Genesis Notes: God's Covenant Confirmed

GENESIS 35 & 36
God tells Jacob to move to Bethel, which if we look back at Chapter 34, is where he was supposed to go in the first place! So although it didn't seem like a big deal at the time, if Jacob had just gone to Bethel from the beginning his whole family would have been saved a world of pain. Good reminders for me to go the distance even when it doesn't make sense. I like the way this sums up Jacob's mistake and then shows what he did to get right with God.

I don't know why I'm continually surprised that these Old Testament stories have such good lessons for me right here and right now. You'd think I'd be used to that by now!

Sebastien Bourdon, Jacob Burying Laban's Images

Some of us, given the chance to intervene at this point, might choose to punish Simeon and Levi. Justice must be served, after all. But God's ways are not our ways. They will be punished in good time, but Simeon and Levi are not the root of the trouble. To punish them would be a stopgap measure at best. In the same way, destroying sinful man with the flood was not the final solution to the Fall. God planned not to destroy but to save mankind by grace, however undeserved. Wiping out "the bad guys" would leave sin in control of men's hearts, and it was sin itself that had to be dealt with. In this case, God first zeroed in on Jacob's heart, and called him to get right with Himself.

God told Jacob to return to Bethel, to settle there, and to build an altar to the God who has been so faithful to him. Doing that would do more than remove the family from the scene of the crime, where they could expect further trouble. It would put them where they should have been to begin with, and focus them back on God and on His plan
for them.

It might seem a small thing that Jacob built his altar and settled at Shechem instead of at Bethel. After all, Abraham received the promise of the land at Shechem (Gen. 12:6-7). Jacob did all the right things, just not at the right place. He followed the spirit of the law, we might say in his defense. But God has His reasons for asking particular things, and He requires obedience. Jacob did what God asked but he did it on his own terms. Not going as far as Bethel may be a small thing in and of itself, but it indicates a huge problem inside him: His way, not God's way, took first priority. By returning to Bethel, Jacob will not just obey the letter of God's law, he will humble himself to do things God's way. By settling there he will separate his family from Canaanite influence. And by building an altar and worshiping God he will have the chance to repent, to be purified, and to start again.

In Jacob's response we see that in spite of his mistakes, his heart desire is for God. He acted immediately to move his family to Bethel. In the process he did four important things:

1. He had everyone get rid of their foreign gods. Before anything else, they had to get rid of anything that kept them from giving themselves totally to God. Jacob's family divided their allegiance between God and the household gods that were part of the culture they came from and settled in. The other gods had to go.
2. Next Jacob had them purify themselves, and change their clothes. That external act was a sign of what they needed on the inside before they could be reconciled to God.
3. Now they were ready to go to Bethel, the "house of God." This meant not just doing what had been left undone, it meant putting themselves physically in God's presence in a conscious way. Jacob took them to the place where God appeared to him and gave him the promises, and sought His face there.
4. Finally, Jacob worshiped God at Bethel. When you worship, you acknowledge who God is and His greatness and your dependence on him. You accept His will. You throw yourself before Him. You pray when you worship, and as the Catechism says, "Prayer restores man to God's likeness (CCC #2572)." In prayer and in worship, Jacob got back on the road to following God and to becoming more like Him.

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Not your mother's fairytale: Cinder Allia by Karen Ullo

Cinder Allia has spent eight years living under her stepmother’s brutal thumb, wrongly punished for having caused her mother’s death. She lives for the day when the prince will grant her justice; but her fairy godmother shatters her hope with the news that the prince has died in battle. Allia escapes in search of her own happy ending, but her journey draws her into the turbulent waters of war and politics in a kingdom where the prince’s death has left chaos and division. Cinder Allia turns a traditional fairy tale upside down and weaves it into an epic filled with espionage, treason, magic, and romance.

I really enjoyed Karen Ullo's first novel, Jennifer the Damned, which was a fascinating, unexpected vampire story. So I was interested to see what she'd do putting an "untraditional" spin on a familiar fairy tale (is that a genre yet?).

She begins in full blown "this isn't your mother's fairytale" style with Cinder Allia (Cinderella) learning from her fairy godmother than the prince has just been killed in battle. Because the fairy godmother messed up. Ouch.

Where do you go from there? We do have a wicked stepmother, a ball for all the maidens in the land, a lost slipper, cinders, and many of the traditional props, but they all turn up in unexpected ways. I thoroughly enjoyed it when they would appear, woven into a richer, fuller story that included a really interesting political situation with a neighboring country.

The story is told from multiple points of view, including the royals scrambling to recover from the prince's death. Several themes come to the fore. All the characters are driven by some sort of loss or failure while struggling with how to balance truth, justice, and mercy. And, of course, love.

There is also some background about how Allia's mother died and why her father allows her to be treated so badly (he's still alive in this version). I didn't enjoy this part as much because there were a couple of points that rang false to me, emotionally.

My quibbles are not enough to keep the story from being entertaining and definitely worth reading. Cinder Allia is a richly woven tale that stands on its own merits.

(Full disclosure: I received a review copy of the book. But my opinion is fully my own.)

