Pete and His Brother
“Ah
sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed
of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they
have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy
One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away
backward.” (Isaiah 1:4)
In the spring of
1959, my brother Joe and I were in junior high school; he was in the eighth
grade and I was in the seventh. As typical brothers, we fought about almost
everything, with me always losing. Joe and I had both signed up for, and
sometimes even attended the weekly on-campus meetings of the student group,
Youth for Christ. In those days, public schools were not faced with the
difficulty of maintaining the separation of church and state as they are today,
but that’s another story. The Youth for Christ club president was a young man by
the name of David Alexander, who was a very devout Christian. In the afternoons
I was with him at the club meetings… I found him to be one of the nicest people
I had ever met.
One spring morning,
while Joe and I were out on the baseball field during gym class, we were arguing
about something and the argument became heated. Just as we were about to throw
blows (well, to be correct, that would be Joe throwing and me catching), David
Alexander appeared almost out of nowhere. He approached the two of us and
extended an arm between us. He then said these few words that have remained with
me for nearly fifty years, “Please don’t hit my friend.” Joe and I both turned
to him and angrily asked basically the same question, “Who are you talking to??”
David looked at the two of us and softly replied, “Both of you.” We looked at
this young man and could see in his eyes a real concern and a very settling,
almost Christ-like appearance. At that moment we both lowered our arms and
simply walked away from the area.
Now, I’m not going
to say that this experience had a life-changing effect on either of us, and yes,
we still continued to fight after that day... but I know that young man’s action
certainly had an effect on me, the proof being that I remember it so vividly
after all these years. Whenever I think of that morning, I visualize David
Alexander standing there wearing sandals, a beard and a flowing robe instead of
gym shorts and a pair of sneakers.
Isaiah 1:4 shows
us the problem: Our world, as reflected in our young
people, has "forsaken the Lord."
Jesus Himself gave us the solution to our problem,
when He said, "Come unto Me"
(Matthew 11:28).
Pete Badame.
Dear Readers: You may contact
Pete through
Ron@FridayStudy.org.
