"The book of Numbers plunges us into the mess of growing up....give us a realistic feel for what is involved in being included in the people of God, which is to say, a human community that honors God, lives out love and justice in daily affairs, learns how to deal with sin in oneself and others, and follows God's commands into a future of blessing. And all this without illusions.
"Many of us fondle a romanticized spirituality in our imaginations...That's odd because the Bible, our primary text for showing us what it means to be a human being created by God and called to a life of obedient faith and sacrificial love, nowhere suggests that life is simple or even "natural." We need a lot of help." (Eugene Peterson)God's repetitive instruction reminds me of my own parenting. Day in, day out, moment-by-moment, it seems like I repeat myself over and over. Please take out the trash. Don't forget to pack your lunch. Make sure you have your phone with you. Then, there are the actually important instructions that sometimes get lost in the immediacy of the stinking trash: love God, pursue Him, take every concern to Him, obey Him, trust Him, take risks with Him, enjoy Him. Those are so much more difficult than just giving a verbal command. Yet, they are our very life.
It's not natural or simple or easy to live this life with Christ. I've been learning how to walk with Him for 35 years. (Wow -- putting that in writing really has an impact!) Most of the "romanticized spirituality" has been replaced with the realities of life. In the midst of the reality, what is my life telling my daughters? I don't want to pass on pessimism or cynicism. And they need to learn more than God's commands. Together, we need to experience true life, abundant life that God gives. We need a lot of help.
"The world I live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and I get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back step and I forget everything and these...kids lean hard into me all day to teach and raise and lead and I fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do I really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy -- before these..beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet?" (Anne Voskamp)
4 comments:
I appreciated the perspective, Staci. I had to force myself not to skim the reading while thinking "haven't we already heard this over and over?"
How could I forget so quickly that this is a whole new generation?? They won't be able to say, "No one ever told me this." Considering how much I repeat myself in one day, you'd think it would be blatantly obvious to me. Oh well. It's early. :-)
Okay, one more thing -
Eugene Peterson has some great thoughts that I want to share. He talks about how even in the wilderness the Israelites were required to keep these festivals and keep the Sabbath. It reminds us that in Genesis, the repeated refrain was, "It was evening, it was morning."
"This is the Hebrew way of understanding day; it isn't ours...More than idiomatic speech is involved here; there is a sense of rhythm. Day is the basic unit of God's creative work; evening is the beginning of that day.
The Hebrew evening-morning sequence conditions us to the rhythms of grace. We go to sleep, and God begins his work. As we sleep he develops his covenant. When we awake, he calls us out to participate in his creative action. We respond in faith, in work. But always, grace is previous. And always, grace is primary. We awake into a world we didn't make, into a salvation we didn't earn. Evening: God begins his creative day without our help. Morning: God calls us to enjoy and share and develop the work he initiated. Creation and covenant are sheer grace and are there to greet us every morning.
While we sleep, great and marvelous things, far beyond our capacities to invent or engineer, are in process - from the moon marking the seasons to the earthworm aerating the soil to proteins repairing our muscles. Our work settles into the context of God's work. Human effort is honored, but it's never taken out of context and exalted. It's respected not as a thing in itself but by its integration into the rhythms of grace."
This really spoke to me this morning! I'm thanking God and wondering what He's already accomplished during the night. I pray that I enter into all that God's already done this day - to enjoy, share, and develop - and not act or feel like everything depends on me. It clearly doesn't!
Am so grateful to have you ladies to share this journey!
Such good insight, Staci and Cici! Thank you!
Another thing that struck me in these chapters, that is going to sound so simple, is the *difficulty* and burden in all of these rules. Just the thought of finding one of these perfectly aged animals with no defect, dealing with re entrails and blood, and measuring out the perfect amount of this and that, constantly. Ugh! I feel burdened just *reading* about it repeatedly. Imagine having to live like this!
But God...!
...Sent His Son so that we don't even have to commit these rules to memory, much less try to follow them. Because of Jesus, I can just skim through these rule-readings and not even worry about them ever being my burden....
Can I get a Hallelujah!?! :)
Yes Della, Hallelujah. I was thinking along the same line as you. How thankful I am to not have to practice the animal sacrifices as the Israelites did but that I have Christ who died once for all.
I also appreciated the reminder how the importance of keeping my word...had to put this into practice just this past week when it would have been so easy to change plans and get out of a commitment I had made. So thankful now that I kept my word even though difficult and because of it, I was able to experience an answer to prayer and God's supernatural strength to get me through the day. He is so GOOD and Faithful.
I also liked the encouragement of the protection God provided for us women through our fathers and as married women through our husbands.
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