Band-Aid Days

My friend buried her father today.
As I waited in line to greet the family, I thought of a funny memory.
It was a “me” and “her” memory.

When I hugged her, I told her my thoughts.

Remember when my mom died and my father wanted to go as far away as he could?
She knew exactly what I meant.

My father wanted to escape; that was how he coped at the time.
He wanted to go on a whirlwind trip to Europe.
Five countries in two weeks.

When you are fifteen, and an only child, you don’t stay home alone for that length of time.
So I had to go as well, which was the last thing I wanted to do.
Europe under any other circumstances would have been wonderful, but not then.
I had never flown in an airplane before and I was very scared.
I was crossing the ocean, my mother had just died, and I was terribly sad.

My friend and I went to get ice cream the night before I was to leave.
As we walked to the ice cream store, I had the courage to say what I wanted to say.
If anything happens to me…if I don’t come back…I want you to have all my records.

She laughed today as I shared that memory with her.
She had forgotten.
You’ll be back, she reassured me, You are not giving me your records.

My records were the best things I could think of to give my friend.
My treasure.
What a simple time it was.
Band-Aid days.

Band-Aid days; when a lift up on the kitchen counter and a box of Band-Aids fixed a skinned knee; fixed everything.

Days when leaving your records to your best friend made total sense.
Days when mothers didn’t die and friends didn’t have to bury their father.
Days when a handshake and a promise was enough.
Simpler days.

As I met people at the funeral I used to know, people I had not seen in over thirty years, I realized the simplicity of those times.
We were guarded, protected, and that was so good.
During that time, we grew to become the men and women we are now.
In those adult faces, I saw the faces from my childhood.

If we knew then what we know now.

God did.
God does.
He knows the then, and the now, and the not yet.
He is sovereign over all.

God is not asleep when hard times come.
God has not looked the other way when a loved one dies.
God has not turned His back on us when a job is lost, or a marriage fails.
God is always in the now, always present, always attentive, always loving.

Even when bad things happen.
Even when hard times come.
Even when Band-Aid days just won’t do anymore.

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.
(Matthew 9:16,17)

Jesus’ words apply to Band-Aid days.
As we grow, the old Band-Aid just won’t cover any more.
As we grow, we don’t fit up on the counter the way we used to.

Who wants a temporary fix anyway?
We often want to Band-Aid our problems and our hurts.
That will only mask the pain or the problem; covering it for a while.

Jesus doesn’t do temporary fixes.
The “new wine” of the Kingdom could not be contained in the old wineskins.
The new wine, the message of the Gospel, would rupture the old wineskins of tradition.
The old wineskins of works righteousness would burst if the new wine was poured in.
The old wineskins could never hold all that grace!

I don’t want a Band-Aid.
I want to be permanently healed.
I want the expandability of the new wineskins as I grow in grace.

The command of the Great Commission is ours to obey.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)

The Gospel cannot be contained.
It is the treasure Jesus gives to His friends.
The simple message that explodes the old wineskins of works and Band-Aids.
The simple message that fills the new wineskins with unlimited grace.