I was born and raised in Oklahoma.  I grew up going to church, taught to love God with everything within me.  I gave my life to Jesus as a child just before going to church camp one Sunday—led by my mom.  I volunteered to teach a toddler Sunday School class at 15 years old.  May uncle took me aside at 16 years old and told me, “You are kid-magnet, you need to study to be a teacher!”  That affirmation lead me to go to college to do just that—teach.  Before finishing college, my boyfriend who also grew up in church and wanted to be a teacher, became the person who I would commute to college with each day.  That led to a love for each other that was going to last forever. 

One night, after the wedding celebration of his brother to my best friend, we expressed love in ways that led to pregnancy of our first child.  We were engaged but not yet married.  We eloped to marry as soon as we found out.  Then we continued our lives of college work and school as we worked our way through to graduation.  We did this with harsh and humiliating, under their breath, comments from relatives and friends who went to our church with speculation that this baby was coming before the marriage took place.

The subsequent years brought us closer to God who provided all we needed as we raised three children, finished college to earn master’s degrees, and go on to teach in public schools nearby for a few years.  Then God led us both to full time ministry of preaching, speaking and training others in their God led pursuits with a passion only God can give. 

God forgive us through Jesus’ work on the cross.  But people will always remember what you did and who you were as a child.  We left Oklahoma at forty years of age to earn even more education as we pursued God’s leading for our lives.  We are learners with desires to keep learning and growing to the fullness of Christ until we see Him face to face.  At 72 years of age and 52 years of marriage, our love for each other is deeper still.  Our love for God is greater still along with the confidence and assurance that He always knows what He is doing in and through our lives in Jesus Name.

When we go back to visit our hometown after all these years of devotion to God, each other, our children, their spouses, and grandchildren, we hear these comments…

“Well, here they are, the kids whose marriage we didn’t think would last.”

“Remember when you…”

“You don’t talk or act like us anymore…too proud, eh?”

So, this passage always hits my heart deeply when Jesus receives comments that sting his heart.  When they call him “Mary’s boy,” they are acknowledging for all to hear, as a slander to the family—that Jesus is not really Joseph’s, boy.  Jesus is just a carpenter apprentice who left Joseph’s carpenter’s shop that was income to the family to do “his own thing.”  Ouch.

Mark 6, The Message

^1-2 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He stole the show, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”

³ But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further.

^4-6 Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus understands what we all go through in this world.  Jesus, who never sinned, died for our sins.  There is nothing we have done or currently doing that Jesus will not forgive. 

“ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  (Romans 3:23)

We can all learn great lessons of compassion, faith, resilience, commitment, love, mercy, and grace from our falls, trials and failures from His Holy Spirit who comes to reside in our hearts, minds, and souls of all who truly believe.

Sometimes you must leave town to grow and mature in what God planned for you long before you were born.

Believe and be saved forever—God’s promise through His Son, Jesus.  Nothing and no one can separate us from His love.

Lord, God of heaven and earth,

Thank you, Jesus for saving our souls and making us whole.  We learn that comments are made from people who don’t know what they’re saying because they don’t choose to really know you or others.  We get that—and forgive them like you forgave us.  Thank you for teaching us to forgive.

In Jesus Name, Amen