Snapping my head quickly left to right, left to right, left to right looking at both of them I had no idea which one to thank first, mom or dad. This was probably the very last thing I was expecting. Two entire 162 game seasons I had watched him, studying his every move along the way. Although somewhat embarrassing to admit now, at the time I could rattle off his batting average, home runs, RBI’s, and was convinced he was the best infielder in the major leagues.

Chipper Jones

The very player I modeled my game after, my batting stance after, my glove and cleats after, even my slick, modern day come over haircut after, the very player I wanted to be and there he was in his full Atlanta Braves uniform sitting on my dinner table. Well, he was there in print form anyways. It was not only his baseball card it was his rookie card [if you know nothing about baseball cards, rookie cards are worth much more than a regular card and are typically the most rare].

My Super Soaker 50, slingshot, and prizes from Chucky Cheeses’ for my seventh birthday the year before had managed their way to the brown cardboard boxes of old toys in my closet already. They were far less important than this. They seemed so worthless to me in comparison to my new card. Even my other baseball cards didn’t compare. This was the card I wanted.  It seemed so much more real than a toy or anything I had ever received from any one. I remember I somehow felt closer to my favorite player, like I actually owned part of him through the card itself. I actually felt like I knew him. The card connected he and I.

I should have known mom and dad would pull through once again though. They always gave me more than I could ever ask for birthdays, Christmas, and any other time they could justify spoiling me with a gift. Even knowing that, this was far more than anything I had ever imagined unwrapping in the light of my birthday candles that day.

__________

A few weeks went by, and I remember bragging to anyone that was interested, and probably many who were not, about the card. It was a feeling that I could not describe. It was a joy that nothing could take away.

And then…

it happened:

the horrible disappointment.

Still, to this very day I can feel the horrible lump in my throat and heavy knot in my stomach. The feeling of having everything inside me twist and turn completely upside down as my heart dropped to the floor hitting everything possible along the way. I remember it vividly. I was sitting on my bed decorated with old, red, faded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles covers when it happened. [Yes, I was getting too old for Ninja Turtles but they were so cool that it would be years before I would finally let go of them and change my bed set]. My dad had stopped at the local market on his way back from work and bought me a magazine that would tell me the approximate value that any particular baseball card held at the time. It was obvious which card I was going to look up first.

The pages seemed to stick together as I was tearing through it flipping the shiny pages as fast as my little hands could. I skimmed through until I found the right year. My heart was racing. I was nervous. I was anxious. My hands shaking, I kept turning until I found the right brand. My eyes squinted a little as they ran down the list of player’s names that fit all the right categories of the card.

And then, there it was:

Jones, Chipper………………… $12.00

What?

This has to be a mistake?

There is no way this is right!

I was holding in my hand the very best gift I had received and this magazine was going to tell me it was worth twelve bucks. I remember being very upset about the idea that someone else could tell me how much MY card was worth.

The card belonged to me.

The card was worth more than twelve dollars. It had to be. I knew it was worth more than that. Even at the age of eight, this idea bothered me so badly I could not shake it from my mind. I thought about it and was disappointed all night. I lost much sleep that night.

I began to think of its value to me. I remember thinking that I would not trade it for any toy I could think of. I thought it was way better than anything my friends had. No toy, no food, no snack, no video game, and no amount of money matched up in my mind either, and especially not twelve bucks. No way! At that young of an age I don’t think I realized that if someone would have given me a ridiculous amount of money that I could have bought another or even more of the same card, so I was sure of one thing:

It was worth more than anything I could think of.

That’s right, even though I was told by the world it had a certain value, to me it was worth way more than that.

To me it was important.

It was a priority.

It was what I took pride in.

It was MY prized possession.

To me, it was

priceless.

__________

From the very second my parents bought me that card as a gift until a cold, Ohio winter day a few months later it had remained in its plastic display case, a hard, protective case that fit around the card perfectly. The case protected it from getting bent, damaged, or having anything else that could possibly happen in the presence of an eight year old boy happen to it. One night, I remember staring at it. It was sitting on my set of faded navy blue shelves in my room on display for everyone to see. I began to look, to gaze at it in the case and could feel it calling me.

My parents had warned me not to open it, but it was screaming my name. I could hear it loud and clear. In my mind I kind of remember it echoing in my head open me, open me, open me. It echoed like Jenny yelling at Forest Gump. Run Forest, Run. It was that very same kind of haunting echo.

