Caught 'Red Handed'?

I have many memories of my kids growing up where the foolishness of youth grabs you. I will never forget when my son and I fixed up an older BMX bike. We spray painted the bike a metallic blue. It was a great looking bike from the red girly color from before. I can remember coming home from work a few days later to see blue paint sprayed on the backside of our chimney. I saw the evidence lying around the paint area. There was a small board that was painted blue and then the can of blue spray paint. I eventually find my son with blue paint all over him. I ask him the obvious, “Do you have anything to do with painting the back of the house blue?” His response, “I didn’t do anything! Why are you picking on me?” As I look at him I see blue paint all over him and it becomes obvious that he had been playing with the spray can of blue paint.

I can remember as a young teen that played in a rock band. We did have aspirations of making it to the Ed Sullivan Show like the Beatles or Rolling Stones. One of the dynamics of living on an Air Force Base in no wheresville Montana was there wasn’t a music store on base. So we started hanging out at the little store in town close to our high school. This was in the days of vinyl records and lots of sheet music. It wasn’t too long before a couple of the guys figured out how to shoplift certain items. We thought we were really cool and got away with it. Then the day happened that one of the guys, by himself, tried to do something and got caught. Our shoplifting career stopped!

Yesterday was our last day at Pecos Pool. We had gone 6 weeks in a row and averaged almost 50 each time. The staff at the pool knew who we were and a part from a few; don’t runs and don’t gang up on someone in the pool, it had been a relatively quiet summer with no real issues, yesterday, changed all of this. One of the mom’s with her kids at the pool had her IPhone stolen. There were some that had witnessed this guy with a friend take the phone and then try to hide it. This was someone that was new and had come with a friend that recently got involved.  These guys had disappeared outside the pool.

Eventually these teens surfaced and the inevitable happens, the interrogation with me and the older manager of the pool, who also doubles as manager at another pool in our neighborhood. She knows most of the kids but didn’t recognize this one. Fortunately for these teens the mom got back her phone thanks to the IPhone tracking app. The mom didn’t’ want to press charges. The evidence was that the phone was wrapped up in a guy’s gym shorts.

As we talked to these teens they were adamant about being innocent. The difficulty was that they had walked out of the pool area and were in the larger park area. They were obviously upset and acted like they were guilty, yet, none of them wanted to say anything. When I went back to find who would fit in the shorts it was clear that it probably was this guy. I was thankful that the pool manager was willing to help put a little fear into these guys.

I know that one of the most difficult life lessons to learn is that it is better to confess and get right than pretend to be innocent when all of the evidence points to you. I know that I’m no different than my son or these teens when it comes to being really transparent and honest. I’m really thankful that most of the teens are horrible thieves and usually get caught quickly if they try anything ‘dumb’. The great news this day was that one of my other teens was quick to tell what really happened. This helped the day finish with a little better ‘taste’ in my mouth. I’m reminded that grace has to be part of my daily mindset. I pray for these couple of younger teens that weren’t ‘happy campers’ yesterday that they will see the need to be honest and experience God’s mercy.