All right, here’s what happened.

I never did know for sure which team Mack was for.  All I know is the one he hated: ours.  He missed no opportunity to slam our players and coaches and me for supporting them.

This made little sense, seeing as how Mack was a native of this area.  But when I wore  a shirt sporting our team emblem, if he was in the yard–did I say we were next-door neighbors?–Mack would make a derogatory remark.  Sometimes he would unloose a stream of profanity and more than once called the owner a scoundrel.

Now, I can understand neutrality about a team one doesn’t care for, but hostility? That one escapes me. Mack was most definitely not neutral. He hates us.

One time when we were talking over the backyard fence about something or other, I told Mack I had met his sister the other day and what a nice person she seemed to be. This set him off again. He informed me that she had been a cheerleader at one time for our team, and he thought she was a fool. He cursed her, cursed the team, and said the fans were idiots.

When Mack opposed something, he took no prisoners and left no one in doubt where he stood.

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“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Think of the Creator as a Master Artist. A Craftsman superior to all others. Can anyone doubt that He is?

Look at the incredible, mind-boggling beauty across the universe. Look in the distance at the stars and galaxies. The Hubble telescope has revealed such stunning visuals which up until now, only the Heavenly Host saw and enjoyed.

David reveled in the tiny portion which his eyes could take in: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him?” (Ps. 8:7-8)

Look nearer home, at the planets and our own Earth. Travel the Earth and take in visuals delights like–naming some of my favorites here–the Rockies, the Smokies, the Western plains, the sugary beaches of the Gulf Coast, the Painted Desert, New England in Autumn, and San Francisco from a distance. And yes, the Holy Land, Egypt, the Italian peninsula, and Ireland. The variety is endless, the majesty awesome.

Closer still, look at the jaw-dropping beauty ot a child’s face, the stunning perfection of a winter rose, a closeup of an opal, and the heart-stopping thrill of a double rainbow after a storm.

Those whose work confines them to the laboratory see God’s handiwork under a microscope. The professor sees it in the mathematical precision by which the universe functions. The historian sees God’s hand in the movements of men and nations through the centuries. Those in the medical field see God in the healings that occur under their watchcare each day.

God, the Artist.  He is the Original Originator, the One whose craft the rest of us imitate and copy and admire.

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For reasons not entirely clear, these days I seem to be getting invited to do a lot of high school assemblies. The principal will gather the several hundred youngsters into the gym (on one side only, so everyone can see my easel), introduce me as “Mr. Joe McKeever from New Orleans. He’s a cartoonist and has a message for us today on ‘lessons in self-esteem he has learned from drawing 100,000 people. Let’s welcome him.”

And that’s how we start.

But I had started 10 minutes earlier.  After setting up my easel on the floor of the gym (with cardboard under the metal feet), I began sketching teenagers as they entered the gym.  Kids love this sort of thing, and soon a crowd had gathered.  I can do one drawing per minute, so a fair number have been sketched by the time the school leader settles everyone down and gets us started.

The teens already know what I do, since they’ve seen the drawings, and are excited.

Earlier, the principal or his/her assistant has given us names of several teachers, the coach, and a couple of boys and girls to call out of the stands to be sketched.  The best students to draw are the ones who, as soon as we call their name, everyone screams. They think, “This is going to be fun.”

And it is. It’s all about fun, but with some important lessons thrown in for good measure.

For the first half of the program, I sketch these adults and youth, then for another 12-15 minutes, launch into my talk about “lessons on self-esteem I’ve learned from drawing 100,000 people.”

What are the lessons? There are five.

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“Just as soon as I get all my questions answered, I’m going to become a Christian.”

“Just as soon as I get on top of all my problems, I’m starting to church and live for the Lord.”

“Just as soon as we get the boat paid off, we’re going to start tithing.”

“Just as soon as I get the feeling, I’m going down the road and witness to my neighbor.”

“Just as soon as my mama dies, I’m joining that wonderful church we’ve been attending.”

Just as soon as.

But not today, of course. Why not today? Well, I don’t have the feeling, I still have some questions, money is still tight, and mama wouldn’t like it if we joined a church outside of the denomination we were raised in.

“Another man said to Him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.'” (Matthew 8:21-22)

Either Jesus is our Lord or He isn’t. But He will not stand idly by and watch us pile up obstacles that prevent us from obeying His will.

You can always find them.

As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say, “It’s always something.”

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I had an epiphany two nights ago.

After arriving home from a revival late, I was doing my nightly (boring) fluoride routine before going to bed, and had turned on the television.

