Story of the Day for Monday January 25, 2016
My Shiny Armored Man
And Jesus said, “How long am I going to put up with you?”
Mark 9:19
My wife is the sweetest thing on earth, and I love her dearly. And that is why it pains me to publicly expose one of her shortcomings. But the truth of the matter is that my wife invariably bungles clichés.
She says things like, “We’ve got to make sure we’ve got all our Ps and Qs in a row.” She told a friend, “Here’s my opinion, and you can take it for what you’re worth.”
Darla means well, and she’s definitely not dull-witted. She teaches English and serves as Academic Director for a private school. But no matter how hard she tries, her clichés have an exotic oddness about them.
“We’ve got to make hay while the rain shines,” she will say. Or, “He who hesitates, loses.”
In 1978, a British family was on vacation in Bordeaux, France. Their car had broken down, but being a foreign vehicle, they could find no spare parts in the area.
They were desperate. They spoke no French. They had no way to get to Boulogne for their boat ride home, and the father needed to be back at work in Sheffield the next morning.
That was when they were blessed to meet a fellow Brit, Mr. Hugh Pike. Not only did he have a working knowledge of French, he assured them, but he also had a vehicle and offered to give them a ride.
Pike raced to Paris to the Gare du Nord, ran to the ticket desk with seconds to spare, asked an attendant for the train to Boulogne, led the family to platform six, and got the family from Sheffield on the train — just as it was pulling out.
The stranded family’s eyes were filled with tears as they thanked him profusely while waving good-bye.
As Mr. Pike was walking back down the platform, however, he realized he had mistakenly put them on the train to Bologna, Italy.
Jesus’ disciples meant well, but they were continually goofing up. They wanted Jesus to stay in a village when it was time to go. They wanted to build permanent shelters on the mountain when Jesus wanted to go back down where the people were. They wanted to get the children out of the way when Jesus wanted to meet with them and give them hugs.
The Lord once sighed and said, “How long am I going to put up with you?” Thankfully, we know the answer; he will put up with us as long as he needs to. Through all our flubs and failures, Jesus will never give up on us.
Despite my wife’s inability to correctly articulate a cliché, I think I’m going to overlook her shortcoming and keep her anyway. I think she feels the same way about me. As she once told a friend about me, “He’s my shiny armored man.”
copyright 2016 by climbinghigher.org and by Marty Kaarre
image: http://www.shrink4men.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/knight-in-shining-armor.jpg
Story of the Day--climbinghigher 
