You’ll
appreciate being forewarned that Ol’ Zeb’s ways of giving comfort
may be somewhat surprising to some, but always God-approved. Before
each meeting began with prayer, Zeb would read the eyes of each of
the youth from across the room. He had so much love for them he could
read their hearts like one of those electronic heart monitoring
machines they carry in an ambulance. The problem was that he almost
never forgot the hurt, hate, confusion, and sometimes hunger he’d
see in their eyes.
Zeb
had long since retired with no outstanding skills that would put him
in anybody’s spotlight. He had a medium sized silver mustache that
could use a trim and was bald as a beach ball except for a narrow
band of silver hair that wrapped around the back of his head from ear
to ear.
Long
ago he’d wrestled with God’s Spirit trying to get out of forming
and leading the Comfort Corner. After all, he’d say, “I didn’t
go any farther than the 9th grade and I sure don’t know
about computers and all that kid stuff. But the old gentleman saw
there was no getting out of it as the Spirit reminded him of his
great love for children that are hurting and even more love for God’s
exciting infallible scripture.
With
the same level of energy Smokey and his firefighting pals sift
through collapsed buildings on fire searching for people; Zeb
searched God’s precious word for kid-sized promises, comfort, and
His plans for them. Like a volcano about to erupt, Zeb told the Lord
that from this moment forward there would be nothing more important
to him and his heart than giving Mop Room Kid Comfort.
All
heads were bowed and eyes closed as the kids heard Zeb almost beg God
to give him the words to help bring comfort and order to the hearts
of every young heart in the room. Even before the “Amen” was
spoken the young people realized they were in an oasis bathed in calm
and surrounded by mops and old boots. If any would ask themselves if
they’d rather be anyplace else on Earth right now, all answers
would be a definite, “NO.” The closing “Amen” was spoken and
everyone quietly looked to see what the old gentleman would say
first.
Without
saying anything Zeb picked up his Bible that was next to him. With
his left hand (that’s the one affected by the stroke) he struggled
to move his hands across its cover, with a slow caressing motion. His
eyes stared at the old book as though it was talking to him through
his finger tips. Its pages were ragged and the cover looked as though
it had been everywhere the old boots had been, and still ready to
serve needed hearts.
Zeb
looked at the children and then spoke, “Because some of you are
first timers my first name is actually Zeb, but I want you each to
call me Buddy. As you call me Buddy you’ll be reminding yourself
that I want to be just that… your buddy. I’m extra good at just
listening. I get skittish around computers and technical stuff and
I’ve got hugs I haven’t used yet,” he said with a warm smile.
“So,
I’d like to start by telling you why we’re here. There are two
answers. The 1st is that I just love telling kids like you
lots of the fun stuff in God’s Precious Word here and the 2nd
is that I like to give comfort… lasting comfort… where I can.”
With a bit of a smile he pointed to the word “Comfort” on the old
banner over his head.
He
continued, “Now I can waste your time and mine trying to list all
the places that don’t give comfort. But I’m sure most of you have
already been making disappointing discoveries of promised peace that
instead delivers nothing desired.” With slow gentle motion Zeb
opened his old Bible to Romans 15:4.
Looking
into each pair eyes he said, “I’ll tell you that you can take a
flashlight into a submarine and go to the deepest part of the ocean.
It’s called the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean and it’s
over 7 miles straight down where no sunlight reaches and only a few
brave men have ever gone. Now you won’t find any there. Or you
could take a rocket ship and look behind every star. You won’t find
any there either. The exciting thing about God is that He’s placed
tons of it right here in His Word. It’s what we all desire each day
of our lives… comfort and hope. Let me read the verse to you.
For
whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope.
Next, Buddy chews on the 'comfort of the scriptures'.
