January 21, 2005

There was no doubt that Kyle and Bryana’s Uncle Brett was a strange bird.  For instance, Uncle Brett liked to play corny jokes on his guests.  His jokes were always harmless since he was very careful about causing neither injury nor humiliation to his victims, but they sometimes had a point to them that was intended to make you think.

On one occasion, their uncle had given Kyle a baseball cap with the logo of his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox (sorry to all you Yankee fans out there).  However, when Kyle put the cap on his head, it was several sizes too big, no matter how much he tried to adjust it to make it fit.  When it was brought to Uncle Brett’s attention, he just laughed and said that he had gotten it that size on purpose.

“Why?” Kyle asked with a puzzled look on his face.  His uncle leaned solemnly towards him and quietly answered, “Just between you and me, Kylie-boy, both our victories and our failures are just building blocks for more to come later on.  Always remember that what God does in the here-and-now has got meaning for what’s to come afterwards.   Besides that, this hat here is a warning to us all to not let our heads get too big.  Mind that when you have your share of winning.”

It was during that particular summer that Uncle Brett was diagnosed with a kind of cancer that was very hard to treat.  Still, he remained upbeat, full of faith in the goodness of God, and a shameless vendor of bad jokes.

At the end of his nephew and niece’s visit, he gave Kyle a pocketknife that had been given to him by Kyle and Bryana’s grandfather (their uncle’s father).  “Whatever you cut with that knife, Kyle, make sure first it ought to be cut!” he barked as he tasseled Kyle’s hair.  He then gave Bryana a bright red maraca decorated with pictures of cacti and a howling coyote.  Bryana thought it a strange gift and waited for some sort of explanation… but none came.  She felt too awkward to ask about it so she simply thanked her uncle, hugged him goodbye and climbed into her parents’ car which would take her and her brother home.

A few months later, Uncle Brett left his body behind to be with the Lord.  Kyle and Bryana cried, of course, and there was no wrong in it for they would miss the special part that he had played in their lives.  Their mother reminded them that God understands grief and loss, too, and that even Jesus had wept for his friends who had lost their loved one.   They wept and the tears brought healing.

A couple of days after the funeral, Bryana’s father gave an envelope to her.  “It’s from Uncle Brett.  He gave it to me to give to you not long before he died, honey.”  Her father sat beside her while she opened the envelope with trembling hands.  Inside the plain white envelope was a plain sheet of notebook paper.  On it was Uncle Brett’s handwriting, saying, “Bryana, I want you to take the maraca I gave you and break it.  Always remember that God loves you and has wonderful things in your future.  You and Kyle and your folks are some of the wonderful things that God had in store for me.  Love, Uncle Brett.”

At first, Bryana was bewildered.  Break the last gift he’d given her?  “What does he mean, dad?” she asked her father.

“Oh, you know your uncle,” he replied with a twinkle in his eye.  “He was always pulling some sort of stunt.”  “But how can I break it?  He gave it to me before he died, daddy.”  Bryana’s eyes began to blur with moisture.  One by one, tears began to flow down her cheeks.  “I don’t know why he’s asked you to do it, Bryana, honey, but I know my brother well enough to know that he had a good reason for asking it.”

Bryana slowly stood up, walked over to the table where the maraca lay so she could see it.  She picked it up and gazed at it wistfully.  She then knelt down to the hardwood floor and sighed.  Taking a deep breath, she rapped it sharply on the floor.  Her first try was not hard enough.  She swallowed and tried again.  This time the maraca cracked.  She repeated the movement and the crack turned into a narrow gap in the hard shell.  She waited for the seeds that normally make the rattling sound to fall out, but instead of seeds, a strand of three tiny white balls attached to one another dangled freely from the hole in the maraca.

“What are these?” she murmured barely loud enough for her father to hear.  “Those?  Well, if I’m not mistaken, those are your grandmother’s wedding pearls.  She gave them to your uncle but he never married.  I think he wanted you to have them.”

Bryana was speechless.  Inside a plain maraca that could have been picked up at any tourist trap out west, was hidden a priceless treasure… priceless not because of its retail value but because of its history.  She smiled at her fear of “letting go” of the maraca and how she might never had known its special contents had she let that fear master her.

In a similar way, God Himself has so much in store for those who will trust Him and are willing to “let go” of things that hinder a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.  “…As it is written, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him’…” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Better than pearls is the surety of the presence of God in your life.  More priceless than any treasure is the peace that comes from having peace with God through Jesus Christ.  More eternal than the heavens is the good will of God towards all who will trust Him and will give Him first place in their daily lives.

(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio the past nine and a half years and is the pastor of Pathway Community Church.   He and his wife are the parents of four children.  He may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).