Biblical Illuminations

Rules for Little Children

When trying to teach our one-year-old about things he is (and is not) allowed to do, we run into a couple problems. One is that, since he can't communicate except in grunts, waves, and "diddle-diddle" baby-talk, it's hard to know how well he understands what we're telling him. If we tell him not to stand on the sofa, does he understand what a "sofa" is? And does he understand what it means to "stand"?The second problem is that he has not yet developed much impulse control, so if we inundate him with rules to follow, we will be constantly correcting him. There are only so many hours in a day, and we don't want to spend them all saying to Toby "We told you not to do that!"

So, as Toby is developing understanding and impulse control, we are careful to keep our instructions to him at a simple and minimal level. Most of the "dos and don'ts" we give him divide into two primary categories:

1. Instructions that are for his own benefit/safety. For example, we are very strict about not letting Toby stand on the sofa, or take things out of the trash can, because the first activity could easily result in injury, and the second activity - well, let's face it - the trash can is not the most sanitary object in any home!

2. Instructions for the benefit/safety of those around him. For example, we have a diabetic cat, and if he eats "people food," he gets sick. Thus, we are very strict about Toby not throwing his food on the floor.

There is a third category of "dos and don'ts" which we try not to delve into too deeply:

3. Instructions that are for our own convenience. For example, even though we don't let him get into the trash can, we have never told him that he's not allowed to unload the diaper bag all over the floor. There's nothing in there that's dangerous for him, and while it's a nuisance to repack the bag, we feel that there are more important "dos and don'ts" for him to learn first.

The goal in all of this is to have a set of rules that are not overwhelming for either Toby or us. Are we succeeding? I don't know, and perhaps it'll be a very long time before I do know. But as I thought about all of this, it occurred to me that what we're trying to do is to emulate our Heavenly Father in the way He gives commands to us.

1 John 5:3 says that "His commandments are not burdensome." Doesn't God do for us (perfectly) what we are trying (imperfectly) to do for Toby? God's commands are neither burdensome nor self-serving. His commandments to us fall - for the most part - into two basic categories: commands that are in our own best interest, and commands that are for the benefit of those around us.

If I can appreciate that my rules for Toby are reasonable, wise (hopefully!), and beneficial to our household, can I not trust that God's rules for me are even more reasonable, wise, and beneficial?

Symphony orchestras, and honorable gifts

Have you ever been to a concert of a symphony orchestra? There's something quite dramatic about watching a group of musicians working together under the conductor's headship to produce beautiful music. If you go to a concert, there are certain members that will stand out to you, and attract your attention.The conductor, obviously, captures our attention as he waves his hands and his baton, and uses even the slightest body motions to guide and direct the members of the orchestra.

Then there are the violinists, who often carry the melody, and do so with dramatic sweeps of their bows across the strings. Watching a section of violinists playing in unison and unity is an impressive and beautiful sight.

The timpanist, too, may capture our attention; his arms beat out a rhythm, or create a rumbling thunder sound, occasionally producing sounds that make us want to tap our feet, and occasionally sounds that make the music sound ominous.

There are other musicians who are less likely to capture our attention.

The clarinetist, for example, even if he has a solo (like in the haunting opening phrase of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue), you might not notice him, because his body and his arms do not make any grand movements. There is no bow to draw across the strings, no mallet to bang against a tightened drum. Just fingers moving on the instrument - and if you're far away from the stage, you won't see much movement at all!

And what about those poor bass viol players? Most of the time you could even forget that they're standing there. They don't get the fast, or the melodic, or the dramatic passages to play; most often they are simply plodding along with deep bass notes that you may not even consciously notice.

The church, the body of Christ, is an awful lot like that orchestra. Paul talks in I Corinthians 12:22 about parts of the body of Christ being like the violins, and part like the bass viols.

Okay, those are not the words he uses, but he talks about members of the body that we deem as more honorable, more valuable, and the members we talk about as being less honorable.

The more honorable members are like the violinists. They are the ones who get all the attention, all the praise, all the respect. Everyone sees what they do, and the laud them for it.

But others are like those bass viols. Day after day no one notices what they do, no one says, "Wow! That was amazing what you did yesterday!"

"Great sermon," we tell the pastor.

"What a great job you did cleaning the toilet," we don't ever say to the person who volunteers their time to make sure the church's restrooms are sanitary.

But please allow me to let you in on a little secret. The bass viol is every bit as important as the violin. You might not consciously notice the bass player doing his thing in the background, but if he was gone, you would be very quick to say, "There's something wrong with this piece of music!"

Just as you would be very quick to say, "There's something wrong in this church," if people stopped cleaning toilets, or painting walls, or paying electric bills.

