Edward, "What are your thoughts?"
Edward replied slowly who he thought he might be: I am an attorney, and a good one. Call me to work with you. You can find me in the Yellow Pages."
Immediately, without hesitation KB asked: "What about wills?" "Righto, call me," Edward's blue eyes squinted with anticipation.
His frame tightened. He smiled.
Mike not encouraged by Edward's glad-handing and business building: "So Edward, you are an attorney. Anything else?"
"Yes, I'm a husband, and a grandfather." He turned toward
Maryanne, "I also think Maryann is more than just a housewife.
“She graduated fourth in her class at Harvard Law. She has helped me and my clients out of a few close calls."
"Fourth at Harvard Law. Wow!" exclaimed KB
Mike tried another tack: "KB we haven't heard from you. Who do say you are?"
KB, replied questionably: "I'm not sure. The department stores demand much, but that means that Anne suffers. I don't know. I thought I knew, but now, I'm not so sure."
"Maybe our drawing should say that we don't know?"
Rod indicated that 'We don't know': "Wouldn't include me." Carolle smiled.
"How about orienting our drawing to business?" KB offered.
The table responded, somewhat slowly: "That's why we are here! To find out. Aren't we?"
"How about a blank square, and our explanation could be, 'That's why we are here,'" Maryann proffer.
"Let's do it."
"Somebody has to draw an empty square or rectangle and speak for our table," Mike reiterated.
Maryann proposed to represent the table: "I'll do it. Pass me the
paper."
Mike noticed that the first drawing for the 'Who Am I' rollo was being shown. They had drawn a question mark, and the table said that they didn't know who they were.
"We thought we knew, but we didn't. We are a wealth of different personalities."
One by one, each table shared. The next folks showed a small drawing of a man with extended legs and arms. "We are walking and giving people," said the table.
The third drawing showed six stick figures holding hands. "We support each other," they said.
The next drawing showed a stick figure with various items: a gear, some string, a frying pan, a deed, flower bouquet and a T- square. "We are mostly what we do, but we are different," they expressed that they didn't know either.
Finally, the Angel shared. Maryann went forward slowly with a drawing of an empty rectangle. She told people seated at the various tables throughout the Rollo Room, that we didn't know either.
Rod knew, that didn't include him. Rod felt that the whole weekend would go in the direction chosen by Mike. Well . . . Rod thought, we'll see.
The Head Roister stood and indicated with his hands that there would be a about ten minute time between talks.
ANNE FOUND Marge, her best friend, and let her know that this wasn't what she signed up for: “Marge . . . Marge . . . what do
you think? Stick figures, small stick figures. I couldn't even see, if the spokesperson didn't explain, I wouldn't know anything. I don't know if I should have signed us up.”
--5--
THE SECOND SPEAKER FINISHED. 'Who am I with Christ,' The second rollo left many asking questions.
KB questioned the premise of the talk: "I don't understand. How am I different with Christ. Isn't this the same as 'Who am I'?"
Edward couldn’t understand:”Wouldn't I be the same; whoever I
am?"
Carolle smiling, asked: "I don't understand. Aren't I the same person with Christ? Oh . . . that's what the speaker said. I'm not the same with Christ. Sorry for the question."
Anne thought, now we 're getting somewhere.
Mike kept the conversation going: "Carolle, you feel that you are a different person with Christ. Can you tell us more?"
Carolle looked at Mike: "Sure . . . I am a different person with Christ in my heart. Well, when I read Scripture, He comes along side me to explain the importance of what I'm reading.
“I don't understand how, but the Scriptures now makes sense. Before I invited Christ into my heart, the Scripture remained
'Blah.' I couldn't understand the Israelis, the Kings of Judea, God . . . nothing. Afterward it became clearer."
Mike interjected: "There is a verse in Corinthians that says: 'The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned' (1 Cor 2:14). Spiritual things are discerned by the spiritual. Is that what you mean?" Mike asked.
Carolle wrestled with her agreement: "Yes, that must be it. I
never read that, but I have a long way to go to get to Corinthians.
“I started in Genesis and I'm only up to Numbers. Another
thought came to me. Christ gives me a different – take Russia and Syria. Some people don't see anything unusual about what‘s happening with Russia and Syria, but the Bible states it clearly.
“Pastor Ernie went over that few Sundays ago. Like Pastor Ernie says, the world events . . . don't bother me. I have this peace. Peace, Christ gives me peace."
Edward Bliss straighten his six foot frame, and looked at Carolle: "Aren't you afraid of dying?"
Carolle, always smiling, adjusted her gaze: "No . . . Christ not only provides peace, but knowing Christ, I'm not afraid of death."
