There once was a loving couple who had the wife’s elderly mother living with them. Their concern was for her security while both of them went away to work each day. They finally seemed satisfied after they had devised a system of twelve different locks and bolts for the front and back doors of the house! The only problem was that they overlooked the old woman’s technical ability to operate all these devices. When a friend would want to call on her during the day, or when she would want to go out and enjoy the backyard, she had to turn down such opportunities because she didn’t know how to get all the locks and bolts open! She ended up being a daytime prisoner, all in the name of feeling “secure.” One doesn’t even want to think of what might have happened if there had ever been a fire in the house. Her children had good intentions but carried them too far. The Sabbath, too, needs to be guarded, but the religious leaders of Jesus’ day carried things too far.

Richard W. Patt, All Stirred Up, CSS Publishing