Tim tells about his friend...
Illustration
Tim tells about his friend Jim, who nearly always came to Irvine in the summer to visit. It was where his mother grew up and his grandparents still lived. Tim and Jim had great times in Irvine, for it had mountains and a river that ran right through the town. Tim's dad loved to fish. He would take Tim and Jim out in the boat, and they would sit quietly while he would cross the river from one shore to the other, checking his trot-lines to see if he had caught any fish overnight. One day they heard a voice shouting from the distant shore: "Go away, go away. I don't like people." That day Tim got to explain to Jim that the old man on the distant shore was the town hermit, Mr. Rison, a longtime loner who lived in a small shack on the outskirts of town. For some reason, unknown to most of the town folk, Mr. Rison had concluded that life as a hermit was his style. His clothes were always dirty. His hair was always long, and he usually had a foul odor about him. He was different from all the others around Irvine. Everyone knew Mr. Rison was different. They just didn't know why he was different. The scripture tells us about one young man who was different in his time in his town. He didn't dress like the rest. He didn't eat the same foods everyone else ate. But everyone knew him and they came to hear him. His message was not "Go away, go away." His message was something far different from the message of the hermit of Irvine. He talked about a kingdom of heaven. And he said it was near at hand for those who would "repent and be baptized." As the people listened to him talk, they began to believe what he was saying. The power in his message came from God. As the people accepted the message, they forgot the dress code of the messenger. That's how it should be.
-- Shearer
-- Shearer
