Generation Gap

A funny thing happened at the market yesterday.  My girls and I were approaching the checkout line and I noticed a small elderly lady shuffling her way into the line.  All she carried was a head of lettuce, but when I offered for her to go ahead, she said shrilly, "No, I just have a question!"  Her question, "Where's the saccharin?", received two hollow stares from the teenagers working at the station.  When she repeated her request, the no-older-than-sixteen cashier said, "I'm sorry...what?"  I wanted to burst with laughter, but knew that this generation gap would not be bridged without an interpreter, so I had to explain to the girl that the item in question was sweetener, "...you know, stuff like Sweet & Low or Splenda." 

I'm not sure which was more amusing: the perplexed faces of the checkout gal and bag boy, or the confusion of the senior citizen, who simply could not comprehend why these two people born around the year 2000 had never heard of saccharin!  Incidentally, when she first uttered the word, I had a momentary flashback to the NutraSweet symbol circa 1984; remember the red and white swirl?  Who these days uses the word "saccharin"?  The dear woman might as well have been speaking Greek!


The beauty of this little incident is that the particular store in which it took place hasn't been updated probably since the days when people actually knew what saccharin was.  Just stepping in there takes me back to 1984.  The disenchanting side of the place is that the groceries are all stocked haphazardly, forcing the shopper (me) on a scavenger hunt for each item.  For example, the sugar and flour are on different aisles.  In fact, when the gap was somewhat bridged and the lady asked for the sweetener aisle (she pronounced it "sweet-nah"), a new conundrum came upon us when the teenage girl then asked, "What do you want it for?  To sweeten coffee, or what?  We have different ones on different aisles." For Pete's sake.  I wanted to hug the third worker who finally put us all out of our misery by saying, "Ma'am, just come with me." 

Communication can be challenging.  It's one of the factors that causes bumps in marriages, friendships, and family relationships.  Our culture promotes spouting off without regard for the feelings of others, or there's the flip side...don't say anything at all because it's just not "correct."  Jesus was the perfect communicator.  He, too, spoke in ways that confused people, but unlike a minor saccharin miscommunication, His words took what people believed and rocked their worlds.  He spoke as "one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matthew 7:29).  Jesus unwaveringly made statements that the God of the Universe is allowed to make, such as:

"Many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Matthew 20:30).

"I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." (John 6:35)

"I am the light of the world.  He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." (John 8:12)

"For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind." (John 9:39)

"I am the door.  If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture...I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." (John 10:9,11)

"Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58)

"Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." (Luke 9:24)

"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor  hidden that will not be known." (Luke 12:1-2)

"Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17)

As I read over Christ's words, ponder them, meditate on them, and ask Him to clarify and help me mull over them, I'm understanding His power, glory, might, and authority.  He is God the Son, fully God, the "first-born of every creature: For by Him were all things created...all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by him all things consist...[he] is the beginning...For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." (Colossians 1:15-19, KJV).  We can have confidence that in this crazy world of uncertainty and miscommunication, Christ is never confused, stumped, or unaware of the answer.  There is no room for misinterpretation when the Creator of the universe speaks.  And He has the power to clarify it all...from the most monstrous discombobulation to "Where's the saccharin?"