Rusty Mullins
My oldest child will be 20 this summer. It’s hard to believe. He has accomplished so much in his two decades on earth, and I am very proud of him.
He will graduate with his undergraduate degree in three years and he amazes me.
From the very beginning, he wanted to figure out how things worked. One of the toys that made it through all three of our children was a small “bug-like” yellow car that had blocks that slid into it.
Each side door, the roof, the trunk and the hood all had holes in different shapes—a circle, a star, a triangle and the like. The goal was to put the star shaped block in the star shaped hole.
When all of the shapes were inside, one of the cars door would open, and you could do it all over again.
I remember watching my fair-headed son, just old enough to sit up and notice the world around him, try out this toy for the first time.
He was the only one of our children who loved the pacifier, and he was sitting in the middle of the floor wearing a one-piece that featured Cookie Monster playing football, wearing white socks that were hard to keep on his chubby feet, chewing on his “passy.”
He quickly understood in his infant mind that there were holes in his car and blocks to insert. He got the concept, but it took him some time to understand that his star block was never going to get in the door with a circle shaped opening.
He quickly found this out by banging (incessantly) the star block into the circle shaped door. It didn’t work the first time, or the second or the third, but he was determined to keep on trying.
My wife and I had to hand him the circle piece the first few times and show him that the only place the circle fit was in the circle door. It was true of all the blocks; they would only go in one place.
Once he figured it out, Joshua spent hours popping the blocks in the correct holes and then opening the door and dumping them back out to do it again.
Evan as a toddler, he figured out that there was only one way to do things, correctly. Once he mastered the car, I watched him sit there with his eyes flickering, still able to find the correct opening for the block he was holding as he fell over asleep. It became very easy for him.
As people of faith, I think sometimes we try to put things that do not fit into our belief system.
While we may understand that it is “frowned upon” in the scripture, surely things change all the time and maybe the sin of yesterday is not the same as the sin of today.
I think we try to smash things that have become acceptable in some parts of society into our faith, so we can show that we are an open and accepting group.
The problem with that is the fact that Jesus emphasized that God’s word and truth were not evolving. What was offensive to God’s eyes in the first century is still offensive to Him.
While society may change to be seen as “inclusive,” Jesus was pretty adamant that his truth was always going to be his truth.
Hebrews 13 says this, 7Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. 9Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings.
Rev. Rusty Mullins was the former editor of the Radford News Journal and the News Messenger. He also served as pastor of North Fork Baptist Church in Blacksburg. He is currently the Senior Pastor of New Highland Baptist Church in Mechanicsville. He would enjoy any feedback at rusty.mullins@newhighlandbaptist.org.
