Splinters, logs and God

By KATE BLAIN- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Some kids have a hard time spelling. No matter how much they try, they always seem to get the words wrong.

Do you laugh when that happens?

Some kids get laughed at all the time for spelling words wrong. They feel embarrassed and hate it when everyone laughs.

Are you one of those kids?

In this week's Gospel (Luke 6:39-45), Jesus talks about both kinds of people: The ones who laugh at other people's problems and the ones who have problems. But Jesus sees them as the same!

Jesus asked His followers, "Can a blind person lead another blind person? Won't they both fall? And why do you tell your brother, `Let me get that splinter out of your eye,' when you've got a big log in your own eye? Get the log out of your eye first; then you can help your brother."

If you laugh at someone because he can't spell, he's not the only one with a problem. He might have a hard time spelling, but you have a problem with being hurtful to other people, and that's just as bad.

That's what Jesus was telling us in the Gospel story: Everyone has problems. Everyone is "blind" in some ways, because just like blind people aren't good at seeing, everyone has things they're not good at. It's easy to make fun of the "splinter in someone's eye" (the problems another person has, like spelling) and forget the "log in your eye" (the problems you have, like teasing people).

Jesus said that before you can laugh at someone else, you have to think about the things other people might laugh at you for. That means we can never laugh at each other! But if you keep busy trying to be a better person, you won't have time to laugh at other people's "splinters"!