The Nature of the Nativity: Day 13 - The Scribes

Well, it's lucky day 13 of our journey through the nativity, and it happens to fall on a Friday! (cue suspenseful music) I'm writing this on Wednesday/Thursday, so it should be safe. Let's jump right in and get back to work on our nativity. Today I want to look at the Scribes. I'm sure some of you are looking at me confused because you don't remember any scribes in the Christmas story. Some of you are having issues with the whiteboard my scribes are using. Just go with it. 

Little Sparks

About a year ago, my wife found a journal that she just had to get me (it’s a Star Wars Moleskin). I decided to use it to keep track of the little moments I like to call “Everyday Jesus”. Why “Everyday Jesus”? Well, I’m glad you asked! It’s because I firmly believe that a little bit of spiritual truth can be found in everything we see. The problem is we often do not take the time to notice. In no way am I saying that Jesus is ordinary or uninteresting. In fact, it’s just the opposite. He is extra-ordinary! He chooses to insert Himself into our lives just so He can draw us into a closer relationship. I believe that this is one of the keys to the Christian life. Yes, read your Bible. Yes, pray, tithe, and help the poor. By all means, share the Good News! Do all these things but also build an actual relationship with Jesus. Listen for when Jesus whispers to you during your waking hours. Look for Him in all that you see and wherever you go. Let your mind wander to Him instead of to the latest news headline or work problem. Time spent dwelling on Jesus and his spiritual truths is worth so much more than the paltry things we normally fill our extra time with. Here’s one of the first one’s I wrote back in April of 2014.

Following the Blind Man Through the Gate

What are you scared of? I'm not talking about the normal laundry list of little things; I'm asking about the things that greatly unnerve you. What makes your heart race and your stomach turn over? This may sound weird, but the open sea scares me more than just a little. I'm not talking about being on a boat and sipping lemonade on the deck. I'm talking about IN the open water. There's no bottom in sight, much less touch. Your vision underwater is measured in feet instead of miles. You're at the mercy of whatever comes along...and you can't even see it coming. We went to a 3D movie a few weeks back and the camera zoomed in on a ship out in the ocean. Because of the angle and the 3D effect, it felt like you were swimming in the ocean toward the ship. I didn't like it. At all. Not one bit. What's funny is, I would love to get in a shark cage and watch a Great White shark go nuts except for the vast nothingness. I don't think I could handle it streaking out of the darkness going 40 miles an hour. Give me a half of a mile to watch it come and I think I would be all right…as all right as you could be with a cage keeping a shark away.

To be honest, it's really the unexpected surprise that terrifies me. I'm pretty sure that most of this is because of my severe near sightedness. I always joke that if they change the "E" at the top of the chart, I'd never know. Not being able to see can be a scary thing. For me, it's about power. Some of you ladies just rolled your eyes, but it's true. Not that I have to be more powerful than anyone else, I don't want anyone to have power over me! I want to be in control, and to lose my vision is to lose some of that control. Just like the murky water, I want to be able to see what is around me. I know these two topics seem completely unrelated, but it will all come together. We're still looking at the "I Am's" of Jesus but first I want to look at the story of a blind man. (pun intended)

1x1x1=1

Have you ever tried to explain something to a preschooler? With four kids, I have tons of stories of them trying to understand something that is way beyond their little minds. Some of the time they are hysterical, other times their questions have a ring of simple truth, but sometimes they can't hope to understand. Right now they are going through one of these times. My oldest son is 8 years old and right now he and my wife are in Bethesda, MD going through the beginning stages of a bone marrow transplant. They left June 1 and are hoping to be back around the first part of October if everything goes well. My other three children are 4, 4, and 3. They look at their dad and say, "I miss momma..." or "I miss my brother...".Because of the distance and because of the risk to their brother, they won't get to see them for at least three months and that's only if he is doing well enough for them to visit. As a father I understand all of this. I can see that this is necessary and that good will come out of it, but they can't. I've tried my best to explain to them that their mom and brother will be back, but that it will be a long time. The hardest time for them, and for me, is when I have to leave them some place. Whether it's daycare, babysitter, or grandparents, they don't want me to leave. My four year old son is the strong type. He gives me a hug and then walk resigned into the daycare. He'll stand at each window and wave to me as I walk to the van. He doesn't cry, but he doesn't smile either, he simply  accepts that I will be back. His four year old sister gives me a hug and is gone though I can tell by her eyes that she doesn't like this any better than her brothers; she seems to adapt the fastest to all this. My little one is not as big as his siblings. "But I miss you dad", is all he'll say as he clings to my neck , or leg, or hides behind me. So we hug and talk and give lots of kisses. I try to remind all of them that I will be back, it's just for a little while. I remind them of the things they do understand to help them accept the things they can't. Yes, I'm tearing up as I write this, but emotion is not why I began with this. There are some things about God that we cannot understand, we just have to accept them. One of those things is the idea of the Trinity.

Holmes and the Ant

I love knowing stuff. My mind has no problem remembering strange minutia and facts that are often of little value. Along with that, I love puzzles, but only puzzles I can figure out. Nothing is more infuriating to me than to get stuck on some kind of logic problem or mental trick and having to admit defeat. I guess it is in my genes to want to figure everything out. If that's not possible, I want to at least have more figured out than the next guy. I know it's not the healthiest attitude, but at least I'm aware of it.

I bring all this up to tie it in with one of my favorite fictional characters as a teenager. Sherlock Holmes was always interesting to read. I loved how he could take a seemingly trivial item or observation and turn it around to solve a major case, or at least make a break in it. Most of these were simple deductions that he would make concerning a scuff on a shoe and a stain on a sole. As long as the knowledge flowed in an understandable manner I was OK. However, it used to infuriate me when he would make leaps that weren't in the story line. I would get uninterested quick. Not because it wasn't explained at some point, but because I wanted to be in "the know". Does this sound like you?