The Hombre
Devotional Scripture
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. -John 15:9-17
After entering a patient’s room, Creacher walked past pale blue curtains, his eyes quickly zeroed in on a strong, stocky, and older hombre that was laying in a patient's hospital bed. Creacher introduced himself as his nurse and asked the hombre about his pain.
Hombre said, “I always have pain; in my back, in my knees and hands…everywhere.”
“When did it start?” Creacher asked.
“Well you see, I’ve worked very hard all my life since I was very young and it’s taken a toll on my back and body and my recent back surgery just adds to it.” Hombre stated matter of factly.
“What kind of work did you do?” Creacher asked.
“I’ve done all kinds of work, hard labor, building structures all over, but I started when I was a kid, picking fruit, field work-you name it.” Hombre recalled, as deep expressions of thought formed in his face as he pondered.
Then something changed,
Hombre’s eyes lit up. A smile formed that lifted his mustache intermingled with thick gray and white follicles. He let out a little chuckle and said,
“You know, I remember when I moved to Texas and was trying to get a job. I introduced myself to the boss and he interrupted me when he caught wind of my last name. The boss said, “I only know one man with that last name!” and the boss fired off, “What’s your father’s name?”
Pride, honor, and warmth exuded from Hombre as recounted telling the boss his father’s name.
The boss exclaimed, “He is your father!? Come on, get in here and show the guys how to get it done!
Hombre laughed,
“I got hired on the spot and busted my butt because I wanted to honor my father and didn’t want to make his name look bad! And I didn’t, I worked and got it done! My grandfather taught my dad, and my dad taught me to work hard!”
Creacher smiled and pondered about the power and beauty of that legacy!
One last pearl: Hombre said, “One day I was working really fast and not handling the fruit carefully enough and my father warned me, “Work hard but be careful not to bruise the peaches, the boss doesn’t like it when the peaches are bruised.”
To my fellow brother’s and Gospel plowers I say, “Amen!”
Conclusion
Hombre, the son who laid shackled to pain and in a hospital bed until he remembered whose son he is! The pain that is ingrained in his body due to honoring the legacy of his father, is what being a man or an Hombre, is all about!
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. -Colossians 3:23-24
