Bad Days

I am always struck by what the editors choose to include in Bibles designed for children. While it does make sense to focus on the more dramatic stories, and skip the generational lists in between, it can make some Bibles read more like a series of short stories than a seamless history. And it is telling what stories are omitted. I have several different children's Bibles on my shelf and not one of them mentions Job. Adam and Eve, check. Burning bush, got it. Man having a very bad day, loses everything and not so much as a mention. I think that is why I brought a broken bracelet in my box today. 

This bracelet is special to me. I like it. I received it when I was in Cuba. I am not sure if it can be fixed and I doubt it can be replaced. And one moment in a frenzy of animated conversation I smashed it against a door frame. That was a bad day. 

We all have bad days and we all have bad things happen to us. And while most of us would not blame God for a broken piece of jewelry, we are tempted to question the meaning behind other bad events in our lives like a lost job, a sudden illness, or the death of a loved one. And then we have Job. Job lost almost everything, his livelihood, his home, his children and his health. And yet he did not blame God. Even his wife said to him "Are you still continuing to be faithful to the Lord? Speak evil things against him and die!" (Job 2:9) Job's friends assume he has done something wrong to bring all this disaster on his head. They encourage him to repent and seek forgiveness from God. In the face of all this, Job remains steadfast. 

Job is difficult. It is not an easy story for adults, and I understand why some might think it doesn't quite fit with the exciting and uplifting Bible stories usually told to children. However Job reminds us that bad things happen to good people. We will experience illness, and grief and loss. I think it is important that children be taught that we may not always find meaning in the tragedies of life. That the bad days in life do not happen because we are bad. They simply happen. And in the midst of our worst day, when we are sitting with nothing left, the one thing we will always have, is God.

Visionary

Last week a dear friend of mine and of many, Betty Adams, passed away. Her funeral was on Monday and it was as beautiful as she was. In giving the homily the Reverend Neely Towe reminded us all of Betty's great gift, the gift of vision. And so in honor of Betty I put a pair of glasses in my box today.

One of the experiences that almost anyone who has ever worn glasses has had is the memory of getting that first pair and realizing that we weren't really seeing the world clearly. In an instant shapes become letters and words, green blurs separate into leaves on a tree and the details of life jump into focus. I am not sure that vision is appreciated as much by those who have never had it impaired, but being able to see God's creation is a wonderful thing.

Contemporaries of Jesus must have thought his disciples a ragtag group. They probably thought he was blind to choose the type of companions he did. Instead of  teachers Jesus chose those without education, instead of temple leaders Jesus chose fishermen and instead of those who seemed to live a righteous life Jesus chose tax collector and prostitutes. He saw these men and women not for what they were on the outside, but for what they could be, and over time they became the vision he had of them. Jesus said "Blessed are you. Simon, son of Jonah!...You are Peter. On this rock I will build my church." (Matthew 16:17) and Simon Peter did become the rock and foundation of the church.

We all have been given gifts and talents. Betty was a true visionary. She saw the world and everything in it not as we really were, but as what God called us to be. She was able to look into our hearts and see the best in us and we worked to become exactly what she saw.

Take some time to develop the gift of vision. Christ lives in the hearts of our children, in the hearts of those with whom we work and with whom we worship and in the hearts of strangers we meet during our day. Put your glasses on. Be a visionary. Seek to see the world Christ wants it to be.

Taking Pictures

I have missed our past two chapels together as my husband and I have been celebrating our anniversary in Italy. It was a wonderful trip, which we faithfully documented with several cameras of all shapes and sizes. One of my friends used to joke that with her husband if he didn't take a picture of something to him "it was as if it never happened". I was thinking of that this morning as I put my camera into my box.

The first part of our trip was in Rome. It is a fascinating city and we loved getting to walk around the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. It was awe inspiring to think about how many people had once lived in that spot, and see the ruins of structures I had learned about in school. Paul lived in Rome for two years, preaching the gospel of Christ, spreading the message of God's love to the Gentiles. We took lots of pictures.We then visited St. Peter's Basilica, where there has been a church since the 4th century as St. Peter's tomb is supposed to be deep below the altar and when we were allowed, we took pictures.

We are so obsessed with snapping pictures of everything these days, our activities, children, pets, even our food, that it seems strange that we have no pictures of Jesus. No instagrams of he and the disciples healing the sick. No portraits of Jesus with Mary and Martha for them to proudly display on the mantle. No travel album from Paul to accompany his many letters. We have no way to see anyone who existed at the same time as Christ. I reminded the children today that faith is believing in what we can't see, or as Jesus said to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me but have still believed". (John 20:29)

When we were down in the crypt at St. Peter's our guide told us a story. She said like many things in Rome, the current crypt was built over the foundation of an older church and that church was built over the location of several ancient graves and had been guarded by Christians for centuries as the place where the apostle Peter was buried. And while church after church was built on this site, there was no way to really prove that the story was true. That is until modern times when further excavation and dating were done on several of the bodies found there and one was identified as very likely belonging to St. Peter. It is a wonderful story. And if I had been allowed to explore that ancient area below the crypt and take pictures I am sure I would have. However my faith depends not on the proof of the existence of the bones of an ancient apostle, but on the belief in the life of a living Christ.