Lagniappe: French breakfast

The French think that a man can face the day with chicory and milk, and a croissant, which probably accounts for their unstable politics.

Robert Heinlein, Glory Road

We All Scream

I loved narrating this short piece about a happily married wife and mother whose ice cream truck business runs into an unexpected problem one day.

It's as if the author knew me! I was pleased and humbled that EscapePod asked me to read it.

You can find it on iTunes (episode 585) or here at EscapePod.

Worth a Thousand Words: Leo Tolstoy

Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887). Ilya Repin (Russian, 1844-1930)

Worth a Thousand Words: Before the Storm

Before the Storm by Edward B. Gordon

Well Said: America and Corinth

America is strikingly similar to Corinth. According to polls, most Catholics consider themselves "Americans who happen to be Catholics," rather than "Catholics who happen to be Americans." Two of the words they dislike the most are "authority" (or "lordship") and "obedience." Yet these are precisely what Paul calls for.

Christ always sought out the most needy, and His Church has always followed His lead. Christianity naturally flows to the lowest places, like water. Corinth was the world's lowest place, the spiritual gutter. Yet the Corinthians thought of themselves as high, not low — like the high and airy temple of Aphrodite. For one thing, they were rich due to trade and prostitution. For another, they were well educated. Though they did not produce philosophers, many philosophers from Athens taught there. The most prominent philosophical school at the time was probably Scepticism. The last thing any of them would believe was a man rising from the dead.

Peter Kreeft, commenting on First Corinthians,

You Can Understand the Bible

Everything old is new again!

Worth a Thousand Words: Interior with woman and child

Interior with woman and child, Carl Holsøe

Well Said: Bad News and Good News

The first step is the problem, the “bad news” that we all have a mortal disease called sin, "the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile)." The good news is that all are offered salvation, "the Jew first and also the Greek. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

[...]

The good news makes no sense unless you believe the bad news first. A free operation is not good news if you don’t think you have a mortal disease. In a more realistic age, the main obstacle to believing in Christianity was the good news. It seemed like a fairy tale, too good to be true. Today the main obstacle is the bad news: people just don't believe in sin, even though that's the only Christian doctrine that can be proven simply by reading daily newspapers.

Peter Kreeft, commenting on Romans,

You Can Understand the Bible

Genesis Notes: A Violent Attack and the Wrong Reaction

GENESIS 34
Now we are faced with something that could be out of a newspaper story. Jacob's daughter, Dinah, is raped. Not only does Jacob not deal with it himself, his sons Simeon and Levi make a deceitful deal with the rapist who wants to marry Dinah. Then after everyone has gone along with the terms (circumcision), they kill them all. Yowsa! Not exactly what we were expecting from anyone. This helped me to see why it was a bad idea for Shechem to marry Dinah and also underscored what I already saw as terrible actions from Jacob and his sons.

Simeon and Levi slay the Shechemites, Gerard Hoet

Shechem loves Dinah and wants to marry her. Hamor not only asks for her on Shechem's behalf, he suggests to Jacob that Israel settle among them, intermarry and make their home among them. On the surface this seems a generous offer. But what did Hamor's people have to gain? Why were the men of that city willing to submit even to circumcision so that Shechem could marry Dinah? Clearly they wanted to absorb Israel, which was a potential threat to them, and benefit from God's blessing in people and possessions. This would prove a continuing problem for Israel as it is to us today: the world, if not attacking God's people, seeking to absorb them into itself.

If Jacob's sons appreciated the true meaning of this Covenant rite, it is hard to imagine that they would ask it of another nation not so they could be joined, but so they could take advantage of the men in their pain and destroy them. They are deceitful like their father, only to an evil end.

... This is the future family of God, His chosen people! Certainly Simeon and Levi are accountable for their own actions. They are deceitful, violent, and lacking in remorse. They use a covenant rite for their own purposes, emptying it of meaning and disregarding its sacredness and value. They show no compassion for Dinah, only outrage. Where there might have been a peaceful solution, she was kept lonely and isolated and shamed. But Jacob must take some share in the blame as well. We have already seen that he has abdicated power to his sons. He does not appear to have brought at least the older ones up in the knowledge and love of God and His commands, as evidenced in their light treatment of circumcision and in the presence in the household of foreign gods (see Gen. 35). When his sons massacre the Shechemites, Jacob's reason for anger seems to be not over the Shechemites' loss, but rather over how the act affects his safety and status in the community. And finally, Jacob seems to have forgotten all God's care and leading over the years. When he hears of his sons' atrocities, his main worry is for the safety of his household -- the household God promised and gave him and promised to protect -- and he does not go to God for help.

Certainly, this is the sort of situation that comes up all too often today. Sadly, we have all too many examples of people who use religion for attacks on others. There is a message in this long ago Old Testament chapter that we can apply to our lives in this very situation.

How can God allow a bad man to be a pope, or a bishop or priest? Why does He allow sinners into His family at all?

