Bumper Sticker

Mothers who love Jesus and who live like they love Jesus better watch out. I saw a bumper sticker today that really irritated me. I was in the drive thru at Starbuck's by the district office behind an Element, a vehicle I have come to deeply appreciate since Philip C-J now owns one and has hauled all sort of Danish Modern furniture for me in it over the past three months. So I was prepared to like this Element in front of me and anyone in it, when I first noticed on the back window a metal magnet fish...and I don't know about you, but always when I see one of those, I take a second look to see if this is a sincere fish or a sarcastic one (I do suppose some might be sincerely sarcastic or even sarcastically sincere, but I think you know what I mean). This one today turned out to be sarcastic, and I laughed for some odd reason that not everyone reading this entry might appreciate. On the inside of the fish figure was the word "sushi"...I did not stop to analyze it but just laughed a bit. But I stopped laughing when I read the bumper sticker underneath: "You love Jesus because your mother told you to." I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be a slam at my overly-simplistic faith...that I ONLY love Jesus because my mother told me to.

I have several problems with this and I am now going to share them with you:

First, how did this young whipper snapper know why I love Jesus...or if I love Jesus at all...which I do of course.

Second, well, yes, I did love Jesus first because of my mother (and my father) who got me to Sunday school and worship every Sunday. And who read me Bible stories from a beautiful book we had, and who gave me a Bible as soon as I could read well enough (I think I have four BIbles in all that they gave me). And who loved Jesus thoroughly and knew themselves loved by Jesus in good times and bad. And who loved his Church and the fact their daughter became a United Methodist minister. So yes, I did love Jesus at the beginning because my parents told me to, but mostly because they SHOWED me how...and that is how many of us first came to faith. Of course I grew into my own faith, but if they hadn't helped me to know of Him, that faith might have been a lot longer coming.

And, thirdly, well, in my own way, I have told my own kids to love Jesus. I THINK both in some way would claim that they do...but certainly not in the same way I do, I don't think. They are both still working it all out, as in fact, is their mother.

I just finished reading Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. And in her fancifully faithful story, Jesus as a child knew who he was, and came in a sense to love that, because his mother told him so. And because she and others were faithful and believed what they had been told at his birth, they loved him into his being who God created him to be. So if it was good enough for him, dear mothers, daughters and sons, it should be good enough for us.

So there.