At Just the Right Time

Psalm 1:1-3 - Part 3 (originally appearing in Psaltered, August 2021)

Planted by Streams of Water

(This is Part 3. Click Here to read “Day and Night,” Part 2 of Psalm 1:1-3.)

How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked,

or stand in the pathway with sinners,

or sit in the assembly of scoffers.

Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands;

he meditates on his commands day and night.

He is like a tree planted by flowing streams;

it yields its fruit at the proper time,

and its leaves never fall off.

He succeeds in everything he attempts.

Psalm 1:1-3 (NET)

Think back to your childhood, to the age of twelve, and remember the boy or girl with whom you had the most fun, had the greatest adventures, played the most outrageous games, and to whom you told your most secret of secrets.

When I was a kid, that person's name was Kevin. We did just about everything together. We rode skateboards and bikes all over our little town. We collected baseball cards and idolized Darryl Strawberry. We played arcade games when we had the quarters and the Nintendo Entertainment System when we didn’t. We snuck over to a nearby neighbor’s house and watched rated-R movies like Revenge of the Nerds and Platoon. We talked about girls, especially the ones that were “fine” (it was the 80’s, dude). We played with G.I. Joe action figures, watched the G.I. Joe cartoon, and pretended to be G.I. Joe characters.

We got in fights–with each other and with rivals. We played backyard, tackle football, as well as a game we dubbed “hallball,” which was a one-on-one game just like tackle football, but played in the hallway of my house with a football-looking throw pillow (endless carpet burns).

We shared meals and sleepovers and backyard camp-outs. We lived two streets away from each other, rode the bus together to the same school, and attended the same church (where my dad was pastor).

Like I said, we did just about everything together.

Now, think back to your childhood again, and this time think about the biggest goody-two-shoes, know-it-all, teachers pet, mama’s boy (or girl) you can remember. They never told lies, were always afraid to break the rules, and always tattled on anyone who did. If someone got into a fight with them, they ran home to their mommy and cried and told her how mean the person was (which was probably true).

Kevin and I seemed to always have at least one of these kids trying to hover around us, and those little punks were the enemy. We went out of our way to do things that would make them want to stay far, far away from us, though that never seemed to work. We couldn’t stand them, in case you hadn’t already picked up on that, and I don’t think they liked us either.

If you were the local goody-two-shoes when you were a kid, I’m sorry. That sounds like a miserable existence. But trust me, sneaking around trying to find new ways to break rules and not get caught came with its own share of misery. So, if you were the sneaky type, I feel your pain.

12 Year Old Jesus in Temple with Scholars by Max Liebermann

There is a small yet important detail about the life of Jesus contained in Luke’s gospel that we don’t find anywhere else in scripture. After Jesus is baptized by John, Luke tells us that Jesus began his public ministry when he was about thirty years old. That means he enjoyed three decades of living a life full of family, friends, community, holidays, loss, grief, hope, redemption, eating, drinking, laughing, crying, sleeping, learning, and all of the other things that fill our own lives, and all of this living was done before he began doing miracles, calling disciples, or talking about the Kingdom of Heaven.

Just as importantly, all of this living Jesus did was done without him sinning, even once.