The obvious answer, that sinners are all He has to choose from, doesn't satisfy. We all know people who are better than others and those, we think, are the ones who should be the Christian leaders. Remember that God called Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's sons -- and He has called the popes and bishops and He calls us today -- not because we are worthy, but because HE is worthy, and because He loves us. Chapter 34 is not the end of the story. God is constantly calling us as He will call Jacob's family to return to Bethel, to the House of God; to obedience; to worship. As we will see with Simeon and Levi, God does not leave sin unpunished. But His goal is first and always to reconcile his children to Himself.

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in Eighty Day, 1873 via Books and Art

Lagniappe: Nobby and the Winning Side

"We-ell, no point in going to war unless you're on the winning side," said Nobby, sticking the white feather in his helmet.

"Nobby, you was always on the winning side, the reason bein', you used to lurk aroun' the edges to see who was winning and then pull the right uniform off'f some poor dead sod. I used to hear where the generals keps an eye on what you were wearin' so they'd know how the battle was going."

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Worth a Thousand Words: Ceres, Queen of the Asteroid Belt

This is especially appropriate to me after having read Leviathan Wakes.

From NASA/JPL Visions of the Future, a wonderful series of "what if" travel posters.

Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun. It is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, with an equatorial diameter of about 965 kilometers. After being studied with telescopes for more than two centuries, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft, when NASA's Dawn probe arrived in orbit in March 2015. Dawn's ongoing detailed observations are revealing intriguing insights into the nature of this mysterious world of ice and rock.

Well Said: I dream about forests

There was a tension to the thing, a feeling of mute straining and striving towards some distant and incomprehensible goal. As a wizard, it was something Ponder had only before encountered in acorns: a tiny, soundless voice which said, yes, I am but a small, green, simple object -- but I dream about forests.

Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. He and his crew stumble upon the derelict ship Scopuli and find themselves in possession of a secret that someone is willing to kill for. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and Holden, he realizes that she may be the key to something bigger than just a missing girl.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

I couldn't put it down. The combination of space colony/space ship action with the police procedural/mystery proved riveting. It helps that the chapters are short and follow a serial-style cliff-hanger model. This suspenseful space opera is supported by several adventure story arcs within the entire book.

Those made it an exciting story but what made it rise to the 5-star level were the interactions between Holden who is a ship captain whose crew call him a righteous man and Miller, a good detective clawing his way back from an alcoholic abyss in the best noir style. They both want to do the right thing but their ideas about how to do that are very different. Their ideas about how to handle potentially dangerous information are even more different. This leads to brief philosophical considerations for the reader, which are never pushed too hard by the author. They are just set out for us to reflect upon as the exciting story ratchets up.

Yes, I know this came out a long time ago. And I know everyone is reading it right now because of that Syfy show. It took Rose clubbing me over the head with it — totally worth the headache.

Waiting for library to get second book to me. Hurry up, library! Why do you only have 2 copies of this book?

Worth a Thousand Words: The Old Gardener

The Old Gardener, Emile Claus

Well Said: Terrorist Attacks, Media, and Humanity

"[The terrorist attack is] all over the TV. If you try to watch anything else, you feel ... like you've lost your humanity."

"Damn if we'll watch it," Jess said. "It's not tragedy, the way they report it, not horror, certainly now war reporting. It's all spectacle, and once you let yourself see it that way, your soul begins to turn to dust."

Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner

Worth a Thousand Words: Bearded Tit

Bearded Tit, taken by the incomparable Remo Savisaar

Genesis Notes: The Importance of Isaac and Jacob

As observed earlier, Isaac is so passive seeming compared to Abraham before him and Jacob who follows. Pulling away from the observations of their personal lives, we can compare Isaac and Jacob on a much larger scale. As so often happens in Scripture, in looking at the big picture we get yet another lesson for our own lives.

Isaac blessing his son [Jacob], Giotto di Bondone

Isaac is the most passive of the Patriarchs. In Genesis 22 he is silently bound by Abraham (though much subsequent Jewish tradition ascribes to him a more active participation). Isaac plays no active role while Abraham's servant acquires a wife for him. A blind and bedridden Isaac is deceived by his wife and younger son. Only in Genesis 26 does Isaac act in his own right -- and here, all the stories are reminiscent of earlier episodes in Abraham's story. Perhaps one implication of Isaac's story is that God's purposes do not necessarily need strong, active, and distinctive people for their continuation and fulfillment.

Jacob is different. His name becomes that of the nation Israel, and his 12 sons become the ancestors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. In telling of its eponymous ancestor, one might expect the Israelites to tell of a courageous, faithful, God-fearing hero. But Jacob's faults are shown along with his virtues. In his youth, he connives in deception and is a liar as well. When, later in life, he is transformed by a mysterious encounter with God and his name is correspondingly changed, he is still no model. He is a poor parent, showing favoritism among his children and provoking deadly sibling rivalry. The Bible's portrayal of this man as Israel's ancestor is remarkable. It is a reminder that God can use even the weak to do good things. It is a story acting as a reminder that there are many baffling paradoxes in the encounter between God and humanity.

In these narratives, it is made clear from the outset that Jacob and Esau represent the two peoples of Israel and Edom (Gen. 25:23, 30; 27:29a). However much the stories embody the historic rivalries of these two peoples, the chief figures are important in their own right. Their difference is most obvious when Esau forgives Jacob, for in Israel's history -- and especially in Obadiah -- Edom is particularly remembered for its ruthless exploitation of Jerusalem when the latter was overthrown by the Babylonians.