And finally, please let me tell you one last secret. Preacher, evangelist, miracles, helps, administration, they're all important. Paul says so. But he says not to bicker about which is greatest, because there's one thing that's more important than any of them.

Love. It's the more excellent way.

Baby food, grown-up food, and God's blessings

Meal times were much more simple before Toby started eating "grown-up" foods. When we sat down to eat, Laura and I had our plates, and Toby had his bowl. We ate from our food, and Toby ate from his, and I don't think it ever occurred to him to wonder what we were eating.But that changed when we started feeding Toby food off our plates. Once we started that, from then on, Toby would always be curious about what was on our plates.

And that's fine, but sometimes it's a bit inconvenient. There are some foods that we don't feed Toby (for example, his pediatrician has recommended that we not feed him peanut butter yet, and if I'm eating eggs that the yolks are a bit runny, I won't feed them to Toby).

This morning Toby had a bowl of cereal, but I had a breakfast sandwich made with bread, cheese and eggs (slightly runny). On a normal morning, Toby will go at his cereal with great gusto, and never stop until it's finished. But this morning, since I was eating a breakfast sandwich, he was extremely curious about that, and would not eat his own food, because he was determined to have some of mine.

The interesting thing was that as soon as my sandwich was gone, Toby went immediately to his cereal and gobbled it all down without hesitation.

Toby knows that his cereal is quite yummy, and under normal circumstances he doesn't hesitate to dive into it. But today his desire for something else kept him (temporarily) from enjoying his own food.

That made me think of a couple verses in scripture about the blessings God gives to us, and the way we respond to those blessings. Just as I don't give Toby things that aren't good for him, God doesn't give us things that aren't good for us. James 1:17 says that all good and perfect gifts come down from the Father. And under normal circumstances, I would rejoice in those good and perfect gifts.

But sometimes something else comes along that God doesn't intend for me to have - something that would be unhealthy for me. And what happens? Silly me, I stop focusing on the good things God has given me, and I start focusing on the things He hasn't given me. The result? I cease to enjoy the good things that God intended for me to have.

This is one of the great secrets of contentment - to understand and have faith that what God has given me is far better than what He hasn't given me.

In Philippians 4:11, Paul says that he has learned to be content whatever his circumstances. What about you? Are you content? Or are you always distracted from what you do have by the things you don't have?

Mount Chocorua - Darkness and Light Illustration

Last Thursday I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I got up early in the morning and drove to New Hampshire to hike one of my favorite mountains - Mount Chocorua. I say early, and I do mean early. Normally when I'm hiking, I hike with other people, and they never want to get started as early as I do. I left the house at 4:45 AM.Why did I want to get started so early? Because I wanted to be on the summit while the sun was still low on the horizon, on a cool fall morning. I had something particular in mind...the contrast of light and darkness.

The colors on the mountains are always interesting, but there's something special about the colors early in the morning and late in the afternoon. When the sun is low on the horizon, much of the land is in shadows, because it lies behind hills that block the sunlight. These areas of darkness make the light stand out as all the more beautiful.

As I stood on the summit, looking out at the scenery around me, enjoying the fall colors, and appreciating that visual interplay of light and darkness, it occurred to me that in this simple scene, there was an important spiritual lesson for me.

"You are the light of the world," Jesus says. What Christ wants of me is that I be like an autumn leaf, ablaze with color, standing out brightly from the shadows of the dark world around me. Except, to be honest, I don't always feel all that bright. And suddenly it dawned on me (literally and figuratively!). The leaf, by itself, is not much to look at either; its true beauty comes from having the full glory of the sun shining upon it.

So it is with us. I, in myself, am just another dried up, dying fall leaf. But I'm not "just me" any more; the full, glorious light of the Savior shines on me!

And if the world around me is in shadows and darkness, shouldn't I stand out all the more?

II Corinthians 3:18 says it this way: And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Like a fall leaf, I turn my face to the glorious Light of the World, and let his brightness transform me with ever-increasing glory!

Self-Referencing Paradoxes

As a math teacher, I love logic and logical puzzles. There is one kind of logical puzzle that I've always found particularly fascinating: logical paradoxes. Consider a piece of paper on which is written the following statement:This statement contains threee mistaks.

What are the mistakes? "Three" is spelled incorrectly, and so is "mistakes". That's two mistakes. Oh! So the third mistake is that there are actually only two mistakes. But wait! That means there really are three mistakes. So that means it's not a mistake to say there are three mistakes. Which means there are only two mistakes, which means...

Okay, so consider this one:

This statement is false.

Clearly the statement can't be false, because if it is, that makes it true. But if it's true, that makes it false. Which makes it true, which makes it false, which makes it...

