THANKFUL

    All the holy Scriptures are inspired by God when he moved upon men, through the Holy Spirit, to record his words. God’s word teaches us, corrects us, trains us in righteousness, and rebukes us when we rebel—2 Timothy 3:16 (paraphrased by Jimmy).

    My twenty-two-year old granddaughter, Cassidy, recently graduated from cosmetology school. Being the good grandpa [Buddy] that I am, and how she can twist me around her little finger, I started going to her for haircuts. I prayed her only men’s haircut did not involve a bowl. She shampooed and towel-dried my dirty-blonde-peppered-with-grey hair before lopping my top-mop to an appropriate length for a sixty-nine-year old, conservative Aggie grandfather.

    She held up her scissors. “The guy is coming this week to sharpen these,” she said. “They’ve had a workout.”

    “I can sharpen your hootus for you,” I said.

    “What?” She stood back, incredulous and opened mouth. Her auburn hair, standing on end, turned redder as she stared darts at me. “You can sharpen my what?”

    “You know,” I pointed toward the scissors. “Your hootus.”

    A little confused, she held them up. “These clippers?”

    “Yeah, those. I bought a grinder at the feed store that I use to sharpen my garden tools. I can sharpen them.”

    My normal morning coffee ritual involves drinking at least two pots of coffee, plus maybe a Starbucks when I go out. Today, I wasn’t as mentally alert as usual, having drank only three quarts of “battery acid” before my 10:00 a.m. appointment. With so little caffeine in my system, a Malaysian tree-sloth possessed more cognizant skills than me.

    “I had a senior moment, sweetheart. Let me explain,” I said. “A hootus is an old-folks term we use when we cannot think of the name of something. It’s like a thingamajig. When us old guys have a temporary lapse of memory and can’t think what to call something, it automatically becomes a hootus. I’ve used that word all my life.”

    “I’ve never heard of hootus before,” Cassidy said. “I didn’t know what to think.” Then she giggled. “I just thought, Oh my gosh, Buddy!”

“With some people, these senior moment lapses are a regular event.” I told Cassidy of some past hootii—plural of hootus—incidents I wished I could take back.

To the lady in the Wal Mart parking lot whose car keys were falling out of her purse, I warned: “Lady, your hootus is falling out.”

To our company’s biggest customer concerning re-programming an engine computer: “Sure, I plug into hootii all the time and put new life into them.”

To the IHOP waitress, when I ordered: “Just bring me some hootus, please. And make it fresh.”

To my boss, when we compared the size of our cell phones: “Wow! My hootus is twice the size of yours.”

    God knew I’d have these senior moments, so He gave me a constant companion to be my helper. Before Jesus returned to the Father, He gave his followers this promise: He would send a helper, the Spirit of Truth—the Holy Spirit, who would bring to our minds all that Jesus said and did.

    The assurance back then is the same for today: The Holy Spirit from God lives inside our heart and reveals what He sees God the Father doing. This holy insight enables us to emulate Christ’s character. Jesus said His Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. The Spirit’s discernment exposes the devil’s tricks, and he has plenty of those up his deceptive hootus, but God’ Spirit reveals the devil’s schemes so we’re not deceived.

    The Lord God, our creator, just spoke and creation happened. But when God made his greatest creation—mankind—he personally formed man from the dust in the ground. God made man his image and trusted mankind with one of the same attribute he possesses—the ability to communicate. God had no problem calling his creation what it was: “Light,” “Earth,” “sky,” “sun,” ‘moon.” God gave the task of naming the animals, plants, and all the other parts of creation to Adam. If that task fell to me, I would have been stumped after “dog,” “cat,” or “tree.” I’m sure many animals, vegetables, or minerals would have hootus in their name somewhere.

    God showed his wisdom when he inspired men, by the Holy Spirit, to record his words (2 Timothy 3:16). Scripture tells us the writers searched for just the right words to record God’s thoughts in an honest and upright manner (Ecclesiastes 12:10).

   Words matter.

   The Holy Spirit’s job is to correctly and consistently relay God’s word of love and grace to mankind throughout the ages. Our Bible is not necessarily a manuscript of world history, although stories in the Bible and historical events have been found compatible. The Bible is a love story of the relationship between God and mankind and God’s plan to reconcile sinful man back to him.

    I’ve searched, and nowhere is hootus found in the Scriptures.

    God always has the right words to say when we need to hear from him. His word teaches, corrects, and trains us in his righteous ways. And be assured, God uses his word to firmly, yet gently, rebuke us when we need it.

    Thank you, Lord God that your word is sufficient to guide us and to guard and keep us on our faith journey with you.

    Stay close to Jesus.

    Jimmy

    Another senior moment. The right word failed me when I complimented the IRS auditor concerning her luxurious, oversize office chair: “Wow, do all IRS agents have a hootus as big as yours?”

Jimmy Eskew © 2016