SHOW AND TELL

Do you remember show and tell growing up?  The rules were quite simple:  You’d bring a bit of home to school to show your classmates and tell them about it.  Whether it was your He-man action figure, your Swatch Watch, your Tears for Fears poster, your Rainbow Brite lunch pale, your Vision Street Wear skateboard, your Cabbage Patch doll plus birth certificate, the Ice Capades program from your recent trip or the Rubik’s Cube you still can’t figure out (I was an 80’s kid), you couldn’t wait to show your friends a bit of home and tell them all about it.

I remember one of my earliest memories in kindergarten on my show and tell day.  I vividly recall my mom coming to class that day to bring my show and tell “prop” (for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was).  Once I spotted her, I was ready to go home.  All showing and telling plans went out the door.  The water works were in full flow (tough guy tears, of course) and I wanted home, now!  But it wasn’t time.  It was show and tell time.  So with tears in my eyes and with Mom behind me I presented my bit of home with my class and told them about it.

I’d like to remind you today that the moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were adopted into His family and your residence was transferred to heaven, your new home.  I’d also like to remind you that we can get so wrapped up in the fact that we have heaven as a home and excited about getting home that we miss that these days, right now is our show and tell days.  If you still have breath in your lungs, it's not home time it’s show and tell time.  You’re mandated to show this broken, hurting, hopeless world a bit of home and tell them about it.

The Psalmist tells us:  Taste and see that the LORD is good… Psalms 34:8a
A while back I handed everyone in our church one of those small, pink spoons from Baskin Robbins, the place known for 31 flavor of ice cream.  When you go to Baskin Robbins you can ask to taste a bit of a flavor of ice cream:  Rum arisen, pralines ‘n cream, dulce de leche, or chocolate fudge, and they actually will hand you a small pink spoon with a bit of that flavor so you can taste and see that it is good.  The goal they have in mind is if you like it you’ll want more.  My challenge to my people was to go out into the community and share a bit of HOME, share JESUS.  Others will taste and see that He is good and want more.

Don’t get wrapped up in getting HOME that you forget your mandate to SHOW and TELL this broken, compromised, wounded world about the hope, freedom, healing found in JESUS!

One final thought:  As I shared that day, I wasn’t there alone.  Mom was there tenderly encouraging me along as I presented a bit of home.  Jesus promises to do the same for us:  Then Jesus came to them and said, “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