It echoed and echoed and it would not stop.

Something in me had to know what it was like. Something in me desired to feel the card itself. Whether it was pure fascination and desire, or just an eight -year old boy bugged by something he knew he was not allowed to do so he wanted to do it I am not sure. But I did know I had a choice to make, it was everything in me calling for the card. I felt as though I had to open it. I just had to know all of the card in its fullness and its entirety, not just through the case.

I had to experience the card for myself.

Not through a case, plastic, or anything else.

Just me and the card.

I walked over to the shelves, looked at the card and picked it up in my hands. I remember looking over my shoulder a few times and then going and locking the door in case my mom would happen to walk in. I think I checked the door and lock five or six times. [I didn’t like getting caught doing something I was not supposed to by my mom].  With a deep breath and a pounding heart I did it, I opened the case.

There it was lying in my hands:

Shiny,

smooth,

crisp,

clean,

beautiful,

priceless [in my mind],

and best of all: no bent corners.

The no bent corners meant it was perfect. It was in perfect shape, worth full value. After a few minutes, I put it back in its case where it would remain for most of the time I owned it.

A Love Story

This story about my baseball card reminds me of another story I know: The story about a perfect God and His creation. It reminds me of a love story between a creator and a human existence through creation.

If you are not familiar it goes something like this: God created man. He gave us breath. He created lungs for us and breathed a deep breath of life into us. He created a heart for us, and gave our heart a beat to sustain life. He instilled in us a will to live. He gave us life. He knit everything about us together and made us for His pleasure just how He wanted us. He created man in His image to live, to love, and to be in a full relationship with Him. He created us to live a life in love with Him.

A true love story.

Then, there was the mistake in the story. Man turned their back on God.

They disobeyed and broke His heart.

We broke God’s heart.

The creator of the universe lovesick over us,

and we let Him down.

Sin entered the world.

It did not take long for sin to spread through humanity. Man was trying their own way instead of the way God had made for them.

It’s okay though, the story has hope, because God still loved each and every one of His creations. We cheated on Him, yet He wanted us back. Most of all, He yearned and desired for all of man to be in love with Him again. But, there was this void. Man turned away from God. Man turned away from their creator: the very reason they were created. This was the problem.

So, what happened because of this problem? God sent His son, part of Himself, to earth.

Why? He was giving man the ability to FULLY experience Him again.

God was taking Himself out of the display case.

No longer to be seen through any kind of case or box, or any kind of mystery or filter. God sent His son giving humanity, giving mankind, giving us the ability to fully experience Him for ourselves. He sent His son for us to hold, for us to touch, for us to meet, for us to experience with no case. He was giving us the ability to embrace Him again. He wanted us to fully live. He wanted us to be where He created us to be: with Him. He made this possible again by sending His son.

He sent His only son to us. He sent His only begotten [from his own likeness] son to us.

O, and in case I forgot the best part: No bent corners.

That’s right,

No bent corners,
Perfect,
Full value,
Priceless.

His name: Jesus.

Fully God and yet fully man.

He walked this earth day in and day out with humans. He had a birth, a childhood, He grew up with other humans. He came to our level and took on our humanity.

He ate what we ate. He drank what we drank. He breathed the very same air as us. Looked at the same sky, clouds, stars, and sun that we did. He went fishing with His friends. He laughed with others. He played with children. He taught us about His father and His kingdom, not only by mouth, but also by lifestyle. He ate and hung out with the poor, the sick, the outcasts, the homeless, the diseased, the hated, and the broken. He was a king and leader for everyone raised in the pits of society. Jesus: savior for the world who chose to sit in the dirt rather than on a thrown. He warned the rich. He rebuked the priests and church leaders of his time.

He connected with us.

Jesus was intentionally personal. When He healed, He touched the sick physically, with His own hands. When He spoke, He looked people in the eyes. When He died, He sacrificed His physical body, for us. Why was He personal? He was personal, to connect to us. He wanted us to know the heart of our creator. He wanted us to experience God.

God yearned so much for His creation to fall in love with Him again that He sent Himself wrapped in flesh. He took on our qualities: skin, bones, muscles, blood, emotions, feelings, desires. He came and walked the earth with us. Jesus experienced everything we experience as humans: hunger, thirst, hurt, confusion, love, happiness, anger, sorrow, and temptation.