KB blurted out: "You mean Christians aren't afraid of death? Well I never think about dying, and I guess once you're gone, that's it. The pain and the suffering involved in dying . . . I'd just as soon not go through that."
Edward Bliss, touching his hand to the back of his neck, he's British and not sure if he should be there, questioned Mike: "I suppose you have a Scripture for that too?" He expressed his anger by lifting his chin the way the British do.
Mike answered calmly: "Well, I do. In Corinthians also, after
Christ had died, risen and ascended, Paul speaks to us, the church,
through the Corinthians. Paul referenced Isaiah 25:8: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O, death where is your sting' " (1Cor
15:55).
Edward commented with: "Humpf."
Anne told Carolle officially: "Carolle, you should read the New Testament next. Intersperse it with the Old Testament. Old, New, Old. That way you would get to Corinthians faster."
Carolle quizzically looked at Anne: “I'll read the New Testament after I finish Numbers."
Mike asked the group at the Angel table: "What about the drawing?"
Anne asked: "Why are the drawings so small? Lets make ours bigger."
Rose explained: "The drawings start small until we see the other drawings, and learn that no one qualifies as an artist. They stay small until someone becomes expressive."
Rod spoke up: "Well, we are expressive. Let's make our drawing bigger." I have a question, I may be a bit too expressive, but how did Carolle get her name?” Rod asked forthrightly. “Shouldn't it just be Carol or Carol Lee with two 'e' s?"
Nobody said anything.
Then Edward haltingly stated: "My first name is actually James, I
only use it for formal things like voting or buying a house.
“I've always been Edward ever since I was a bit of a lad. My father was called James, and just so I wouldn't be called Jimmy Junior, I have never used James. I've always been called Edward.
“The computer may force me into James. For now, I'm just, Edward."
Anne asked: "How did you know that her name wasn't Carol Lee, with two 'e' s?"
"The name tag"
Carolle smiled, flushed, straightened up and said: "I just didn't like Carol, so I added the 'le' so it wouldn't be pronounced Carol.
“My mother was named Carol. I didn't want to hurt her by letting her know that I didn't want to be called Carol. So, I added the "le" in my senior year in college, after my mother died."
Edward added
: "My father died seven years ago. So I guess I wouldn't be Jimmy Jr. anymore, but I’ve been Edward for so long. It is too late to change, unless the computer requires a fist name. Then, I’ll be James, but now I'm just Edward."
KB added: "I know what you mean by the computer changing things. We are looking at buying a monitor for each sales station.
“The computer system will save some time, and give us a better look at what sells and what we should keep buying, but it requires that each item be tagged with a number that indicates size, color, style, manufacturer, etc."
Anne magnified what KB said: "We just added a computing system where I work, and . . . I don't know . . . I may have to quit.
“Before we just took the $300 or so on a credit card, wrote it up, and then moved on to the next customer. Now, we have to enter it into a computer.
“In addition, we have to do it correctly, or the transaction stops,
and we have to call a supervisor, who may take her sweet time coming over."
KB, forecast his understanding of the future: "I foresee the elimination of all sales people. The customer passes a ticket over something that does all the work, now done by the salesperson."
Maryann shifted herself to the right to look at KB: "Like in the grocery store?"
"Yes."
Mike wanted to get back on topic: "What shall we draw? Without Christ each of us is the same, but different with Christ. So far, we have established that the with Christ, we have a better understanding of Scripture, peace about world events and death. Any more? "
Maryann raised a finger to gain attention. "Yes, Maryann."
"It seems that peace ought to be emphasized. We could just use
PEACE in big letters."
Mike asked: "How big should we make it?"
Edward, sketching on the paper: "This big! We want to make sure it is seen."
Anne added: "Add a Bible verse that Christ is the peace maker . . . the prince of peace." She straightened herself, and asked: "Mike you know the Scriptures. Isn't there something that we can add?"
"In the Old Testament . . . Isaiah. God calls the One who will
come, the 'Prince of Peace.' Let me make sure. Yes, Isaiah 9:6. We could put that in smaller letters. PEACE, then Is. 9:6."
"Are we all agreed?" Mike asked.
Anne looked at Kenny out of the corner of her eye, but didn't turn her head: "Yes, I just feel that with Christ there is more. It's like
an emptiness without Him.
“Yes, peace with Him. Yet, there is more. My whole existence, what I'm interested in, my purpose . . . knowing Christ changes everything. Wouldn't you agree?”
Edward questioned: "Your purpose?"
Anne explained: "Yes, my purpose, to live like a Christian. As Paul says: 'That I might win some to Christ.' In other words, I'm not just a high end sales girl, but an ambassador for Christ.
“I won't be a sales girl forever, but I will always be an ambassador. Lord willing, I can always represent Him."
