loves the childlike faith of people. There isn’t a mean bone in his body and we light up just thinking about seeing him on our weekly commutes to the grocery store. He even lets us know his days off so we will be sure to shop when he is there – he would hate to miss us! The world could use more people with his kind heart.

Our verse for this evening highlights how God feels about our friend and others like him. We are told by Mark, the writer of the Gospel bearing his name, in Mark 10:15, “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” He has it in the bag (pun intended!)… My encouragement this evening is that God rejoices when we love without question and demonstrate a childlike faith. My prayer is that you will take a moment and thank God for our friend. After all, God loves him, and us, more than we could ever possibly know. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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