A BASKET TO PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN

Do kids grow up learning clichéd axioms anymore? I miss hearing some I grew up with. We picked them up from our parents and elders. We didn’t understand their etymology; yet, when our seniors spouted them, they sounded like sage dispensers of great modicums of wisdom. The witty truisms seemed to us like easily gripped handles to tote around perspicuous truth. We felt smart when we later repeated them to our schoolyard friends. I’m talking about aphorisms like “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Or, “You’re going to cut off your nose despite your face.” Sometimes they came as observations in question form; for example, of the barking dog chasing a car down the road it was remarked, “What’s he going to do when he catches it?” But it is the “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” that I keep coming back to when reflecting on many’s expressed dispirited dejection following this past election. I suppose the thought of that proverb has been around as long as agrarians have been keeping chickens and gathering their eggs and taking them to market. But it was popularized in Don Quixote back in 1615. Not putting all one’s eggs in one basket captured the reality that it is unwise to risk all of one’s capital on one venture. If that venture fails, one has lost his all. I do not fault, lecture, or sententiously berate anyone. However, it seems to me, that so many are so keenly disappointed, discombobulated, discouraged, by the outcome of this month’s presidential election because they were so invested in it; they had put so much stock into it. Understandable. Doing so is even commendable. So much was at stake. But I am not talking about the investment of resources, time, emotional energy, interest, etc. I’m talking about the investment of hope. Too many put all their hope into the Nov. 03 basket. I’m not encouraging you or anyone to resolve not ever again to get your hopes up, get excited about, get involved in, anything ever again because you are sure to be disappointed, chagrined. Truth is, anything, anyone, any cause, that we put our hope in has, will, or has the potential of failing and disappointing us. Except One. Christ. Hope placed in Him will never be disappointed. He will not fail. He will fulfill. He will vindicate. Although this truth has been inculcated in me in my walk with God through the experiences of life, it was driven home poignantly this past July as my dad was transitioning from this life to the next. Because of COVID restrictions at the soldiers home where he was a resident, during his passing we were only allowed to be with him twice a day for an hour each time in the isolation of the facility’s chapel. Being in the chapel was fine. It gave us privacy. Its ambiance for that moment seemed more fitting than a hospital room’s. The last time we were with Dad, just before our last prayer with him, we sang one last song. Our younger son led us singing, “All My Hope Is In Jesus.” That’s the way to depart from this life. That’s the way to live this life. That’s the way to face eternity. That’s the way to face today. All one’s hope in Jesus. This is the one great exception to the axiom above. Faith in Jesus is one basket into which you would be well advised to put all your hope. No disappointment in doing so. Not now. Not ever. Before Don Quixote there was the wise man who said, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Pro 3:5-6). Addendum: Oh, I just remembered another inherited axiom. My maternal grandmother used to say, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” I will resist refuting that aphorism too by saying, God can! He can take the messed up life and make it a new creation.