The kicker is that last one: temptation.

God’s very son tempted in every way we are. His humanity made him every bit as weak and vulnerable to sin as any of us. He had full human desires but yet he never caved in.

He never failed.

He never fell short.

He never lost His purity.

Still priceless; still no bent corners.

Well, it’s God’s son, wasn’t it easier for Him? No, fully human as much as fully God; yet, without sin.

So, what happened to this Jesus guy? He was beaten, kicked, punched, bruised, laughed at, cursed, mocked and then nailed to an old, splintered cross.

Yes, the only sinless man to ever walk the earth killed.

Dead.

Without life.

Purity, perfection…. crucified.

Why?

Jesus was killed

For you

For me

For us

For every human everywhere at every and any time.

Jesus came in human form in human flesh and was brutally murdered to bridge a                                                      gap:

A gap between God and man;

A gap between a creator and creation;

A gap between a groom and His bride.

A gap between lovers.

Jesus, He was sent to bridge that gap. His death allows us to fully experience God. Jesus, He bridged the gap.

His flesh, bone, and things that made Him human were nailed to a piece of wood. But, His purity, His perfection, and His Godliness paid a toll for us to cross that bridge back to our creator.

Through Him, the love story has a possible happy ending.

Possible happy ending?

Yes, that’s right. I said it. The only perfect man to ever take a breath, the only man without any blame, the only man with no bent corners laid down His life at the possibility that we might fall back in love with God. The only truly pure blood the world has ever known that no value or worth could capture was shed for us.

Priceless blood was taken out of the display case, sent to earth, and spilled for man. Priceless, Holy blood physically fell to the ground for you and I. The blood was shed to give us a shot.

I am so thankful that is not the end of the story. Three days later, Jesus with the same body He had walked the earth in all His life, with the same body that had been beaten and crucified walked out of His grave. The same eyes that had looked out at a crowd mocking and killing Him opened as He came to life. The very same feet that had walked on dusty streets, that had walked on water allowed Him to step out of the grave. The very same hands that had healed the sick, healed the lame, touched the poor, and had nails beaten into them for us were reaching out again.

You see Jesus was still reaching because He still was not satisfied. He conquered death. He rose from the dead so that everyone could believe.

Everyone.

The death and resurrection of Jesus allows each one of us the opportunity to be in love with our creator again. Jesus had come and conquered death. We were made whole from His priceless, pure blood.

His blood was our atonement.

His blood filled every hole in who we are, covered any of our faults, sins, blemishes or short comings.

His blood made up for our bent corners.

His blood had bridged the gap between man and God. Remember the part earlier, where I said man turned their back on God. We walked away from our creator, but yet He was the one crawling back to us. He sent His son for us. He was sending us flowers, yet we were the undeserving lover. He built the bridge to reconnect even though it was us that had burned it down. We did not have to do the work. He did it for us.

Why? God desires for every single one of us to know Him fully.

“He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us-Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free.” [1 Timothy 2: 4-5]

He wants us to experience Him and love Him. God desires OUR love, and we cannot fully know Him and His love when there is a chasm between Him and us.

The solution was Jesus.

The solution is Jesus.

So, what does God want back? Acceptance. Acceptance of His gift is what God desires.

He did the work.

He sent His son.

He died for us.

All we have to do is realize and accept His gift of love. God desires our love. God desires us. We have to surrender ourselves to Him. We must submit to His power and offer all of us back to Him. We do this by accepting His gift of Jesus on the cross.

Now you will hear all kinds of things now days telling you the right and wrong way to do this. You will hear it warped and things added on to it. Really all that is required is accepting it. By accepting Jesus’ death we are saying that we realize who Jesus was, what He came to do, and desire to fall in love with God again. We are saying we desire to be back with Him: where we were created to be. Bringing balance and order back to the original purpose of creation. We are crossing the rebuilt bridge. We are completing the love story.

Reaching

The reason I said earlier that Jesus was not satisfied and His hands were still reaching was because He knew that just because He had died and rose again that not everyone would believe. He knew this gift of love would not be accepted by all.

So, What did He do to try and fix the problem? The same Jesus that died to redeem us,

that died to help us,

that died for us,

turned to

us.

