A couple of weekends ago, my parents went back to North Carolina for the weekend. During the late 1970s and most the 80s, they taught at Mt. Pisgah Academy (MPA), a Seventh-day Adventist parochial high school near Asheville. It was the 30 year reunion for a class they sponsored that they still look back on rather fondly, and that class had invited them to lead out in a large Sabbath School class for the attendees.
There were a number of people who asked about me, apparently. Now, I was a 9 year-old kid when they sponsored that class. When they started out at MPA, I was 5. We lived on the campus in a rental house, and I had (sort of) "free run" of the place. We didn't have to worry too much about traffic as there wasn't much of it. We were in a fairly protected environment, so it was nothing for me to go play pretty much wherever I wanted to. It was a great place to be a kid!
I guess I let it get to my head a bit. I could be a holy terror as a kid. That class (and a few others) remember me as being one of the "Bad Boys of Pisgah." Another kid named Aaron was born there not long before then that took some of the pressure off. I could pass on the mantle to him, so to speak.
There was a man there, however, that took a liking to me. His name was Ted Graves. "Uncle Ted," we called him. He called me Tex (I was born in Houston and most of my family hails from the Lone Star State). I cannot remember a time when Uncle Ted belittled me, upbraided me for bad behavior, or treated my like a "bad boy." What he did was treat me like I think Jesus treated the kids in Matthew 19:13-15. He suffered me, I'm sure. He treated me with the kindness and dignity that others might have withheld. He got to know me.
It's largely because of people like him that I follow Jesus today. Ellen White, the author of The Desire of Ages and a multitude of other books, wrote in those pages, "Never give them [children] cause to feel that heaven will not be a pleasant place to them if you are there" (page 517). Uncle Ted certainly didn't make anyone feel this way that I know of. Uncle Ted was an accent of the opposite. If there was one person in my life that I would hope defines the personalities of heaven, it would be him.
Jesus' heart is drawn to children. Good ones and "bad" ones alike. He loves those we call model kids, but he loves the "bad boys of Pisgah" every bit as much.
Friends, do you know a kid or two? Pray for them. Pray for their parents who every day have struggles of their own and try so hard to raise kids who are respectable and contribute to society and who love Jesus. As a parent, I know I need it. But maybe today you can get to know a kid or two a little better. Sure, get to know a "nice" kid better. If we ignore the "nice" ones, they may not stay nice. But even if they're obnoxious, loud-mouthed, bullying little hooligans... could you be the one who knows them too? Shows them kindness that others withhold?
Uncle Ted died just a few years ago. But I know there are more of him in the world. If it's you, keep stepping up. If it's not you, do some soul searching. We need more like him. I know I want to be one.
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