August 23, 2006
Baby Grudge
My father-in-law tells the story about a cousin who, at six-years old, still nursed at his mother’s breast. “Years ago women nursed as long as possible, but this kid was old enough to be embarrassed. If others were in the room he’d hide around a corner and get his mom’s attention by motioning ‘come here’ with his index finger.” Eeww, I’m embarrassed for the kid and the mother! I now have a new visual for one of John the Baptist’s arch enemies, Herodias. “So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him…” Mark 6:19a NIV. Just how big should a grudge get before you wean it?
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1 comment:
Gail;
----I believe a grudge is more like a wart or infection than it is like the baby. A grudge should be cut from its nourishment when it is first noticed.
----But I also believe that one of the biggest reasons that grudges are so well fed is because they can so much look like a proper part of the kid. If I took a knife in the back from a particular neighbor, then I would not be too quick to have tea at his house either. If that might appear to be grudging behavior, please understand that a good poisoning can be just as effective as a nasty knifing. Discernment and precaution for one's health is not grudging behavior, it is wise behavior.
----Akin to this discernment is also respect for the truth. If the knife in the back was a very random act, I would not be acting in love towards my other neighbors if I kept quiet about this particular neighbor's quickness to sink the steel shaft. I would particularly feel guilty if I found one laying on his lawn with a knife in his back. But if I were the specific and maybe only target of my knifing neighbor, then the more distantly effected the neighbors to whom I relate the incident, the more my actions become begrudging.
----I am sure that this narrow line between what is a grudge and what is safety and truth causes the unintentional nourishment of a lot of warts.
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