All material quoted is from The Complete Bible Handbook. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Road Trip - Duluth (updated)

The Str. American Victory (then, the Middletown) passing beneath Duluth's aerial lift bridge

We went to a wedding in Duluth, Minnesota, of a good friend of Hannah's, who is also very dear to us. It was moving to witness this moment of promise and joy in her life and, as is often the case, to reflect upon how we have seen her grow during the eight or so years we've known her. It was really wonderful.

It was also the occasion for us to plan a road trip. The idea of spending two days of solid driving to get somewhere can be daunting but ever since we took our youngest daughter to California for her first job (U-Haul and Boxer in tow), I've felt differently. 

There is something about seeing the land change as you drive by. About meeting the different people on the way, hearing new accents, seeing food specialties change. You understand the country a little differently.

That slow evolution also is reflected on the people traveling, as Tom and I have found. Listening to music or audiobooks, letting silence fill the car, watching miles slip away - these are all conducive to reflections that we just don't have time for in regular life. We may never have the time to develop the thoughts, much less carry them through into conversation. Long hours in the car lend themselves to such things. 

So we embrace any chance for a road trip. I get my knitting, we pick out audiobooks and podcasts, pack up the cocktail kit, and hit the road. Plus, you have the chance for side trips which indulge at least one person's special interests. 

Mike Breitbach and me!
He's hardworking - see the glove? When we met him,
he was refilling croutons at the salad bar.

Cindy Breitbach and me!
She took time away from the kitchen just for a second —
pies wait for no man (or pictures!)

That meant we took to the back roads so we could sample fried chicken and pie at Breitbach's Country Dining, which was one of the three restaurants featured in the Spinning Plates documentary (a great favorite of mine).

It was truly worth the trip. We met both Mike and Cindy Breitbach, who were gracious and charming. Community is key for them, as we could see, and the food was definitely worth the trip. (We should've taken pictures of the place, but check here.)

And you really do have to want to take the trip. We saw lots of little roads and communities as we made our way from Balltown to Duluth. Thank goodness for Google Maps!

William A. Irvin tour

On Saturday we had all day to be tourists and it was Tom's chance for special interests. We walked around Canal Park looking at the lighthouses and, most of all, the aerial lift bridge which excited no little interest when a ferry came through so we could see it working. Afterward, we met up with our son-in-law who was also at loose ends. Naturally that meant we needed to take a tour of an ore hauler which the guys found fascinating. I especially was interested in the living quarters and galley. Thinking about living and working on that ship, often in extreme winter conditions, was fascinating to me.

Gin can be more flavors than juniper - who knew?
But this Juniper Gin has underlying flavors that never
made it into my favorite brand

We were intrigued to find the Vikre distillery not too far from where we were staying which had cedar and spruce gins in addition to the usual juniper flavoring. I liked the cedar but the spruce was too much like chewing a Christmas tree for me. Most interesting was that when I added the tonic water, the flavors really bloomed in my mouth, as opposed to the straight sip I'd taken initially. I've heard about the effect water can have on a liquor but it was the most vivid example I could've asked for.

Overlaying the entire trip was our repeating our Beyond Cana marriage retreat along the way. Once you've done the marriage retreat, you refresh the basics on your own once a year. We first did the retreat in 2005 so we've had plenty of practice and could talk over the various steps at different points on the trip. We'd put it off for longer than we should have so it was a really wonderful renewal of our marriage.

A great trip, all in all!

Guest Interview on Among Women Podcast

I have the pleasure of being a guest on the Among Women podcast where Pat Gohn and I discuss my book Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. It leads us to the every day life of a believer… grounded both in the interior life — the life of prayer — and the call to do good works. Join us!

Well Said: Christianity thoroughly approves of the body

Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body — which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty, and our energy.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Worth a Thousand Words: Geraniums

Geraniums, Childe Hassam
via Arts Everyday Living

Genesis Notes: Laban's Resume

I never really thought about Laban much except as an obstacle to Jacob's plans. But he's more than a stereotypically difficult father-in-law. I have really enjoyed the insights about how gave Jacob have a taste of his own medicine by tricking him so thoroughly. And he was the instrument God used to help humble Jacob and make him stretch himself in different ways.

Jacob reproaching Laban for giving him Leah in place of Rachel, Hendrick ter Brugghen

Strengths and accomplishments:

• Controlled two generations of marriages in the Abrahamic family (Rebekah, Rachel, Leah)
• Quick witted

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Manipulated others for his own benefit
• Unwilling to admit wrongdoing
• Benefited financially by using Jacob, but never fully benefited spiritually by knowing and worshipping Jacob's God

Lessons from his life:

• Those who set out to use people will eventually find themselves used
• God's plan cannot be blocked

Vital statistics:

• Where: Haran
• Occupation: Wealthy sheep breeder
• Relatives: Father - Bethuel. Sister - Rebekah. Brother-in-law - Isaac. Daughters - Rachel and Leah. Son-in-law - Jacob.

