Moses: God, you have given me the honor of writing down your words, so that they would be saved for all of posterity, and I really appreciate it, really I do...
God: I sense a "but" coming, Moses.
Moses: Well, I've written down everything that you have told me to write verbatim, word for word...
God: That's what verbatim means, Moses... Don't be redundant.
Moses: I've written things that I don't even understand myself... "Don't boil a baby goat in his mother's milk, Don't shave your forehead for the sake of the dead". I've written it all...
God: but?
Moses: I really can't write this down.
God: Why not?
Moses: It's just not right that's all. It just seems a bit hypocritical to me.
God: Now, Moses. Do you really think I would allow you to write something hypocritical in My Book?
Moses: Well, I guess not. It just seems sort of self-serving, you know?
God: You just let me worry about that. This verse will speak to lots of people over the centuries, trust Me. Besides, I have a really great reason for wanting that verse in the Bible.
Moses: You do? What is it, God?
God: It's going to make Linda Fischer smile one day.
Moses: Okay Lord, that's good enough for me. I'll write it ...... "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." Numbers 12:3
(Thousands of years later)
Linda: ha ha hahahahah Moses wrote that!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
My letter to Hannah
Dearest Hannah,
Every time I read your story in the Bible, I get very emotional. From the second verse, you have me hooked; "And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children."
I know that your greatest desire was to have children. It didn't help that Peninnah (the other wife) was a real jerk and teased you unmercifully,and it didn't matter that your hubby was totally in love with you and didn't care about you being childless. You wanted, no, more than that, you needed a child. You would do just about anything to have a child. Hence, your promise to God.
So here's my question, Hannah. when God gave you that child, did you struggle with honoring that promise? While you were pregnant with Samuel, did you know that the promise meant giving him up at such an early age? When he was born and you saw those perfect little toes and that fuzzy haired head, did you just for a moment, want to renig on that promise?
And when the time came to leave him with the priest Eli at the temple, did you hesitate? Did seeing how his own sons had turned out make you want to turn around and run for home?
And yet you left him there. You trusted God.
I love the fact that the Bible says that you visited him each year, bringing him a new robe. Did you ever want to just grab him and take him back home again? I can imagine those reunions; tears and smiles and family stories, trying to keep him connected to the family... because there was a family now. God had blessed you with three more sons and two daughters! They were your reward because you trusted God.
And because you did, Samuel grew up to be judge, priest, and prophet for a whole generation and beyond. He was an amazing man, Hannah. I'm sure you were proud, but in my mind, you are an even more amazing woman. Thank you for sacrificing the "growing up" years of your son, so that the world could learn, even thousands of years later, what it means to serve God.
Linda
Every time I read your story in the Bible, I get very emotional. From the second verse, you have me hooked; "And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children."
I know that your greatest desire was to have children. It didn't help that Peninnah (the other wife) was a real jerk and teased you unmercifully,and it didn't matter that your hubby was totally in love with you and didn't care about you being childless. You wanted, no, more than that, you needed a child. You would do just about anything to have a child. Hence, your promise to God.
So here's my question, Hannah. when God gave you that child, did you struggle with honoring that promise? While you were pregnant with Samuel, did you know that the promise meant giving him up at such an early age? When he was born and you saw those perfect little toes and that fuzzy haired head, did you just for a moment, want to renig on that promise?
And when the time came to leave him with the priest Eli at the temple, did you hesitate? Did seeing how his own sons had turned out make you want to turn around and run for home?
And yet you left him there. You trusted God.
I love the fact that the Bible says that you visited him each year, bringing him a new robe. Did you ever want to just grab him and take him back home again? I can imagine those reunions; tears and smiles and family stories, trying to keep him connected to the family... because there was a family now. God had blessed you with three more sons and two daughters! They were your reward because you trusted God.
And because you did, Samuel grew up to be judge, priest, and prophet for a whole generation and beyond. He was an amazing man, Hannah. I'm sure you were proud, but in my mind, you are an even more amazing woman. Thank you for sacrificing the "growing up" years of your son, so that the world could learn, even thousands of years later, what it means to serve God.
Linda
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