Maryann jumped in: "I never considered I would stop being a mom or an attorney. But looking at the bigger picture . . . everything will eventually be changed.
“Yet, even as I lay in a hospital bed, I can represent Christ as an ambassador. It makes me think. Ambassadors for Christ do not need a bigger house or fancy clothes."
Rod interrupted to end what he considered a silly conversation: "They're starting. Let's see how big they drew their ideas."
Anne thought, now we are getting somewhere. I've got to find
Marge.
There she is . . . over by the Head Roister He had indicated by his hands that we would have ten minutes to the next talk. Anne waited to talk to her best friend. “What do think? Are we getting somewhere? My table brought up death. Did yours?”
Marge indicated that her table didn't mention the subject: “No. We didn't mention death.”
Anne frowned, and couldn't understand: “That's what knowing Christ is all about . . . isn't it? How could you have not mentioned it?”
“I don't know . . . we just didn't. He gives peace. I thought your poster said it all . . . your poster was terrific. I wonder what the next topic will be?”
--6--
"HELLO, MY NAME IS TRAVIS, SOME OF YOU may know me as one of the table leaders. My wife has something to say later, wife’s name is Shirley.
“Our topic is 'God Designed Marriage.' I have to let you know that when I was growing up, people got married in a church,"
Anne thought, everybody knows that.
". . . but there was much drinking at the reception. I remember at one wedding two guys almost got into a brawl at the no host bar.
“The bartender made himself very clear that soft drinks and juice were complementary, but if you wanted alcohol, you had to pay for the drinks yourself. This fellow only wanted a beer, and thought the bride's daddy, being a CEO of some big corporation,
would not have any trouble paying for one beer."
Anne asked herself, what does this have to do with Kenny asking
Jesus into his heart?
". . . They got quite heated, said some loud words, and almost got into a fight.
"Then there are the bachelor parties. Where a bunch of guys would take their friend, the groom, who would be married tomorrow, probably in a church, because that is what the bride wanted, to a gentleman's club.
“Let him know that he was doing a bad thing: getting married and all that entailed. This special night, his last night of freedom, would be celebrated like none other. They gathered with him to enjoy his last night of freedom.
"Then there was the honeymoon. Not sure where that word came from.” Some of the younger folks in the audience laughed.
“We spent $20,000 on our honeymoon. Had a wonderful time vacationing in Cabo, Mexico. Cabo San Lucas, a place Shirley fantasized about.
“But after we got home, the bills followed. I think after ten years. I'm still paying them off. After the honeymoon, we both went back to our jobs.
“It turned out good, because we both looked forward to coming home. Considered adults, now that we were married. Although we acted like teenagers in Cabo.
"It wasn't like that in the olden days, way back in the time of Solomon. The girl's parents selected the young man, even before he and she had met. The Jewish way of marriage still prevails in
some countries today.
“When the young man became 19 years. of age, and he had passed into manhood at his Bar Mitzvah at age 13, when he was
no longer mama's boy, but now the responsibility of his father. Six years had passed, and he was feeling his oats, and he wanted a woman.
"The normal procedure involved building an extra room on his father's house, which would take him almost a year. He knew whom he would marry, and he would learn to love her as dad loved mom. He would be driven by lust, not love, to add this room and get married.
“All the men in town lived through the bridegroom anticipating the soon to be held wedding feast and the wedding night. They made sure no short-cuts were taken in the construction.
“The room had to be perfect. Marriage lasted forever in those days. Divorce was not common, and they accepted that the marriage lasted forever.”
Edward squeezed Maryann's hand.
“Moses had made a provision for a husband to give his wife a certificate of divorce, and to put her away. Jesus clarified Moses' message: 'Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so . . .' (Matt 19:8).
"In time, all the elders had looked at the room, and had given their approval for the wedding feast to begin.
“The bridegroom would start the procession from the new room on his father's house, to the bride's house and back again. When he showed up at the bride's house everyone understood the
wedding feast would begin soon. The groom had completed the extra room, he would marry, and soon a seven-day feast would follow.
; “Wonderful excitement filled everyone. We find a reference to this event in Jesus teaching about the five wise and foolish
virgins, who were waiting at the bride's house for the bridegroom.
"A man yearns for a constant companion, just as a woman seeks security and a permanent relationship. Jesus explained in the book of Mathew:
“'Do you not know that God created them, male and female,' and He said, 'for this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'”
“Jesus continues:
“'so then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate.' ( Matt 19:4-6)
“Jesus referred to the story in Genesis where it is recorded that God created man to be in fellowship with God. But man felt empty. He wanted something else. Something that he could touch and to whom he could talk. Something other than himself.