Monthly Archives: August 2012

So, I’m doing some study on the book of Revelation. 

Numbers play a role in that book.  Particularly the number 666.  Some say this related to the evil one – Nero.  At the very least, the number appears to have been understood as dealing with a bad person.

In that day and age, the number was sufficient to lead to a known commodity.  A know person.  A known thing.  Your name could be calculated out as a number.

Recently at lunch, around a table of 14, I asked if we had a favorite number.

As we went around the table, the greatest response is that we had never thought in terms of a number that we liked.  Some came up with numbers attached to sports jerseys, or years of age, or childhood memories.

But overall, our culture has little place for numbers beyond statistics.  There is something mystical about a number being attached to us as a person.  We can’t explain how the number makes us feel, or what it makes us do.  But the number out of Revelation, 666, somehow symbolizes evil.  A number 888 symbolizes completion.  This I do not necessarily understand, but I know history records these uses of numbers.

Interesting that the base of much scientific study, hard numbers, can also be the base of mystery, soft numbers attached to people!

Well, yesterday was one of those days.  Household tasks needed fulfilled.  Wash and shopping were at the top of the list.

Wash is easy.  Put the clothes in to the washer.  Take them out.  Put them in the drier.  Take them out.  Iron those that are creased.  Put them all away.  Done!

Shopping is easy.  Take a list.  Oops – talk to people and meet families and share encouragement with other Christians.  OK, now you pick up the groceries.  Pay for them.  Come home and put them away.

But that got me thinking.  What about all that taco meat in the fridge?  And the apples on the counter? 

So, off to allrecipes.com!  The rest of the day, intermittently, took in the making of:

Apple juice

Apple crisp

Soft shelled tacos

Meanwhile,  I also arranged for a dinner party after church tomorrow.  Looks like 14 of us may show up.  More can be invited – there is space.  Although I may have to find more plates and  cutlery (always paper plates and plastic cutlery!!).

May you day today find space for the enjoyment of the table.  And may friends surround you!

A friend asked me to teach them Robert’s Rules of Order.

Now, for most people that is truly boring!  I even find sleep accompanies some of my reading.  I have persevered, and am finding that the general idea of RONR (as the insiders affectionately refer to the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order) applies across the board.

This morning I was looking at Acts 5 in the Bible.  There a man by the name of Gamaliel steers a contentious issue through an inflamed gathering.  How?  By using “executive session”! 

In RONR, this is a question of privilege.  You can, as a gathering, decide to go ahead with it, or not.  In this case, asking others to leave the room and chatting amongst each other without outside pressure helped quell the riot that could have broken out. 

Interestingly, Gamaliel was a member of the minority party in the gathering.  Because of his reputation and understanding of parliamentary rules, he was able to  get the group to reconsider an action – or more properly, consider a thoughtful action. 

So, I laughed.  Robert’s Rules of Order in action, back in the old days!!  I guess we’d better all pull out that musty book and read it over again 🙂

Each morning I rise.  I head to the area of the house where my stationary bike is placed.  I mount the bike and begin 20 minutes of exercise. 

Occasionally I glance at the wall.  There is a picture frame containing 5 photos.  Two are of the family.  One when the “four of us” included children, the next at the high school grad of my son.

The three inner pictures are telling.  Telling  the story my mother-in-law explained on Facebook the other day. 

Each picture is of a couple.  One is of my wife and I.  Another is of my parents.  The third is of the Cooper’s, Jill’s parents. 

These pictures are dated.  Dated to a time when we all had a companion we called out spouse.  Now we do not!

As Mom Cooper explained (and, Mom, I’m adding a little bit more here!):  there are still days you come home and want to share the happenings – not the catastrophes or the excitements – just the flower that was beautiful or the funny comment that was overheard, or the smile of recognition from a friend.  And, no one is  there.  But God.

Not a bad “but”. 

But, flesh and blood have a way of filling in what we can’t see of God.  Surely the creation story has that emphasis tucked  inside it. 

My mother, with dementia, will sometimes see me enter the Alzheimer’s wing of the residence where she lives – and she seems to mistake me for my father.  That resemblance strikes a chord even in those whose memory has failed.

And so today, I looked at those pictures.  And I prayed for each of us as surviving spouses.   I prayed that God would comfort us in our day, and that others, in flesh and blood, would come alongside us as companions for this day!