Or how about this one:

Is the answer to this question 'No'?

I'll let you work out for yourself why this is paradoxical.

Do you know what all of these statements have in common? They are self-referencing. They are statements/answers that try to define themselves. In order to guarantee that paradoxes are avoided, nothing should be allowed to define or reference itself. It's a form of circular reasoning and circular defining that we do not allow in mathematics.

The concept of self-referencing paradoxes places a strict limitation on what is knowable by the human race. Science is the creation trying to understand itself. Psychology and sociology are examples of humanity trying to understand and define itself. The truth is, we are ill equipped to understand ourselves or define ourselves. I'm not saying that science is bad - merely that it is limited, and it is important for us to understand this limitation.

For a true understanding of our own nature, we would be wise to get an outside perspective rather than a self-referencing perspective.

Jeremiah 17:9 says exactly this. The word of the Lord says that the human heart is deceitful, and who can know it? Then comes the answer from God himself: "I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind."

This is no self-referencing analysis of humanity; this is the Creator Himself spelling out His own analysis of the thing He has created.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather take His view over anyone else's!

Discovering Blueberries on a mountain

Today I celebrated my birthday by hiking Blueberry and Speckled Mountains in Evans Notch, Maine. 8.2 miles over two mountains. It was a cool day with great visibility. The beautiful views are always what I anticipate most about hiking, but today I discovered something I wasn't expecting.Blueberries.

I know, since the mountain was named Blueberry Mountain, I ought to have expected Blueberries, but mountain names don't always match up to reality, so I hadn't thought too much about the possibility of finding blueberry bushes on the mountain.

How did the blueberries taste? EXTRAORDINARY!

As a matter of fact, I don't think I've EVER tasted blueberries so sweet and flavorful as these ones. We have a blueberry bush in front of our house, which produces some great blueberries. We have a Hannaford Supermarket down the street where we can buy big, plump blueberries.

But NOTHING compares to the blueberries on that mountain. Don't believe me? Go hike it for yourself (Here's my hike report at HikerSpace.net: Blueberry and Speckled Mountains) And if you don't hike it, you'll never know what you're missing!

That made me think - the Christian life is a bit like those blueberries. People sometimes ask if the Christian life is easier, and I say, "No, of course not!" There's nothing easy about it.

If I wanted easy, I'd stay at home, and pick blueberries from my front yard. Or drive to Hannaford and spend a few bucks on some. But easy isn't necessarily the same as better.

Sometimes the best things in life are the things you have to work the hardest at. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus told his followers a great many things about the kind of life he wanted his followers to live, and the truth is - living the way Jesus calls us to live is incredibly difficult (harder than climbing a mountain, for sure!). To live without falsehood, to live without lust, to live without pride, to live without grudges - to be a merciful peacemaker and to hunger for righteousness - these are NOT the easy way of life. But Jesus makes a promise to those of us who will hear these words of His - when the storms of life come, we will stand rock solid instead of collapsing in a heap.

Hard work? You better believe it! But worth it? Oh yes!

If you're looking for "easy," you might as well just go to the store and buy some blueberries.

But just remember, you're missing out on the best.

Recycle Me - Some Thoughts about Parenthood

Having a six-month old child in the house is very interesting. One of the things that fascinates me is the way he studies us. If he can't see us, he's always turning his head to try to find us (finding mama is a higher priority than finding dada, but he does look for both of us). And when he finds us, he watches everything we do.And he's started mimicking us.

If I blow a raspberry (I call it an "air zerbert"), he tries to mimic the sound (and has become quite successful at the task!). If I click my tongue against the roof of my mouth, he tries to mimic that as well (so far he has been unsuccessful; the closest he comes is to make a smacking sound by sucking his tongue against his upper lip).

He also studies the way we eat, and now that he's taking some solid food, he's quite eager to open his mouth for the spoon.

I realized this morning that I'm recycling myself. I'm taking the ideas, behavior patterns, and attitudes that make up who I am and - whether I like it or not - giving them new life in the next generation.

Toby won't become a mini-me, and he won't become a mini-Laura; he will be his own person. But so much of his behaviors and ideas will be a recycling of things he sees in both mama and dada.

It makes me think pretty carefully about what Paul says in Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

If I want Toby to develop good and godly qualities in his life, I better make them an integral part of my life as well, because whatever I dwell on will get recycled!

And Paul follows up that verse with a bit of recycling: Philippians 4:9 - "The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

What about you? What are you recycling to the next generation? I want to be able to say to my son - and all the other people I come in contact with - "Whatever you see and hear from me, it's okay to recycle it in your own life!"