Key verses:
"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you" (Genesis 31:42).

Laban's story is told in Genesis 24:1 - 31:55.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

When it comes to the life of a child, should parental devotion be disqualifying?

Let us stipulate a distinction between removing someone from life support, as the hospital proposes, and taking active measures to induce death. Put another way, if Connie Yates and Chris Gard —Charlie’s parents—decided to remove their son from his ventilator and allow nature to take its course, it would be a difficult but eminently defensible position.

But the claim asserted by the representatives of Britain’s state-run health care system is more sweeping and insidious: This is our call, they say. Such is the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s sense of dominion, says Ms. Yates, that it refused to allow Charlie to come home to die, wrapped in the loving arms of his mom and dad.

Bill McGurn wrote a really excellent editorial, For the Love of Charlie Gard, for the Wall Street Journal. It is hidden behind the WSJ's paywall but if you click through from his Facebook post then the whole article may be read.

Worth a Thousand Words: Evening on the Meadow

Evening on the Meadow, taken by Remo Savisaar

Worth a Thousand Words: Drawing for Alfred Gilbert's project for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence

Arthur Robertson,
Drawing for Alfred Gilbert's project for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence
via Lines and Colors

Lagniappe: Dating girls in Thrall to Creatures from the Void

"Something's been calling her," he said. "In dreams. Someone that wants to be let out. I'm afraid she's going to get hurt."

"She's not worth it," said Gaspode. "Messin' around with girls who're in thrall to Creatures from the Void never works out, take my word for it. You'd never know what you were going to wake up to.

Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

Lagniappe: Warning Shot

“Were you proposing to shoot these people in cold blood, sergeant?"

"Nossir. Just a warning shot inna head, sir.”

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Worth a Thousand Words: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood, John Singer Sargent

Worth a Thousand Words: Yellowstone Park

Yellowstone Park, taken by Colorado Nature Photography

Well Said: The "Prince of this World" is a great P.R. man, a great master of the media

It is not brains or intelligence that is needed to cope with the problems with Plato and Aristotle and all of their successors to the present have failed to confront. What is needed is a readiness to undervalue the world altogether. This is only possible for a Christian... All technologies and all cultures, ancient and modern, are part of our immediate expanse. There is hope in this diversity since it creates vast new possibilities of detachment and amusement at human gullibility and self-deception. There is no harm in reminding ourselves from time to time that the "Prince of this World" is a great P.R. man, a great salesman of new hardware and software, a great electric engineer, and a great master of the media. It is his master stroke to be not only environmental but invisible for the environmental is invincibly persuasive when ignored.

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and the Light

Tomato-Basil Soup

This has become a classic soup during my lifetime. I recall when La Madeleine restaurants in Dallas served it to rave comments, sold it bottled at grocery stores, and yet ... I never tried it. And then came Rose, who insisted we try it ... check it out at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

The Hauntingly Beautiful Music of the Trees

Instead of a vinyl disc, Traubeck's record player uses a cross-section of a log or tree trunk, using light to translate the different colors and textures of the tree's rings into musical notes and instruments. Because every tree has its own unique configuration of rings, every tree has its own unique "song."

For details about the technology, read the top comment at YouTube.

Worth a Thousand Words: Inside the Church

Inside the Church, Franklin Booth

Genesis Notes: Rachel's Resume

My favorite story about Rachel is when she hides the household gods that she stole from her father by sitting on them and saying, "It's that time of month!" A plea that any father of teenage daughters has heard many a time to excuse lots of different behavior. It makes that father-daughter dynamic so real to me.

All that aside, it is when Jacob encounters Rachel that he has met his equal (also his true love). Rachel is strong-willed, determined, and not above bending the rules to get what she wants.  I always felt so sorry for poor Leah.

The resume digs deeper into Rachel as a person.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Rachel sitting on the idols

Jacob's love for Rachel was both patient and practical. Jacob had the patience to wait seven years for her, but he kept busy in the meantime. his commitment to Rachel kindled a strong loyalty within her. In fact, her loyalty to Jacob got out of hand and became self-destructive. She was frustrated by her barrenness and desperate to compete with her sister for Jacob's attention. She was trying to gain from Jacob what he had already given: devoted love.

Strengths and accomplishments:

• She showed great loyalty to her family
• She mothered Joseph and Benjamin after being barren for many years

Weaknesses and mistakes:

• Her envy and competitiveness marred her relationship with her sister, Leah
• She was capable of dishonesty when she took her loyalty too far
• She failed to recognize that Jacob's devotion was not dependent on her ability to have children
  

Lessons from her life:

• Loyalty must be controlled by what is true and right
• Love is accepted, not earned

Vital statistics:

• Where: Haran
• Occupation: Shepherdess, housewife
• Relatives: Father - Laban. Aunt - Rebekah. Sister - Leah. Husband - Jacob. Sons - Joseph and Benjamin.

Key verse:
"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her" (Genesis 29:20)

Rachel's story is told in Genesis 29 - 35:20. She also is mentioned in Ruth 4:11.