Yes, the very same mankind that had turned their back on God earlier was who Jesus was wanting to help make sure that everyone has the opportunity to accept God’s love. After Jesus rose from the dead, [think of how we let that just roll off our tongues from hearing it so much. After Jesus rose from the dead……think about that. He rose from the dead! Wow.] He spent time with His disciples and friends. He appeared to them in physical form and proved to them that He had conquered death. One of the first things that Jesus does after getting settled back into …well, being alive again, was He asked some friends / followers if they loved Him.

Jesus asked some of his followers “Do you love me?” [John 21:15]. They answered yes, and were even kind of getting irritated because they thought that it was obvious that they loved Him. He said “If you love me then you will feed my sheep”.

Jesus was saying that God trusts us with His message of love. God has love letters for each and every person and He is trusting that we will deliver them to each other. And not only deliver them to those who did not know they had one, but making sure that everyone opens theirs. God is putting responsibility on our shoulders. He is telling us to tell of His love and His story.

Jesus told his followers “Just as the Father sent me, I send you” [John 20:21]. In the same way that God sent Jesus, Jesus is sending us.

Did you catch that? The SAME way.

That means that WE are supposed to be taking God out of the display case for each and every person to experience,

to hold

to feel

to know in His fullness for themselves.

He is trusting us with His happy ending.

It is not by our power that people can come back into a love relationship with God, we are only human, it is through God’s power and Jesus’ priceless blood, but He is asking for our help. He is asking for us to be like Him. He was sent to save the world. We are sent in that way. We are sent in the same way. “Just as the Father sent me, I send you”.

I want to be intentional about things that matter. How about being intentional about time. Realizing our surroundings, constantly trying to use our time to be productive and make a difference? How about being intentional about looking for oppurtunities to make someone else’s day better. How about being intentional about feeding one of the hundreds of people who starve on a daily basis in our city? How about being intentional to pray with sweat and tears for each other or needs when nobody is looking? How about being intentional about lowering our spending to increase our capacity to give away? How about being intentional about being MEN and WOMEN and keeping our body parts inside our pants and to ourselves? How about being intentional to encourage rather than find the negative.

HOW ABOUT BEING INTENTIONAL TO MAKE ALL THESE THINGS WE DO AND NOT JUST TALK AND BLOG ABOUT????

Our human nature tends to be lazy. We want to sit back. We always find an excuse. So for some of these things to happen we have to be intentional. We have to make time when we say there’s not. We have to find a way, when we say there isnt. Just some thoughts i had after me and some friends challenged each other with this today.

-BP-

Christ was sent to earth. He took on our flesh and bone. I guess i had never really thought about what it would be like to be so high and then take on the flesh of a lowly human. Was it disgusting? Was it fascinating? I wonder what His first stomach ache felt like….or His first pulled muscle. Crazy that the Savior of the World might have felt those too. I began to wonder what “fully God yet fully man” feels like. That in itself is enough to keep you thinking for a while. Anyways, it began to hit me. The crucifixion. The very flesh He took on must be ripped apart. The very blood He took on must be poured out. The very humanness that Christ himself came and took on for US is what was demanded. He took on our human qualities for US. Then He let them be ripped apart for ….US. I wonder what it feels like having everything you took on, everything you became at the sake of humanity be crushed. The very body He took on for our sake must be broken. It was everything His human side had grown into. Broken.

See though….”fully God yet fully man”. His Godliness, his divinity is what made His death redemptive. That is what made it the bridge between us and God. But it was His body that was slung up on a splintered piece of wood and brutally pounded to death for ME. for YOU. It was our humanness that broke His. Everything about Him that was human was now beaten and bloody. Broken.

John 20:21 has Jesus saying “Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” Now, i know i am not part God or divine. But, i do know that i can be broken. Maybe when some of my human qualities and cravings are broken more of my Godliness will show through. Although my blood would not mean much as a sacrifice, we are sent as He was sent. SO maybe if we are broken some then something special can happen as well.  Just some thoughts. It certainly got me thinking more about what it means when i take in His body & His blood.

THIS IS MY BODY.  Broken.

