I haven't forgotten about this! there were a couple of nights this week where i'd get home at 10 and just be so beat that i'd go right to bed. Hopefully I'll get caught up this weekend, because, I'm about to head to bed!
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I've been using the TNIV and Message versions of the Bible for this and for the first verse from Genesis I looked at the TNIV and it starts out "Now the earth was corrupt." Now, I have no idea how many years have passed between the garden of Eden and the day that Noah was asked to build the ark (I googled it...) but I know that Noah was 500 years old at the time. So we're talking probably thousands of years where humans were screwing things up. It almost seems at this point that God is just going to finally get ticked at people and wipe them all out. But there was Noah. Noah was a good man and God thought that he should build an ark, which by the way is about 4 times as long as my church about 5 as wide and a whole lot taller, which would fit Noah, his sons, and their wives, plus two of every animal. Once that was done the earth was pretty much wiped out. How's that for a loving God?
Have you noticed that every night so far, it's been the same thing? People mess up and God still wants to take care of them. And we have the promise that another flood like that will never happen again.
So, apparently I'm not on top of this blogging thing, I've got three to write tonight to get caught up! The third day of the Jesse Tree is the story of the first sin. I wasn't sure what to write about, but the good thing about taking so long to write it is that I had a chance to talk to Russ about his thoughts on the story. We all know the story right:
God created the earth and streams sprang up from the ground to provide water since no rain had been sent. The God gathered some dust and created a form of a man and blew life into him. He put this man into the garden that he created, Eden. It was filled with trees to provide beauty and food, with one tree in the middle of the garden that was not to be eaten from. God set Adam out to care for the land. He decided that man should have a companion and created the animals, which Adam named, but did not find a compainion. God took one of his ribs and formed it into a woman, Eve. Adam and Eve lived in the garden hanging out, naked and happy, enjoying each other a God, until one day...when the serpent appeared. He met Eve in the garden and convinced her to eat the fruit from the tree in the center of the garden. After eating it the humans realized they were naked and became ashamed and hid from god. God gets mad that they disobayed Him and punishes both the humans and the snake. The snake is made the lowest of the animals, and A&E are kicked out of the garden and Eve goes and gets women cursed for all times.
I was telling Russ that I wasn't sure what to write about for this day and we started talking about how God is all knowing and knows everything we will do before we do it. So if this is true, he knew even before He created Adam, that humans were going to go and mess everything up. And he still creates humans! He knew that the very first people that He created were going to go and mess it up for every one there after, but he still did it! I probably would not have. I probably would have said, "I set up this amazing world, it's perfect and I don't want anyone to mess it up. I'll bet that these two people are going to go and screw something up, so maybe I just won't make them and keep the place looking good." (And I probably have thought this about things that I've set up at work, planned out an activity then decide not to do it based on one or two children that end up in my group.) But, again, here we are a very, very, long time later, still screwing up the world, and God goes a head and let's us do it, lets us make mistakes and learn from them, and still loves us the same.
As I'm writing this, I'm also checking out a devotional for parents (http://www.jesse-trees.com/parent/parent-devotions.html) and for today it also references a few verses in Romans. The summary of these verses (because I don't really want to copy and paste huge sections of the Bible here) is there is death and judgement because of Adam's sins, but Christ's one act of righteousness saved us all. (The whole passage is Roman's 5:12-21)
Today's symbol is the apple :
Since the theme of the Jesse Tree is how God has shown his faithfulness to His people through out the Old Testament, it only makes sense to start with the creation of people. I really liked the Message translation of today's verses, Genesis 1:26-31
26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."
29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
And there it was.
31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.
Two things really strike me in this translation, first that we're responsible for everything on this Earth. Yeah, we all know this, right? But to see it put like that:
"God blessed them:"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."
We have been blessed to take care of the Earth and everything on it, and I know that most of us do and if we could all get one person who doesn't to do one thing, it would make a big difference, all the little things add it. One of the things that has made me really happy over the past few school years is that my school is making an effort to use less paper by laminating daily forms and using the same form everyday, we've also condensed these forms to make less of them. I can't say for sure, but I can imagine that these two things have cut back on a bit of paper consumption.
The second thing that stood out to me was the last verse:
31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.
We are so very good in God's eyes! Even when we're screwing up (which of course hadn't happened at this point and is actually tomorrow's topic) but He doesn't care! He's willing to forgive and forgive and forgive, as many times as we need it, because we're good, so very good to Him. There's a song by David Crowder (and I'm sure many other's but I happen to have the DC version) Everything Glorious and the chorus is "You make everything glorious, and I am yours." Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that I'm right up there with the Grand Canyon or a beach sunset, or what ever people find glorious.
So they symbol for day two of The Jesse Tree is the dove, not the symbol that I would imagine, but Russ's input is:
"The creation as God intended is to live in peace, so the dove as the symbol of creation as God originally intended." (And if I misquoted him, I'm sure he'll reply!)
