It Took Us Years
By Jim Huskins
McDowell County
In the summer of 1970, one of the preeminent song writers of the 20th Century got his first music job. John Prine was hired to entertain the patrons of The Fifth Peg Club each Thursday night. A few weeks into the gig, Prine decided that his audience deserved new material. On the way to one of those early performances, Prine wrote one of the iconic songs of his generation. He called it Souvenirs.
This unpretentious anthem is a tribute to the power and necessity of memorabilia. Somehow, a 23-year-old Chicago mailman captured in a few lines the perspective of a veteran of life, love, and loss. “I hate graveyards and old pawn shops, for they always bring me tears. I can’t forgive the way they rob me of my childhood souvenirs.”
A photograph or a ticket stub can trigger transcendent memories. Many craftsmen keep a treasured, old tool in a special place. My grandmother’s nicknack shelf held a porcelain elephant that sometimes provoked stories about my ancestors. I regret that recent generations will have no stack of old letters. One of my favorite souvenirs is a wooden stick. It has a rusty steel ring on one end. The ring that used to be on the other end was dislodged by the same force which broke this short beam in the middle.
During my twenties, I determined that I would learn to work with draft horses. We should have bought a gentle, well-broke team, but that option was beyond our means. I managed to acquire a Belgian gelding and later a mare of comparable size. They were two years old. I cared for them over a winter, and in the spring my friend, Mike Hart, agreed to help me train them. We worked them at his farm for about three weeks. When they were doing well in both a sled and a sulky plow, I decided to move them home. Mike placed his hand on my shoulder and spoke intently. “Do not hook those horses until I am there to help.”
I wish I had listened to Mike Hart. Instead, I harnessed the horses to my manure spreader and ended up in a dramatic runaway. By the grace of God, none of us were seriously injured. The real damage was psychological. My gelding’s training was set back by months. My mare never did learn to work.
Our runaway ended abruptly when the horses dead-centered a utility pole. That collision broke the neck yoke which held up the implement tongue. This broken yoke is the treasured souvenir I mentioned earlier. Since that runaway, I have kept the broken beam where I can see it. It reminds me to avoid haste and foolishness. It also challenges me to heed good advice.
Souvenirs can be more than a tidbit from some pleasant vacation or successful fishing trip. Yearbooks from my Bible College display faces of spiritual giants who dedicated their lives to training preachers. My ordination certificate reminds me that I have committed myself to serving Christ by guarding and guiding His flock. A black book titled Pastor’s Manual proves that many have preceded me in the grand work called Great Commission. This web of memory would be part of me without the associated objects, but precious tokens provide immediate awareness of my best work and intention.
Most Christians are unaware that God commands us to keep souvenirs. His Word says that we should display on our clothing items which function in the same way as my broken neck yoke. Numbers 15:37-40 reads, “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.”
The Hebrew word “tzitzit” refers to a tassel, fringe, or lock of hair. The woman who sought healing for her “issue of blood” touched Jesus’ tzitzit. The context of God’s command to wear them is a man who failed to “remember and keep the Sabbath.” He paid for that failure with his life. We have been told that God’s commandments no longer apply, but His Word says to keep them “throughout your generations.”
Negative association is a powerful force. After that heart-pounding runaway, my horses were terrified of anything which reminded them of the event. I eventually learned how to train work horses. I never had another runaway. That broken neck yoke still reminds me of the disastrous results of foolishness.
Positive association is equally powerful. Our Father paid an unimaginable price for our salvation. Many who accept that gift ignore the fact that He has also given us a blueprint of how to live. His instructions are found in Torah. He tells us in both Numbers 15 and Deuteronomy 22 that we should arm ourselves with constant reminders of what it means to lead holy lives.
The Bible teaches that salvation is a process which we should “work out with fear and trembling.” That process has no room for the delusion that sin no longer matters or that grace gives us license to be Godless. We are told to not “follow after our own heart and our own eyes.” Our Father knows our forgetfulness. He told us how to live, and He provided souvenirs of our call.
An old, broken stick reminds me to never harness myself to loads that I have no business pulling. Four braided tassels—which I tie from harness thread—remind me that I should never attempt to detach myself from God’s commandments. Jesus thought of everything. The only question is whether we will live on His terms or on our own.
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Jim & Beverly Huskins are members of Obedient Heart Fellowship in McDowell County. Beginning July 2, 2022 Obedient Heart Fellowship will meet at 10:00 Each Sabbath (Seventh Day) at 3023 US 221 N. Marion, NC. 10:00 A.M. Call 828-460-7913 for info.
You can read more good Christian news from Jim HERE.
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