There’s Always One

At the end of my street is a lovely stone wall.
That is where I turn each morning when I walk.
I continue around the neighborhood and include the cul-de-sac in my journey.
It is a mile from the wall and back to the wall again.

At the wall, there is a street that curves just beyond the edge of our neighborhood.
Across the street there is an open field, divided in sections with a wire fence.
In that field are black Angus cattle grazing happily until they are brought back to the barn.
Seeing the cattle makes me smile; hearing them in the early morning hours never bothers me.

I have tried to figure out why the fields are separated.
Not being a cattle farmer, I can only guess.
I assume it has something to do with breeding the cattle.
They are beautiful animals and solid black in color.

As I walk and turn near the wall, I can see orange tags on their ears.
Sometimes one or two are close to the wire fence and will stare at me as I turn.
They are quite large but seemingly gentle.
Gentle giants, I have called them in my mind.

This is the time of year when the babies are born.
I have yet to see an actual birth.
I do get to see the newborn calves staying close to their mothers.
The mother grazes and the baby calf nurses.

My morning walk made me laugh as I watched one calf in particular.
Every other mother and baby were grazing and nursing quietly in the field.
This little calf was rambunctious.
This little calf was frolicking all over the field.

I thought I was watching a baby goat as it leapt in the air as it moved.
I stood there for a while and watched.
This baby calf never seem to tire.
The mother was trying her best to keep her baby near her.

There’s always one! I found myself saying out loud.

Over twenty years ago, I taught Sunday school to children from third to fifth grade.
I taught the early class on a Sunday morning with two wonderful, Godly men.
We each took turns so that none of us had to teach all the time.
One Sunday we were told that we would be observed.

Being observed was not a problem, since it provided accountability.
However, I was the one that taught that morning.
The three of us taught using only the Bible instead of the purchased curriculum.
We followed the theme of the lesson, but taught what God said about it, using only His Word.

The lesson went well; the Gospel was shared.
Later that morning, we had a meeting to go over what was observed.
We were told that the lesson was engaging, it reached the thirty children very well.
Except I was told that one little boy was not paying attention; he was playing with a quarter.

I looked at the other two teachers.
We couldn’t believe what we were hearing.
I spoke up and said respectfully, There will always be a little child playing with a quarter.
There’s always one!

I was behind a woman with one of those shopping carts with the large seat for an older child.
The little girl was determined to be good enough to get a sticker from the cashier.
The mother had definitely used the acquisition of the sticker as a tangible reward.
It was a reward for good behavior.

The little girl was getting impatient and asked the cashier for the sticker ahead of time.
The mother was not pleased.
It looked as if this one infraction would prohibit the little girl from getting a sticker.
I could see her lip quiver.

She sat back down in the oversized child seat.
But being a little girl, with little girl energy, she wanted to run her hand along the moving belt.
Her mother told her to stop.
By this time the cashier was trying hard not to smile.

Little girls have amazing intuition.
She knew she had a sympathetic audience.
She put her hand out to touch the moving belt without touching the moving belt.
She was teasing the cashier with her cuteness.

If she could not get the sticker because of good behavior, she would get it another way.
She had the cashier in the palm of her hand and she knew it.
She tried so hard to be good but a tempting moving belt was begging to be touched.
Busy paying for her items, the mother had forgotten about the sticker.

The cashier leaned over and gave a sticker to the little girl.
She really was being good.
She was just being little.
There’s always one!

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:15-25)

There’s always one!
That one is us!
We are the one who wants to do good but cannot carry it out.
It is impossible for us to do anything good on our own.

We don’t like to hear that.
We can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, thank you very much.
We are capable of being good on our own.
We are mistaken.

There is only One who is good and that is God alone.
There is only One who is sinless and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
There is only one way to live a righteous life and that is through Jesus.
Because of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, we can be righteous before a holy God.

Our sin was placed upon Jesus on the cross.
The exchange took place.
Jesus took our sin upon Him and gave us His righteousness.
That is the only way we can stand before a holy God.

There’s always one!
The ONE took our place.
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We can stand with no shame and no condemnation.