So, I love Advent and Christmas. I've been secretly listening to Christmas music since October, and not so secretly for the past few weeks. I wanted to do an advent calendar but all the ones that we've seen were too commercial, or had santa all over them. While I love giving (and yes, getting) gifts, I hate that Christmas has become all about waiting...for Santa to come. Yes, we're waiting, but we're waiting for Jesus and waiting to celebrate his birth, not some fat old man with a sack of gifts. Then I remembered having dinner at the Woodworth's house a few years ago and and they had a Jesse Tree, which I thought at the time was pretty neat, and then kinda forgot about until the other day. I had wanted to try to make one to do a little bit with my niece, but seeing as it was Wednesday when I thought of it and she was coming Wednesday night, it wasn't going to happen!
I thought though, that I would still like to do one, but haven't found a pattern for one, so I would do a virtual Jesse Tree instead.
The idea of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-10:
The Branch From Jesse
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.
The branch out of the stump is a symbol of hope out of discouragement. It's also seen as a way to connect the stories of the Old Testament to the story of Christmas,showing God's faithfulness throughout the years while waiting for the Messiah to come.
The first symbol is the tree:
The second verse that goes a long with the tree is 1 Samuel 16:1-13
Samuel Anoints David
1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”
5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”
12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.
I'm not the writer of this family, maybe I'll get Russ to write a couple of these, but I hope to get through the whole thing during Advent!
Hello my few dedicated followers, most (if not all) of whom are related to me. We haven't done much blog-worthy recently (I'm not sure if we ever really do, honestly) but Sandy's right, I should try and write more, whatever it is, so I'm going to *try* and be better at this.
Anyways, this whole BP thing ... yikes. I read somewhere that if BP had invested in a roughly $500k sonar detector designed to shut down oil rigs in case of imminent leaks, this could have been avoided. I'm guessing with record profits for the oil industry over the past few years, BP coulda shaken a few couches and checked under the car seats for a little change to cover that. Major fail on their part. Aside from failed cleanup attempts and reading about environmental effects (and for great bedtime stories, you can read about what could happen if a hurricane hits the oil in the gulf), I find it's pretty interesting how it's being covered in the media at large. Of course, BP has taken a beating, and deservedly so, and even without disasters like this, oil companies generally aren't liked all that much (see: record profits and $3 or $4 gallon gas). But let's read a little story.
Presidential candidate receives loads of campaign money from an oil company. The candidate goes on to win the presidency. After being in office for a while, despite his former candidate being widely detracted for holding similar views, he starts pushing for offshore drilling expansion. A few weeks after that, that major oil company who supported his campaign has an offshore oil rig basically blow up and leak oil everywhere causing an environmental nightmare which also impacts the industry of an entire region. And the president? He does nothing but stand back, make a press conference or two, slide back from openly supporting offshore drilling at such a politically inopportune time, and basically twiddle his thumbs over the whole matter until he feels greatly pushed into that role by an increasing outcrying public.
This is not to condemn the actions taken (or not) by Barack Obama. I'm not entirely sure what a president *should* (much less *can* do) in a matter like this, where the bulk of the blame lies on a private enterprise. There's not a direct correlation between this matter, and say, Hurricane Katrina. But just imagine for a moment what the media coverage and public outcry, particularly in online blogs and commentaries, would have been if, say, GW was still president. It would have been ugly and full of vicious attacks both politically and personally. Obama? Well, he's not exactly getting a free pass, but it seems fairly mild to me at least.
I guess it's interesting to see how much perspective on something can be changed simply by the fact if one of the principle characters is generally liked or not. I know this is a sweeping generalization, but the media more or less likes Obama, while they more or less hated Bush. I don't think the same questions are being asked of Obama as they would have of Bush. The analysis seems to shift more blame to the Big Bad Oil Company (and probably rightfully so) and give the president more of a free pass. People who question the president's role and (lack of) actions (I don't listen to them, but I assume the usual chorus of Beck and Limbaugh and the like) seem to written off as right wing nuts and not having a valid point to make on this matter.
From the official White House webpage, Obama is meeting with his newly minted Oil Spill Commission with set goal of "pledging accountability for BP and government officials who have been too cozy with the oil industry over the years." Bush was certainly accused of that, and I would be surprised to see his name bandied about once again before this whole mess is over with. But let's not forget, Obama is one of the "too cozy" politicians too, and with his stated pledge of transparency to the American public during his inauguration, I hope he doesn't forget that either.
I am not all that well experienced with grief stemming from the loss of a loved one. I have had some great aunts and uncles pass away, some great grandparents when I was younger, a friend of a friend, etc, but no one I considered myself to be overly close with or some one who I considered to have played a major role in my life.
Until yesterday.
My grandmother (who we have always very affectionately called Granny) passed away yesterday morning after a long battle with multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis, among other ailments. It's tough to sort out how I feel about this, especially since it is dealing with personal grief for the first time. On one hand, it is certainly tough knowing that I have seen her for the last time here, and knowing how much she has meant to everyone in our family, myself included. On the other, to know that she is at a place where she can finally experience rest and renewed completeness is a blessing. One of the images that has lifted my spirits over the past 36 hours or so is that of her and her husband, Irwin (who died in 1980 before I was born) laughing and dancing in heaven, joyful in being reunited once more, her body no longer weighed down by broken down bones and muscles but instead renewed and made perfect.