All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Future

The Future, by Chris Turnham

Well Said: The Church is a Superhuman Institution

I never came into the church as a person who was being taught. I came in on my knees. That is the only way in. When people start praying they need truths; that’s all. You don’t come into the Church by ideas and concepts, and you cannot leave by mere disagreement. It has to be a loss of faith, a loss of participation. You can tell when people leave the Church: they have quit praying.

Actively relating to the Church's prayer and sacraments is not done through ideas. Any Catholic today who has an intellectual disagreement with the Church has an illusion. You cannot have an intellectual disagreement with the Church: that's meaningless. The Church is not an intellectual institution. It is a superhuman institution.”

Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and the Light

Worth a Thousand Words: Golden Winged

Golden Winged, taken by Remo Savisaar

Blogging Around: Biblical Art, American Causes for Sainthood, and My Conversion Story

Summula Pictoria: a Little Summary of the Old and New Testaments

Second Dream of St. Joseph, Daniel Mitsui

Daniel Mitsui is an artist I greatly admire and whose paintings I have featured here occasionally. I especially enjoy his "translations" into Asian styled art, although not all of his work is done that way.

He's got an ambitious new project planned.

Over fourteen years, from Easter 2017 to Easter 2031, I plan to draw an iconographic summary of the Old and New Testaments, illustrating those events that are most prominent in sacred liturgy and patristic exegesis.

The things that I plan to depict are the very raw stuff of Christian belief and Christian art; no other subjects offer an artist such inexhaustible wealth of beauty and symbolism. Were I never to draw them, I would feel my artistic career incomplete. I hope to undertake this task in the spirit of a medieval encyclopedist, who gathers as much traditional wisdom as he can find and faithfully puts it into order. I want every detail of these pictures, whether great or small, to be thoroughly considered and significant.

Find out more here. Be sure to browse Daniel's website to see his gorgeous art and read his thoughts and inspirations as an artist.

US Causes for Canonization

We've got more holy Americans than you might think. Certainly than I was aware of when reading this National Catholic Register piece about the causes underway for canonization. I was impressed by the timespan since the causes range across a time period from the 1500s to 2006.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

I also enjoyed looking through the list and seeing the wide variety of holy people represented. I was happy to see a particular favorite of mine included, who is relatively unknown: Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1853). He's a former slave from Saint-Domingue whose charity for the poor made him well-known and loved in NYC. He and his wife opened their home as an orphanage, employment bureau, and a refuge for travelers. They also organized a credit bureau, an employment agency, and a refuge for priests and destitute travelers. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.

Also I was pleased to see Servant of God Mother Rose Hawthorne (1926) listed. Does that last name look familiar? Yep. She's Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter who converted to Catholicism, trained as a nurse, and began a charitable organization to care for impoverished cancer patients. Later, in 1900, she founded a new order which was then named the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. I admire her intensely.

This is the summary of a two-part story so if you are interested in more details be sure to check out their links.

My Conversion Story

I met fellow convert Nancy Ward at the Catholic New Media Conference when it was in Dallas a few years ago. She's a lively go-getter, a Catholic writer, and a very kind supporter of my blog and writing.

I'm honored to have her featuring my conversion story at her blog, JOY Alive, in preparation for an interview she'll be doing to help get out the word about Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life. While you're there be sure to check out her site, which:

... reaches out both as an expression of my desire to share my own experiences and an invitation to those of you who want to explore a life of joy. As we share our stories we share the joy of our hearts with one another. We will learn more about each another, more about our true selves and more about how intimately the Lord loves us.

Well Said: Testing the Church's Claims - With Prayer

At every turn, while he was investigating the background for his study of Thomas Nashe, he would encounter the Church — what Chesterton called (another book title) The Thing. It was everywhere. At one point, he later told me (and he was never very specific just when that point occurred), he decided that the thing had to be sorted out or he couldn't rest. Either it ws true, or it wasn't. Either the entire matter was true, all of it, exactly as the Church claimed, or it was the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on a gullible mankind. With that choice clearly delineated, he set out to find which was the case. What came next was not more study, but testing.

The matter had to be tested — on its own terms: that is, by prayer. He told me that the principal prayer that he used was not some long or complex formula, but simply, "Lord, please, send me a sign." He reported that, almost immediately, not one but a deluge of signs arrived. And they continued to arrive unabated for a long time. As to just what the signs consisted in and what happened next, well, some things must remain private. The reader may deduce the rest from the fact of his conversion. ...

Eric McLuhan, introduction to 

The Medium and the Light by his father Marshall McLuhan

Worth a Thousand Words: Sun Protection

Sun Protection, Karin Jurick

Well Said: No such thing as supernatural

There's no such thing as the supernatural. Everything, by definition, is natural. But you have to find out what the rules are.

Jack McDevitt, The Devil's Eye

We are about to become missionaries.

Yep. That’s it, in a nutshell: You and I, and the people in our parishes, and the whole church, are about to become new missionaries in a new land — in the vast, untamed and often faithless jungle where “live streams” leave no room for casting out into the deep, and bear no relation to living waters. In the neighborhoods, towns and cities where people have been so long subjected to relativistic engagement, that almost everything has become unfamiliar and strange to them.