A local channel was running a program on “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Harper Lee classic from 1960 that was turned into an award-winning movie starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham.  The program featured interviews with various celebrities on how the story (the book, the movie) had impacted their lives.

It was a fascinating show, one that I could not turn away from.

Just last week, I had bought the book (“Scout, Atticus, & Boo” by Mary McDonagh Murphy) containing these same interviews, and had eagerly devoured it. (If you want to conclude that I love “To Kill a Mockingbird,” go to the head of the class.)

So, after reading the book last week, I had the experience two nights ago of seeing the book, so to speak.

That night, lying in bed trying to get to sleep, I was struck by the difference in reading the interviews in the book and watching the subjects actually say those things on television. That’s when something struck me about the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s one thing to have a message in print; another thing entirely to have it in person.

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Last evening, I stepped inside a diner a few blocks from my house to pick up the sandwiches I’d just called in. The place was busy–it was Friday evening and suppertime–and I spotted two kids at a table with their mother, so took my sketch pad inside.

“Ma’am, may I draw your sons?” showing her my pen and sketchpad.

“You’re an artist?”

I said, “Cartoonist.”

“Sure. That would be fine.”

The first one, a boy about 9 or 10, looked up with a killer smile and eyes aglow, so I drew him first. It takes 90 seconds. Then, I sketched his big brother while we made small conversation. Last, I drew the mom. She was friendly and trusting and we talked about that. I get a lot of skepticism when walking up to complete strangers asking, “May I draw you?”  People worry that someone is going to try to con them into something. It’s understandable.

A few minutes later, while in the line to pay for my order, the mother came over to give a takeout order, and we continued our conversation. One of her sons goes to a local Christian school, but she does not go to church anywhere.

“I’m skeptical of religions and churches,” she said.

Our visit was cut short at the counter, and she promised to check out my website, so I want to continue the discussion with her on the blog. Had we had longer to chat, this would have been my next statement:

“That’s good. There are so many weird religions today, so many churches of every type imaginable, and so many unfaithful ministers, it’s good to be skeptical. It’s good to have a healthy skepticism.”

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“Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them….” (Jeremiah 45:5).

“Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, with things too profound for me.” (Psalm 131:1).

We’ve been having this little give-and-take on Facebook. As one who enjoys stirring the pot or provoking comment, I often throw out a subject just to watch people spar. But this time I got in a little deeper than I’d planned.

All last week, I worked at the Muskogee Children’s Camp, held at Kiamichi Baptist Assembly in remote Oklahoma. I spoke twice a day and sketched all 500 attendees. It was a full week, and the weather was scorching. With no newspapers, no radio and television, the only news any of us heard came from our cell phones. (What about our laptops? Getting the internet required jumping through too many hoops, so I left mine in the car all week.) The point is: no news at all last week.

That’s why, when I returned to (ahem) civilization and heard about the Chick-Fil-A thing in the news, I was unaware as to what had taken place. Apparently, the head of the company, Dan Cathey, had said something in a news conference that ignited a firestorm of reaction from gay activists, and Christian activists got involved. It will not come as a surprise to anyone on Facebook to learn that a lot of the Lord’s people have strong feelings on such matters.

And that’s when I got in trouble.

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Some issues never get settled.

Some truths never become fully known.

Some questions never yield their answers completely in this life.

That’s where faith comes in.

We go with the evidence that we have, make a faith decision as to what the missing evidence is saying, then go forward.

Hope that is seen is not faith. For why does one hope for what he sees? (Romans 8:24)

Here are five issues you will never know fully in this life, and may find yourself struggling with (occasionally) from here on in. The fact that we may never know them fully does not inhibit us from searching them out and trying to know all we can. After all, these are the big issues of life.

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I’m at the age where the Lord gives me small glimpses of Heaven.

The message on Facebook last evening came from a classmate of one of my sons. They graduated from high school nearly 30 years ago, so the event he refers to happened that long ago.

Matt said, “When I finished high school, I wanted to go to college but didn’t have the money. You paid for my first semester and bought my books.”

I have no memory of any of this.

He said, “But I goofed off and did poorly, and wasted your money.” He was apologizing.

Matt went on to say later he got his act together, went back to school, and received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and is doing well in life.

He said, “Squandering your gift has bothered me all these years.”

I assured him he had not squandered it, that it would appear the incident taught him lessons not available in classrooms, making it money well invested.

I added that I’m sorry he has felt poorly over this because in truth, I have no memory of it at all.

Later, I wondered if I should have told him that. Does he think he was unimportant to me? (I barely knew him even then. As I recall, Matt did not go to our church.)

A minister named Randy once told me something his father did. I said, “That is the most perfect recipe for misery I can imagine.” Here’s what he did….

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