Trouble Comes in Threes

Posted by stevehoward on Sep 30, 2009 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

I grew up with two brothers, Dan and Will. I love my brothers to death, but when I look back at some of the things we did together as kids, I don’t know how my father kept his sanity. I remember visiting a warehouse when we were little boys. The three of us wandered off while Dad was talking to someone. We found a loading dock, and several empty Coke bottles nearby. One of us (Dan is the oldest, so we blame him) grabbed a bottle and threw it out the loading dock. Crash! It exploded into hundreds of little pieces. A few minutes later, there were no bottles left, and a huge pile of glass on the driveway. It was the most fun we had had all day, right up until the moment our father walked up and saw the damage.

“Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers…” When I read this passage, I wonder if Paul sees the Corinthians the same way my father saw us standing there on the loading dock. A father has such a deep level of understanding, of knowledge that no number of brothers or peers could replace. Paul knows from what he’s heard from the Corinthians that they don’t need more tutors or peers in Christ; they need a father with a deeper faith and understanding.