Taking our cue from the Incarnate Word — who chose not simply to preach to us about right and wrong, but to live among us, and know us in the fullness of our humanity before he saved us — we are going to purposely push past where we are now, out of our bubbles and our safe-feeling familiarities, to meet others where they are.

The Anchoress boils down the Convocation of Catholic Leaders for us. A great piece. Read it and become inspired. I did.

Hash Brown Frittata

This one's a real find and perfect for meatless Fridays — easy, filling, cheap. Oh, and delicious!

Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Well Said: Taking Christ into the world

Sometimes it may seem to us that there is no purpose in our lives, that going day after day to this office or that school or factory is nothing else but waste and weariness. But it may be that God has sent us there because but for us Christ would not be there. If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile.

Caryll Houselander, Reed of God

Genesis Notes: Wrestling With Faith and a New Name

GENESIS 31 - 33

These are action-packed chapters. Jacob realizes it isn't safe to have such success when Laban can take it away. He packs up for home, faces down his angry father-in-law, prepares for meeting his presumably angry twin, and ... most famously ... wrestles with an angel, who gives him a new name.

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, Léon Bonnat

One thing you've got to say about Jacob. His life was never boring. Or was it? I bet that during those years of exile, working to win Rachel, supporting a growing family, finding a way around unreasonable father-in-law demands, life must have seemed mundane. Frustrating probably. Just like the way we feel when working every day, dealing with family issues, and so forth.

What becomes really clear is that those long, boring, mundane years wrought a change in our trickster.

Several things stand out about God in these chapters: First He keeps His promises. He stayed with Jacob as He promised at Bethel, even though Jacob was gone for a full 20 years. Also as promised, He gave Jacob descendants and is taking him back to Canaan safely, protecting him from Laban's wrath. Secondly, God does not depend on perfect people but uses even human failings to advance His plan. And third, He protects His own, intervening if and when it is necessary. ...

What Jacob does with his fear [of Esau's anger when they meet again] shows how far he's come in 20 years. He takes immediate action to protect his family and herds by dividing them up, and then attempts to pacify his brother and perhaps hold him off a bit by sending ahead a series of herds as presents to him. But most importantly, he prays.  ...

The young Jacob longed for what God promised him and did anything and everything in his power to get there. The mature Jacob continues to want what God has for him and does what is prudent to move ahead, but his prayer shows that he knows he is in God's hands and wants to work with him.

Genesis, Part II: God and His Family

Even though Jacob is a changed man, that doesn't mean he is done wrestling. As he is alone, the night before his meeting with Esau, a man wrestles with him. Later it is revealed that Jacob has been wrestling with God (or at the very least God's messenger). This evokes a lot of images for us, even if our own wrestling is less physical than Jacob's. Doesn't our own wrestling with God and faith leave us changed, even if our name remains the same?

I myself never realized just how imbued Jacob's story is with wrestling. Right down to the moment when Esau's wrestling hold turns into something very different.

the image of wrestling has been implicit throughout the Jacob story: in his grabbing Esau's heel as he emerges from the womb, in his striving with Esau for birthright and blessing, in his rolling away the huge stone from the mouth of the well, and in his multiple contendings with Laban. Now, in this culminating moment of his life story, the characterizing image of wrestling is made explicit and literal. ...

Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell upon his neck. This is, of course, the big surprise in the story of the twins: instead of lethal grappling, Esau embraces Jacob in fraternal affection.

Robert Alter, translation and commentary on Genesis

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: Fireworks in your brain

The Library didn’t only contain magical books, the ones which are chained to their shelves and are very dangerous. It also contained perfectly ordinary books, printed on commonplace paper in mundane ink. It would be a mistake to think that they weren’t also dangerous, just because reading them didn’t make fireworks go off in the sky. Reading them sometimes did the more dangerous trick of making fireworks go off in the privacy of the reader’s brain.”

Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

Worth a Thousand Words: Philippine Duman

The makings for Philippine duman
via EatingAsia where you can get details on this artisanal product.

Worth a Thousand Words: A Study for a Horse and Rider

Peter Paul Rubens, A Study for a Horse and Rider
via Arts Everyday Living

Well Said: My stories affect my Christianity, restore me ...

I stray, and then my stories pull me back if I listen to them carefully. I have often been asked if my Christianity affects my stories, and surely it is the other way around; my stories affect my Christianity, restore me, shake me by the scruff of the neck, and pull this straying sinner into an awed faith.

Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

Well Said: Literature

Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.

Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

Worth a Thousand Words: Five Bighorn Sheep

Five Bighorn Sheep, Colorado Nature Photography

Genesis Notes: Growth and Testing

GENESIS 29 & 30

These chapters are interesting. Jacob, avoiding Esau's anger, is off to seek his fortune. He's been used to getting his own way through trickery and his own wits. but now he's going to come up against other people who are just as wily as he is. And who are also used to getting their own way.

This doesn't make Jacob any less determined, but it does mean it's an opportunity for growth and change. When the chips are down, how do we react? It is this which forms our character.

