How Many Marbles Do You Have?
Sermon
Today is a day tinged with sadness for the whole nation, because even as we meet to celebrate Easter Day, we mourn the death of our beloved Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. And yet in a way, Easter is such a fitting time to die because Easter brings so much hope to the whole of humanity.
I came across a story recently, called "The Thousand Marbles", which seemed appropriate under today's circumstances, so I hope you'll bear with me while I tell it to you. It's been written anonymously:
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward my garden shed with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.
What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it. I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap session. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.
He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles". I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. "Well, Tom, it sounds like you're really busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dancing display."
He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part.
"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.
"So I went to a toy shop and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy shops to round up a thousand marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shed next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I've taken one marble out and thrown it away.
"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.
"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for the day. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I reckon that if I make it until next Saturday, then I've been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family."
You could have heard a pin drop when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I'd planned to work on my radio that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke up my wife with a kiss. "C'mon darling, I'm taking you and the children out for the day."
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the children. Um, can we stop at a toy shop while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."
We're all mortal, and even the Queen Mother had only 5,252 Saturdays in the whole of her 101 years. None of us know how many marbles we have left, so it's really important to get priorities straight while we have time. And real priorities in this life, as the Queen Mother consistently showed very clearly, are to do with relationships and love. Like watching your ten-year old daughter's dancing display; helping your son with his football practice; making sure your elderly neighbour is OK; telling your wife or husband that you love them and making sure they know it in little, practical ways; ringing up that friend who you've been thinking about but haven't got round to contacting.
There's another priority too which is about love, and it comes under the heading of forgiveness. If there's someone in your life who has damaged you in some way, do try to forgive them before it's too late. You see, if you don't forgive them it's no skin off their nose, but it does continue to damage you. Being unable to forgive is a real block inside you, to God's love. It's like a huge rock weighing heavy on your soul, and God's love can't be transmitted through it. When you can't forgive, even if you push all memories of the incident or incidents to the back of your mind, hatred is still nurtured and nourished inside you. And hatred eats away at your soul.
How many marbles do you have left?
When Jesus died on the cross, he showed real, genuine love in all its amazing wonder. He loved human beings so much that he allowed them to treat him as they wanted to treat him. He allowed them to betray him, to flog him, to nail him to a cross and to tell the world that he was a criminal. And he still went on loving them despite all that. He even prayed for them, saying to God, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." That's love and forgiveness in action. In a way, we still nail him to the cross, because we human beings in our own little ways and in our own little worlds still betray other people, still damage and hurt other people, still gossip about and malign other people. And every time we do that, it's like hammering another nail into his hands and feet. Yet God forgives us. We have all been forgiven so much, and all God asks in return is that we love and forgive each other just as Jesus showed us.
When you love and forgive like that, the result inside yourself is an amazing and glorious resurrection. The more you love, the more you experience love. and it's a brilliant experience of warmth and tenderness and support and strength and happiness. When you love and forgive, then you can begin to receive God's love which he's waiting to pour into your heart, and then you begin to experience all the qualities of love.
How many marbles do you have left? How much time do you have for that act of forgiveness, for that demonstration of love?
The more you love and forgive in this life, the more you're going to grow towards God and experience resurrection in this life. But in the life after death, in that new and fantastic life in a different dimension which Jesus revealed to us on that first Easter Sunday around 2,000 years ago, you'll find yourself in the presence of God. If you learn to love and forgive in this life, then you'll find yourself living and loving with God in your new life after death. And I don't doubt that the Queen Mother is living and loving with God right now, for she was a wonderful example of a very Christian lady.
How many marbles do you have left? Life is too short to waste time on grudges and hatred and spite and resentment. Let it all go. Give it over into the hands of Jesus and open your heart to him so that you too can receive all he has waiting for you. And then it won't matter how many marbles you have left.
I came across a story recently, called "The Thousand Marbles", which seemed appropriate under today's circumstances, so I hope you'll bear with me while I tell it to you. It's been written anonymously:
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward my garden shed with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.
What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it. I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap session. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.
He was telling whoever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles". I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. "Well, Tom, it sounds like you're really busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dancing display."
He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part.
"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.
"So I went to a toy shop and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy shops to round up a thousand marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shed next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I've taken one marble out and thrown it away.
"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.
"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for the day. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I reckon that if I make it until next Saturday, then I've been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family."
You could have heard a pin drop when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I'd planned to work on my radio that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke up my wife with a kiss. "C'mon darling, I'm taking you and the children out for the day."
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the children. Um, can we stop at a toy shop while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."
We're all mortal, and even the Queen Mother had only 5,252 Saturdays in the whole of her 101 years. None of us know how many marbles we have left, so it's really important to get priorities straight while we have time. And real priorities in this life, as the Queen Mother consistently showed very clearly, are to do with relationships and love. Like watching your ten-year old daughter's dancing display; helping your son with his football practice; making sure your elderly neighbour is OK; telling your wife or husband that you love them and making sure they know it in little, practical ways; ringing up that friend who you've been thinking about but haven't got round to contacting.
There's another priority too which is about love, and it comes under the heading of forgiveness. If there's someone in your life who has damaged you in some way, do try to forgive them before it's too late. You see, if you don't forgive them it's no skin off their nose, but it does continue to damage you. Being unable to forgive is a real block inside you, to God's love. It's like a huge rock weighing heavy on your soul, and God's love can't be transmitted through it. When you can't forgive, even if you push all memories of the incident or incidents to the back of your mind, hatred is still nurtured and nourished inside you. And hatred eats away at your soul.
How many marbles do you have left?
When Jesus died on the cross, he showed real, genuine love in all its amazing wonder. He loved human beings so much that he allowed them to treat him as they wanted to treat him. He allowed them to betray him, to flog him, to nail him to a cross and to tell the world that he was a criminal. And he still went on loving them despite all that. He even prayed for them, saying to God, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." That's love and forgiveness in action. In a way, we still nail him to the cross, because we human beings in our own little ways and in our own little worlds still betray other people, still damage and hurt other people, still gossip about and malign other people. And every time we do that, it's like hammering another nail into his hands and feet. Yet God forgives us. We have all been forgiven so much, and all God asks in return is that we love and forgive each other just as Jesus showed us.
When you love and forgive like that, the result inside yourself is an amazing and glorious resurrection. The more you love, the more you experience love. and it's a brilliant experience of warmth and tenderness and support and strength and happiness. When you love and forgive, then you can begin to receive God's love which he's waiting to pour into your heart, and then you begin to experience all the qualities of love.
How many marbles do you have left? How much time do you have for that act of forgiveness, for that demonstration of love?
The more you love and forgive in this life, the more you're going to grow towards God and experience resurrection in this life. But in the life after death, in that new and fantastic life in a different dimension which Jesus revealed to us on that first Easter Sunday around 2,000 years ago, you'll find yourself in the presence of God. If you learn to love and forgive in this life, then you'll find yourself living and loving with God in your new life after death. And I don't doubt that the Queen Mother is living and loving with God right now, for she was a wonderful example of a very Christian lady.
How many marbles do you have left? Life is too short to waste time on grudges and hatred and spite and resentment. Let it all go. Give it over into the hands of Jesus and open your heart to him so that you too can receive all he has waiting for you. And then it won't matter how many marbles you have left.