Scripture reading - your spiritual floss!

A year ago I went to see my dentist and he said to me, "Doug, you have great teeth. They are solid, the gums are good, everything looks great!"This year I went back for my checkup and he said, "Oh, Doug, you have two big cavities, right between the teeth." Long pause... "Have you been flossing?"

Ouch. Of course - that task I know I'm supposed to do every day, but I don't. Flossing helps to clean out the food particles between the teeth, so they don't cause the teeth to start decaying.

Do you floss? Every day? I didn't floss at all, until I had to have two fillings this spring. Now I do.

I started thinking, though, that Bible reading is a lot like flossing - it's one of those tasks that everyone knows you should do on a regular basis, but we often say, "Oh, I don't have time for that today," or "Maybe tomorrow."

And reading your Bible is a lot like flossing in another way - it's a way of cleaning out the garbage that your brain picks up on a daily basis, just from living in a messed up world. Every day, just from living in this world, you daily come in contact with bad attitudes, bad actions, and bad ideas (and this happens even when you're just hanging out with other Christians, because - let's face it - Christians aren't perfect either!). And these bad attitudes, actions, and ideas can get lodged in your brain, where they do not belong.

Reading God's word is a way of dislodging some of that stuff that can cause spiritual decay. Romans 12 says to "renew your mind," and so in a sense, we could think of a regimen of regular scripture reading as your "mental floss."

A couple more thoughts about the idea of scripture reading as your spiritual floss or mental floss:

1. Just as you should never say, "Oh, I've already flossed 500 times, I don't need to do it again," you should never say, "Oh, I've already read God's word 500 times - why should I bother reading it again?" The answer should be obvious; the fact that you've flossed in the past doesn't do any good when it comes to cleaning out the garbage you've accumulated now. In the same way, since you're continually collecting spiritual garbage in this world, the spiritual flossing needs to be ongoing as well - no matter how many times you've already read it!

2. If I hadn't told you that I had two cavities, you never would have known it. In the same way, if you allow spiritual decay in your life, you can probably hide it from people for a long time. But if you hide it, and don't do anything about it - if you pretend it doesn't exist - sooner or later, everything will collapse in spiritual decay, and you (and everyone else) will be saying, "What in the world just happened?"

Eye Contact, and the Apple of His Eye

It has been interesting, in the last few months, to watch our baby boy develop. One thing that has fascinated me is how drastically his attitude toward us has changed. When he was a newborn, of course, he didn't understand the concept of a person, let alone a parent. If he looked at us, it was with unfocused, unseeing eyes.Gradually he became able to focus on us, and then, as time went by, he began eagerly looking for us.

Now, at just over five months, he doesn't just look for us; he also is very much aware whether or not we are looking at him.

If we're not paying attention to him, he knows it. Often I'll be playing with him, and he'll be giggling and smiling and laughing, but if I so much as turn my head so I'm not looking at him, he begins to cry. Now, from across the room, he can tell whether or not I'm looking at him, and it matters to him whether or not I see him. What a change that is, in just a few months of development!

It made me think of that verse in Psalm 17:8: "Keep me as the apple of Your eye, and hide me in the shadow your wing."

The "apple of the eye" is the pupil - the small opening in the iris that lets light through to the retina. Metaphorically, it means - "someone who is highly treasured." But more than that, it could be more literally translated as "the little man in the eye." It's the tiny reflection of yourself that you see in someone's eye when you are looking at them, and they are looking at you.

In other words, when David says, "Keep me as the apple of Your eye," he is asking God to never take His eyes off him.

Toby, even as an infant, has already developed the desire for me (and Laura) to "keep him as the apple of our eyes" - to keep looking at him. I think it's innate - I think we're born with the hunger to be at the center of someone's attention. Of course, I can't always have my eye on Toby, and even Laura, who spends much more time with him than I do, can't have her eyes on him all the time.

But I look forward to being able to teach him someday about One of whom it can be said, "He always keeps you as the apple of His eye."

And in the meantime, I need to remember that the "little man in the eye" only appears when two people are looking at each other. So if I'm asking God to keep me as the apple of His eye, I'd better do my part, and not take my eyes off Him.

Teaching the Bible to all Age Groups

Recently Laura suggested to me that I ought to post links to my 5 part series of articles "Spanning the Ages" on this site, since it is posted on a separate site, but would be of interest to readers here. So here it is.Spanning the Ages Part One: Teaching Children

Spanning the Ages Part Two: Teaching Teenagers

Spanning the Ages Part Three: Teaching Adults

Spanning the Ages Part Four: Teaching Senior Citizens

Spanning the Ages Part Five: Putting it All Together