Your Last Marble - 12.28.10 0800

There's a story about John (the one who wrote the gospel) that has been tattooed to my brain since the first time I heard it years ago.

When he was too old to get around by himself, people would sort of carry him around. As they passed by others he would keep saying one thing over and over. Placing his hands gently on people's heads he would say, "Love one another."

Can you picture it? An endless, repetitive motion punctuated by and endless, repetitive phrase? When I hear the story I wonder if he could say anything else.  I wonder if he mumbled it inaudibly and people just dismissed it as the ramblings of an old man. I wonder if he recognized anyone. This was the self proclaimed beloved disciple, the only one rumored to live into old age and escape martyrdom. Being so close to Jesus, possibly his closest friend, has to have had an effect.

Mostly this story makes me think hard about what I might be mumbling when Father Time has worked his magic on me. What is going to be my catch-all phrase when I only have the strength to say, and maybe even remember, just one sentence. I've heard about people visiting the more mature generations of their families and talking about how their grandparent didn't seem to be all there, or how they kept reliving a single moment of their past. Was this how it was for John?

Imagine being so ingrained with Christ's message that when you had but one marble left rolling around upstairs, the one memory you latched onto until your passing was the message of love.

I hope that'll be me.

I hope that as time passes and God refines me more and more into the image of Christ, that his message of love just saturates me. I hope that the final image I leave my friends and family with is as obviously stamped by Jesus as John's was.

 II Corinthians 12:6-10