One of my students brought me a dandelion expressing how beautiful it was. She was right. It was glorious with its bright yellow petals splaying out in a perfect circle. What surprised me was she did not know what it was. She did not know its name and she did not know that it was the same thing as those round balls of white seeds one can puff into the wind. She was an inner city girl.
At first I was incredulous that she would not know but I took a deep breath and thought of all the things I do not know. Surely God must shake His head at my ignorance of things I should know having lived so long. At this point I could start listing my sins and point out that I should know better. But not wanting to embarrass myself or my family I will just say the list isn’t short. God must think, “How can he not know after all this time.
Many of my students who I so arrogantly think don’t know much are multilingual. I am not. I have students who speak fluent English, French and Spanish. Yet I have the unmitigated gall to think I know more than they just because I happen to be lecturing in my field of study. It isn’t that I know more; I just happen to have a skill set in a narrow area that is required of them for graduation. In real life they know so much of which I am totally ignorant. Just Monday afternoon I mentioned a country music song to one of my Mexican students who immediately looked at me and told me the name of the artist and what year it was recorded. So much for thinking I knew something!
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 5, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org