Also in these chapters, the focus is on family. Jacob falls for Rachel, works to earn her and then is fobbed off with first-born sister Leah. We greatly feel the injustice for Jacob and Rachel. But we also now have Leah in the mix. She longs for her husband's love and is denied repeatedly. And Jacob is continually dealing with his tricky father-in-law who wants nothing more than to cheat him. This is both humbling and serves to teach lessons.

It is not done thus in our place, to give the younger girl before the firstborn. Laban is an instrument of dramatic irony: his perfectly natural reference to "our place" has the effect of touching a nerve of guilty consciousness in Jacob, who in his place acted to put the younger before the firstborn. This effect is reinforced by Laban's referring to Leah not as the elder but as the firstborn (bekhirah). It has been clearly recognized since late antiquity that the whole story of the switched brides is a meting out of poetic justice to Jacob—the deceiver deceived, deprived by darkness of the sense of sight as his father is by blindness, relying, like his father, on the misleading sense of touch. ... *

Jacob has a visceral sense of just what his actions felt like to Esau.

God shows himself in this family struggle as he has through every family we've encountered in Genesis. I think about how he reveals himself through the everyday like breeding sheep and the big events like Leah's children. No special dreams or spoken voices are needed. God's there through everything in this story of our long-ago ancestors in faith.

Jacob and Rachel at the Well, Francisco Antolínez

*Quote from Robert Alter's translation and commentary of Genesis. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: The common people and the high lords

The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.

George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones

Worth a Thousand Words: Return from fishing, dragging the boat

Return from fishing, dragging the boat; Joaquim Sorolla y Bastida

Save Send Delete Review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life

Danusha Goska has published a thoughtful and generous review at her blog, Save Send Delete.

Here's a bit:

Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life: Prayers and Reflections for Getting Closer is one of the weightiest little books I've ever read. There are just 209 pages of main text, and each page has few words. I open randomly to page one hundred and I find a three-sentence quote from the Gospel of Luke, a brief, one-paragraph quote from Saint Augustine, and ten sentences of reflection from Davis. The few words that appear on each page, though, like the words in a rich poem, are dense with meaning. They are the kind of words that cause the reader to pause and ponder. [...]

Davis wants this book to be an aid to other Christians in their prayer life. Online reviews attest to its value and success at just that. ...

I think Seeking Jesus has another use. I think this would be a great gift to an open-minded Christophobe. There are a lot of people these days who insist that all Christians are violent bigots. Jesus is certainly the main character of this book, but Davis is a very appealing sidekick. She is humble, eager to learn, thoughtful, and patient. I think giving this book as a gift to someone trying to understand a modern American Christian's interior life would be a very charitable act.

Do go read it all. It gives a wonderful overview coupled with Goska's feelings about the book.

Then stop by Amazon to pick up your own copy!

Hansel and Gretel - on SFFaudio

Jesse, Maissa, and I discuss the classic fairy tale, Grimm Brothers style, at SFFaudio. Our discussion is preceded by my unabridged reading of the folk tale.

A good time was had by all. (Except, of course, by the wicked old witch. That goes practically without saying.) Join us!

Worth a Thousand Words: Snow, Moon, Flowers

Sakai Hôitsu; Snow, Moon, Flowers

Well Said: Love and marriage and the right room

It seems like people make the mistake of thinking love is about the bedroom. It's not. It's about the emergency room. Love and marriage are about who will sit there and wait.

Stephen Tobolowsky

Truer words were never spoken.

National Catholic Register Review of Seeking Jesus in Everyday Life

A lovely review from Sarah Sarah Reinhard at National Catholic Register.

Among other things she says:

"This is about forming a friendship that will last through eternity," Davis writes. And that's exactly the foundation she's set for each reader of this volume.

Go read the rest at NCR and then stop by Amazon to pick up your own copy!

Worth a Thousand Words: Elisabeth of Bavaria

Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria (1865).
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873).

Look at that dress! I know she was a great beauty of the time but that dress is the star of this painting to me.

Lagniappe: Cooking With Actual Food

It was lovely to be cooking with actual food. There's something so grounding about it. It's not that I was doing any magic, beyond the magic it is to take big flat mushrooms and raw potatoes and turn them into something totally delicious. I was just making dinner. But I wonder how much of cooking for someone else is magic anyway, more than I know about. I think it might all be.

Jo Walton, Among Others

This evokes a sense of place and activity that speaks strongly to me, even if it is "just making dinner." And she's right, cooking for others is magical though it is usually felt most strongly when you all come together for the meal.

3 Myths (and 1 Truth) About Grain-Fed Beef

I've been a fan of the Nutrition Diva for a long time. I especially love the way she looks into facts versus what "everyone knows" (a.k.a. "myths) on different topics.

This time she's looking at grain-fed beef, In particular 3 myths and 1 surprising truth about the impact of various feeding programs on the health of the cow and on the environment. That's an area where there are a lot of misconceptions. And I was really surprised by the truth ... also pleased.

You can listen her podcast episode or read the transcript — both are at Nutrition Diva.

Worth a Thousand Words: Sun and Sundial

Sun and Sundial, Wettenhausen monastery emblem

To go with today's quote!