Photo and Commentary (c)2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, December 27, 2024
This past Thursday, while I was driving east along 192nd Street in south Renton, I passed Meeker Middle School, which you see in the photo above. It is Christmas vacation, so the usually teeming parking lot was absolutely empty — except for a squarish vehicle which had been carefully positioned in a parking space.
It’s what is called a scissor lift. You use it when you want to get access to somewhere you can’t safely or conveniently use a ladder. Once you’ve stepped into the little cage at the top, you can operate the controls to hoist you — and whatever tools or other items you’ll need, such as light bulbs for replacement in a high ceiling — right up to where you need to be. And if you’re not acrophobic — or if you resolutely refuse to look down from the heights — you can complete your task and lower yourself back down to terra firma.
As soon as I spotted the lift, I did a cautious U-turn and snapped this photo. I was originally trained as a teacher, and during the years I spent in the classroom, I knew that my instructor’s role was that of a “lift” — to patiently and resolutely raise my students’ skills (in my case, English literature and writing) to higher levels than when they first arrived at class. That’s what a school and its staff are supposed to do.
And as a pastor, I have a similar responsibility. Right now I’m deciding on what sermon themes I’ll be preaching in the new year. And I know that the power which will lift souls (including my own) to a higher knowledge of, and greater love for, the Savior will not be my own, but will happen through the Holy Spirit, when people read and understand their Bibles.
Have you decided on a Bible reading plan for 2025? I’m working on a revision of the plan at the link below. But it won’t be that different, so if you’d like to get started on it, just click this link and read all about it. When you click it, you’ll see that I begin the section with several suggestions I think are helpful. Check it out!
https://bellevueadventist.org/read-your-bible-through-in-a-year/