-BP-

“The whole point of what we’re urging is simply love- love uncontaminated by self-interest & counterfeit faith, a life open to God” [1 Timothy 1:5]

See my whole life i realized God has shown me uncontaminated love. He has no self-interest. He loves me because He just DOES! He loves me and wants the best for me. I mess up…..and mess up….and MESS UP! And then i MMMMEEESSSS UUUUPPP! Yet, at the end of the day i see a sign of Him or feel Him and know He is still holding me and welcoming me with a warm embrace. HE loves ME! that itself blows my mind. Like, He has a fatherly love and a lovers love for me. I Brandon James Puckett possess the ability to break the creator of the universes heart…..YOU possess the ability to break the creator of the entire universes heart [doesn't that blow your mind]. And, we do it…all the time. But when we do he loves and loves….and LLLOOOVVVESSS.

See it hit me that anyone who follows God is supposed to model thier love after our Father’s. Our love is supposed to be uncontaminated. No self-interest or motivation. So i realized when reading this. I have been receiving Dasani or SmartWater all my life….yet, what i give is tap water. I’m not saying i have the ability of God or can even come close to matching all of His love. But….i AM saying i’d like to try and love with all that i got. I would like to offer an uncontaminated love. Uncontaminated….nothing in it for me, ya know…love the same when nobody is watching. When it doesn’t make me look like a saint. When nobody will find out about it. I wanna LOVE. Let’s hand out some bottled water this week…..

-BP-

People talk about finding happiness. Happiness & horrible are both always in existence. It’s about which one we rest in & which makes us restless.

–BP–

Also, a child creates freely…they do not worry what someone will think. When my 14 month old niece finger paints, she makes her picture of slopped around colors, normally gets done smiles or laughs and always somehow manages to be covered in paint at the end. If you were to give most adults a brush and a canvas as soon as they were done they would notice how it could be better, or show it to thier friends and say “well its not really that good” or “i am not an artist”. The thing is we all are artists, but the child ends up covered in thier paint, saturated by their creation and freedom. The adult can’t even enjoy the creativity because we tend to be inhibitted by our pride and lack of freedom. Our first reaction is to see other’s reaction. We somehow size ourselves up and gague our worth at something by how others react to it instead of enjoying something we like doing. If Edison sized up his ideas by others’ reactions i might be sitting in the dark right now. If the Wright brothers were not covered in thier paint my family might not be on a plane home right now. So for everyone who wants to accomplish something big out there. For anyone with a dream or goal…..slop around in your paint for a while. Let it cover you and smile….or else you might forget your desire for it. You might lose the burn of why you do what you do.

For me. ….i want my childhood back. i wanna blog and not care if anyone reads it. I want to speak my heart and not worry if someone thinks my ideas or dreams are stupid. I want to read my Bible and have my first reaction be belief and not doubt. I want to embrace some of that again. Kinda a wierd thought…..just something on my mind today.

–BP–

Donald Miller says in Through Painted Deserts “We are shaped by our experiences. Our perception of joy, fear, pain, and beauty are all sharpened or dulled by the way we rub agains time”.  When you think about time and how small we really are it can be a little overwhelming at first. The ten seconds that it takes me to type this sentence, I will never get that back. The ten minutes it takes someone to read this, they can never have that back. We are constantly living in a friction with time. We rub against time. My becoming aware of how small i am might sound negative, but it was not depressing, just more eye opening. Although somewhat overwhelming, i also got to thinking everyone else is just as small as i am. Lebron James, President Obama, Beyonce….all a spec of sand. A thread on the XXXL shirt of time. This made me see how realistic it might be to make a difference even in the vast span of time. I was thinking small scale, which can result in large scale. If i can effect one persons life, whether something big, or a smile and a friendly wave per day….thats very realistic, and in turn that is 365 people in one year. Thats the way i want to rub against time….making a difference.

Albert Einstein had this thoery, which has been studied scientifically since, that things that travel at the speed of light do not age. I find it incredibly interesting that people living a relationship with God are called to be light to the world. As we all rub against time and are so limited by the short,insignificant time we have here…..maybe we can be more like light. As we all age, and our bodies get old and start to fail us….maybe the things we do will echo further than us. Maybe we are called to be a light, because the effect we can make will not age. Light can break the limitations and laws that restrict everything else. God calls us to be a light.

One man, one person a day, 365 people a year…..who knows how many years…and who knows how many changes result. Its kind of a Butterfly Effect Thoery….but its just a thought. I believe as a light to a dark world, we have the oppurtunity to be something bigger than ourselves. We cannot change the fact that we rub against time, but how far will that friction carry out? Maybe I could be an aging man with an ageless cause.

__BP__