“Hon.
Some teen is jumping up and down on our back porch!” was Ross' almost shout
at his silver-haired wife sewing at the kitchen table. The needle was
parked in the pin cushion and both the Tappins headed for the back
door to investigate the commotion.
Hope Tappin, that's 'Hon',
recognized the super-charged teen as one of her every Saturday
Fellowship teens, Bonnie. Hope told her husband of 47 years the
teen's name, as the excited teen was welcomed into the kitchen of
Hope.
Realizing
there was no real emergency, Ross went into his living room easy
chair and half-read newspaper. Hope motioned Bonnie to take a seat at
the kitchen table that had seen testings and troubles in teen's
lives, sorted out and given their calmed attention.
Before Bonnie
exploded with excitement, Hope held up both hands in a 'stop' gesture
to the teen. Hope said, “Wow, Bonnie! Anything that's got you this
worked up, we'll want to take a serious look at. How's about us
starting with prayer asking God to help you to say what's needed and
me to listen real close. Let's do that right now.”
Hope
knew from the many Saturday teen-girls get-togethers before, that
Bonnie was the most burdened of the 14 girls, to use her faith, in
this technology world she was thrust into the center of. School
assignments shoved her into doing Internet research, her bedroom
laptop and printer produced her printed reports, while digital
versions of her reports were emailed to her teachers.
Most everywhere
Bonnie went with her friends, she had to be reachable by Bonnie's mom
or dad; for safety sake. The reason given was, “That's what the
parents expect, that really truly love and care about their
children.”
The
biggest reason Bonnie found herself, without a choice of her own, in
this world of inescapable tech gadgets, is because all her friends
were doing it, whether good or bad.
Because
of the long-standing kitchen table rule, the teen turned her
smart phone completely off and laid it right next to the ever present,
always open Bible. Almost without recognizing it, the girls were all
getting used to seeing their tech gadgets right next to God's Word.
In their minds were seeds planted, that said without reservation, technology
and God's Word go together.
“OK,
Bonnie. What's got you all lit up, on the inside and out?”
“Well,
Gram, I tried a little texting experiment. What I did, was, I texted
all my friends with a question.” The teen's excitement could hardly
keep her in her chair explaining to Gram – that's Hope. “I was
looking at one of the first proverbs in the Bible that you said we
should think of, as tweets. And that we should think about using them
in our texting. So I tweeted the question, 'A sentence I read in an
old book talked about wisdom and instruction. Hey everybody, what's
the difference?'”
“Gram,
I got a couple stupid replies, but Hanna, one of my girlfriends,
thought it was a good question and asked me what book I saw it in.
Honestly, Gram, 'cuz of what you've taught us girls, I first told her
the old book was the same one you have us park our smart phones next
to; the Bible.”
“It's
a miracle, Gram! An absolute; no-question-about-it, miracle. Gram,
Hanna wants to learn the difference between instruction and wisdom
too. But she's been texting me back with more questions she hopes
your Bible has answers for. It's a miracle that even one honest text
question can get some teens like me and Hanna to be looking in God's
Word for love, learning, and just knowing someone really truly loves
me even though I'm not perfect.”
Bonnie
couldn't sit still any longer. She jumped to her feet, pranced around
the kitchen table once and knocked Hope's glasses on the floor trying
to give her one of those hugs that even make arthritis pains
disappear. Trying her very best, Hope tried to calm the teen down
just enough to take a look at a couple of things.
Something
that probably only heaven knows is the whispered 'Thank you Jesus'
repeated over and over from behind a living room newspaper; a
newspaper that has no inkling of what real news; real joy; real
miracles are all about.
With
one loving arm around the teen miracle witness, Hope slid her open
Bible closer to them both and asked Bonnie to show her the proverb
she had gotten her question from. The next few moments allowed the
two ladies from very different generations, to pick out more precious
proverbs to get questions out of. You may not have noticed the smart phone in the middle of the table, all alone. Quite a contrast to
the focus of teen thinking in all other hours of the day and night.
Do
you like miracles? Have you ever truly seen one? How would you like
to be in the middle of one?
You've
just read how... no matter what generation you are a part of.
