Clayton’s People
Luke 4:18,19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me. He has chosen me to tell good news to the poor. He sent me to tell prisoners that they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. He sent me to free those who have been treated badly and to announce that the time has come for the Lord to show his kindness.”
As you and I chug-a-lug on through life, it’s honestly very easy to stop feeling for people who don’t have what we have. It’s honestly very easy to focus on our needs to the exclusion of those in desperate need.
Back in the seventies there was an advertisement for a drink called Claytons. The idea was that if you wanted to go out drinking but not consume alcohol, you’d order “a Claytons”. It’s the drink you have when you’re not having a drink.
A catchy punchline … and so “Claytons” became part of the vernacular. A Claytons anything was something that looked real, but wasn’t. Make sense?
More and more, as I see how we treat one another in the world today, I’ve started wondering whether somehow we imagine that it’s possible to have a Claytons person; a person who’s really not a person at all?
So for instance, a baby in its mother’s womb; is that a Claytons person? Or perhaps the street people and beggars that we walk around on the footpath – they’re almost always smelly. Are they Claytons people?
Or maybe the workers in those factories across Asia who make the toys that our children play with and the clothes that we wear, all for a few cents an hour. Are they Claytons people? Jesus said this:
Luke 4:18,19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me. He has chosen me to tell good news to the poor. He sent me to tell prisoners that they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again. He sent me to free those who have been treated badly and to announce that the time has come for the Lord to show his kindness.”
I wonder … as He looks around, does He see any Claytons people on this earth? What do you think?
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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