<< Previous | Next >>

The Baby Doctor and Bible Study

Recently I met with a patron of our ministry. She is a Pediatrician and a well grounded person whom I have known for over 30 years. She is generous and encouraging. She is also brilliant. Her father and mother – Irish and Italian, raised four girls right next door to me.

While I grew-up, I saw their father, a robust and very physical man, express love his children. He was not an educated man in a degreed sense, but a man whose genius lay in surveying the things that matter most. He and I were friends.

The Baby Doctor’s father made an impression upon my life as a young man. When he died, he gave me a lesson I have often shared with others. “Every young man needs and older man.” His impression upon my being lead me to a more inquisitive and thoughtful mode of Bible Study.

In the course of time, I grew-up, went to college out of state and pursued my career. I grew distant from my neighborhood friend only because of geography. My work was in another city. On Holidays while visiting my mother, I would invariably see my friend. When he made his appearance from out of his house, I would engage him in conversation.

He was a true delight of a man. His way was a strong hand and a big heart. Any further metaphors would reduce what he was to cliché and he was not that, he was entirely unique. There was no guile in him. Because of that, I am convinced that he was what Christ loved, a regular guy. He was a human Bible Study. By that I mean, he was the kind of man with whom Jesus would have enjoyed keeping company.

My mother referred to him as “her bodyguard.” You see, his physical presence was a mountain. But he was kind and gentle. He was comic, and entertaining, but there was more to the man than that.

He was engaging and thoughtful in ways that had you asking for more; wait just one more laugh, just one more story, just one more second. To know this, you would have had to have experienced it for yourself. He was a library and an open book. He was a human Bible Study, once engaged, you find yourself asking for more.

He was a surveyor by profession, so he studied the land. Details of the land were expressed in plots and numbers and precision was expected. Nothing was neglected. When it came to being a father, he did the same. He studied his daughters and they studied him. There they found themselves, looking over his things, examining, studying. Perhaps his daughters didn’t feel him walking upon their hearts, but he was there. Bible Study that matters most is the study of the person; each individual person surveyed by the Father Himself.

The looking inside each of us and the examination there by that great Physician, has the greatest value. To Him, the things lay of our land matters most and He has not missed a single detail. I just so happens that we are found in His Word, the Bible. Every dedicated surveyor of His Word knows this and plots out maps for others.

Now his girls, the Pediatrician, the Professor of Chemistry, the Research Scientist, the Planning and Facilities manager are found studies of the man and his wife. They together were fruitful and multiplied their love into their children. They have released them well prepared into the world for the benefit of others. They are the living studies of their parentage - in times of trial and in times of success. This has a striking parallel in Bible Study.

When we arrive at our adulthood, we discover that knowing what we were created to be is our highest calling. It all leads back to Him – the Father. We find He is as Good as His Word. There we discover He is busy at work, helping us to open-up to Him. When we do, we find in the mirror of our lives, His reflection. He sees us and we see Him.
 
While I was away on business, my friend died of a sudden, totally unexpected heart attack. In that long ago past before cell phones, my mother phoned my hotel to give me the sad news. I wasn’t there to receive it. I was busy climbing the corporate ladder. Later when I returned to my hotel, I received her message. By a mistake, I understood the call to be about another acquaintance with the same name. After all, my friend was much too young to die. So I prayed for the other person’s family. Being a young man busy making a name for myself, I didn’t phone-back my mother for the details. I have learned better since then.

Nearly two weeks later, I returned from business. It was then I discovered that I had misunderstood my mother’s message. In fact, my neighbor friend had died. I felt empty and cheated. There were things we hadn’t talked about. Perhaps we missed-out on hundreds of conversations, and a hundred billiards games, and the sharing of the same football stories heard a hundred times over. I didn’t even get a chance to introduce him to my children. Now the only way that they will know him is second hand. While that is good, knowing first hand is  best. That is a Bible Study all by itself.

Later I felt selfish. Here I was feeling sorry for myself and his girls each had suffered so much loss. He meant a great deal to them. Curiously, I discovered my sorrow to be very much the same as theirs and at the same time, altogether different. My experience with him was personal, it wasn’t corporate. That is why church is very much different from Bible Study. One is mutually shared and expressed, the other is personal and internalized.

I prayed for his family, feeling entirely unable in my natural being to express anything meaningful. My heart felt drained of blood. The loss of his presence was immediately felt. I sensed separation. Losing him was different than losing my grandparents. He was a special person from outside of my reality. When he shared himself with me, it was if I was transported to his world.

After he died, in my personal Bible Study, I desired real answers to eternal questions. Where did my friend Carl go. Where is the part of him that I loved. What becomes of his memories, his experiences, his hopes and his dreams? What about the aspect of his being that animated his body? For the first time I sought life and death answers in Bible Study. In my state of mind, fact became less important that faith; faith worked because of His love.

I reached back and surveyed carefully what the Bible teaches about life and death. I plotted-out what Jesus said. I asked Him about abundant life and the meaning of loss. I asked about redemption in Christ and about His given faith in us. I asked about the meaning of eternal life and I discovered that He thinks eternal life is knowing Him. Imagine that, I can know in my mortal self, eternal God.

Recently the Pediatrician and my wife met over lunch. Dr. Carla made me laugh. I heard her dad. She made me think, I heard her dad. She encouraged me, and I felt her dad very near.

The fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree. God meant it that way. You can find that out and so much more in Bible Study.

Submitted by Ivan Jude Perrino