Most Important

Rev. Richard Fairchild once related a story from his childhood. He had this memory of his father walking into the living room and his younger brother, John, cowering slightly in response. He immediately sensed that John had done something wrong, and from a distance, he then noticed what it was. The younger boy had opened his father’s brand-new hymnal and scribbled all over the first page with a pen.

Staring at their father fearfully, both brothers waited for John’s punishment. Their father picked up his prized hymnal, looked at it carefully, and then sat down without saying a word. Books were precious to him. He was a minister with several academic degrees. For him, books were knowledge – which makes what he did next remarkable. 

Instead of punishing his brother, instead of scolding, or yelling, his father took the pen from the little boy’s hand and then wrote in the book himself. Alongside the scribbles, his father wrote: “John’s work, 1959, age 2. How many times have I looked into your beautiful face and into your warm, alert eyes looking up at me and thanked God for the one who has now scribbled in my new hymnal? You have made the book sacred, as have your brother and sister to so much of my life.”

On reflection, I love the way the father handled that situation. I don’t think I would have handled it so well. But I have to imagine how those boys, as they grew up, would look back on that event, read those words, and remember how much they were loved. I also have to imagine that over the years, whenever the father picked up the hymnal and looked at the scribbling and his own words, he would ever be reminded of what is truly most important to him in life. It was truly the father’s response that made the hymnal holy.

Let us pray: O God, grant that we would have such forethought and grace in our own relationships. May we never lose sight of what is truly important – not things or objects but the people we love. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.