There are many things I will remember about her. The last time I saw her was Easter weekend after hearing things were progressing for the worse. I have learned over the past few years when visiting to not ask how she is - not because she would complain, per se, but it''d be a more pleasant visit for her to hear how things were going for us rather than for us to focus on her. She was faint of voice but still listening intently as I rattled on about the honeymoon, first few months of marriage, new job, etc, and happened to mention something about doing something with some friends. She kind of visibly perked up for the first time, opened her eyes slowly and whispered the question, "Do you consider me to be your friend?" I was taken back for a few seconds by this, and the only way I could think to answer her was by sharing all of my favorite memories of the two of us with her, like:
- If you didn't know, she lived with my family until I was, I don't know, 12 or 13 or so. My parents converted a one-car garage into a pretty nice little "in-law suite" connected to our house via the laundry room.
- Growing up I wandered over to her "side of the house" to play games - so many games of Yahtzee and Parcheesi, as I grew older, Scrabble. She never let me quite win but always willing to bend the rules a little bit for me. She let me return letters and redo turns just so I could make big point moves like "diet."
- She loved the Phillies even though they were pretty horrible for a long time. I would watch many games with her, get frustrated by them losing, just for her to say "Just wait, it's not over yet." I think it's because of her that baseball has become my favorite sport. She loved Harry Kalas and a lot of the players - Pat Burrell has lost the biggest fan he has ever had.
- I remember she had a pet canary or something of the sort and I helped her clean its cage every so often. While doing so she would put the canary in a shoe box and close it. When you're seven, this is hilarious - who puts a bird in a shoe box? We would both laugh about it while layering down some fresh newspaper.
- When she was more mobile, she had a motorized scooter/wheelchair she could take out and about. We would go around the neighborhood, her on her scooter, me on my bike. Every once in a while we would get up to the end of our neighborhood onto a busier street I wasn't allowed to bike on yet. She would have me hide my bike under someones tree in their yard, I'd climb on her scooter and we'd go together to the Dairy Wagon up the road to get ice cream together, just the two of us.
_ I remember her going on vacation with us up to Vermont one summer.
- I remember being sad when we could no longer take care of her as her health declined and she moved into a nursing home.
- There were lots of great visits in the nursing home though. She kept on top of family news as best she could and always was interested in what we doing, whether it was middle school, high school, college, or beyond. She read a lot of the articles I wrote for the high school paper, and maybe some that I wrote for Penn State's Daily Collegian, too. I don't think she always understood what we were up to, but was pleased to hear that we excited about this or that, and happy that we thought to share it with her.
-I told her about Sandy before anyone else in my family (well, on that side of the state, anyways. Ben and Megan probably picked up on things a little before that!). Granny was at my mom and dad's house for a visit on a weekend I was home, perhaps for my cousin's wedding. It was right around when Sandy and I started dating (though we didn't dare call it that yet!). I told her that I was beginning to see this new, pretty girl who just so happened to bake a pretty darn cake, and that I was hoping it'd turn out to be something special. Well, it did! I remember going to see Granny after Sandy and I announced we were engaged. We made sure to keep it under wraps from family (aside from other immediate members) and gave her a picture of the two of us with the words "Engaged December 13, 2008" on it. I will never forget the look on her face - the surprise, the corners of her mouth forming a smile, her eyes glistening with tears. She was so happy, she even let us move the picture of Pat Burrell she had on her door so we could put it in its place (a pretty prime space of door real estate, optimal for viewing and sharing. We knew she was pretty happy and considered it a big deal when we could bump Pat down a spot or two!).
As great as all these memories are, I'll remember her for more than that. Granny is the shining example of faith that I have seen in my life. It would be pretty easy to say that she was dealt a tough hand of card in life - her various, debilitating ailments, a widow for 30 years, the struggles of helping raise a large family - but she wouldn't look at it that way. In everything, her faith was kept strong and strengthened. She often talked about God, and although I know she didn't always understand why she was going through this struggle or that challenge, she prayed continually and gave it over to God. She never once seemed bitter or angry about her life or situations - her faith was rock-solid and centered in God and situationally tossed around. A few years ago, when she had one of her healthscares where her outlook was questionable, I remember visiting her in the hospital. It was just the two of us after the others had said goodbye. She asked me to lean in and if I could do something for her. "Absolutely," I said. She asked me to keep praying for a specific someone very close and near and dear to her heart. This strikes me still - in the hospital, hooked up to machines, not sure what's going to happen, and instead of her focusing on herself ... she was thinking of those she loved, and was more concerned for them than she was for herself.
Granny, in case you're taking a break from dancing to catch up on blogs up in Heaven, I want you to know I love you and miss you. You mean a lot to me, and your faith inspires me to be rooted deeper in Christ, and to not be swayed by situations and doubts and fears. You are my friend but I consider you to be so much more. It is an honor to be your grandson, and I am so thankful for the memories and blessing you have given me. I hope to one day make half the impact on my family and descendants as you have made on yours, to be the shining example of purity of faith and humbleness at heart that you are. Your body may have betrayed you, but you have never betrayed your soul or your faith. I love you. Find peace and rest.
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