When I was 18 years old, a neighbour friend and I decided to coach an under 10 years softball team. One of our pitchers was extremely fast and accurate for the age group. It helped out that he had several older brothers who helped him master the skill of an underhand wind up pitch.
We were in the midst of a difficult game and were far behind on the scoreboard. The problem was that little Dougy wasn’t pitching very well this night. At a low point when Dougy was having a hard time; Mom shouts out from the stands, “Dougy, pull up your socks!”
So Dougy stops pitching; bends over putting down his glove and proceeds to pull up each of his socks. The crowd lets out a howl of laughter and poor Dougy had no idea why they were laughing!
Communication is tricky business. Speaking to be understood is not simple. As with little Dougy, we can often hear words and terminology that we don’t always understand and it can cause us to follow through in inappropriate ways.
It doesn’t matter whether its in a friendship, marriage or any other relationship; communication is difficult even at the best of times. What I say and what you understand can be two very different things.
It reminds me how God has communicated to humanity through the prophets, the written word and eventually through the coming of His Son. Christ came to show us what God was like. When you see the Son; you see the Father. For it was by God's own decision that the Son has in himself the full nature of God. (Colossians 1:19 (TEV)) Christ went on to send us the Holy Spirit to be our helper and guide.
In all of this it seems to me that God has gone out of His way in order to communicate appropriately about Himself to us. Perhaps in all of our communications we too should “Pull Up Our Socks.”
