Last Christmas my Brother-in-law, Richard, related a story from his childhood. His family had a summer home on Fire Island, New York, which is on the South Shore of Long Island. He and his brother used to search for clams down by the dock by wading out and feeling for them with their feet. Upon finding a clam (hopefully) they would reach down under water, pull it out of the muck, and place it in a bucket which floated in an inner tube.
They had a neighbor who was known to imbibe a little too much on a regular basis. It was always interesting to see him bring his boat into the dock. One day, he was returning from the store, and though his boat was not overloaded….he was. His groceries were in paper sacks, one of which was full of potatoes. He was having some difficulty getting from his boat to the dock with his sack of potatoes. In the process, the bag got wet and the contents went into the water.
Richard’s mother saw this, and rather than have him bumble about more, she told him to go on home and her sons would retrieve the potatoes. So Richard and his brother went down by the dock with their clam bucket and started to feel around for potatoes.
As they were loading it up, some tourists came by (from the Big City, no doubt) and seeing the boys in the water, asked their mother what delicacies they might be collecting from the sea. “Potatoes,” she said in her matter of fact way. “Impossible!” they said in their “Big City” authoritative way. So she called her sons to bring the bucket up and show them. Sure enough….potatoes!
God has this incredible tendency to humble people who think they know everything about him and the way he works. God does this because people who know everything don’t need faith, they just need answers. If they can’t get answers, they make them up. Once they’re sure of their answers, they don’t have to change, although everyone else is expected to. Such people are in desperate need of a humbling experience before they do damage to themselves and to others.
Other than for the sake of a great sense of humor, why does God want to debunk our cherished assumptions? Because God wants us to see possibilities where no one else does. The Kingdom of God is all about redeeming what most folks are willing to write off. God keeps us from closing the door behind ourselves. God prevents us from limiting divine prerogatives. It is more important for us to have faith than answers. A miracle is, after all, an answer gone awry.
So when you are tempted to say that God won’t or can’t…clam up! Remember where Long Island potatoes come from.
Rev. Dennis P. Levin