by Kathy Brasby | Aug 20, 2013 | Hope
You know how there are some statements that parents should never make? Like, I will never give my child cookies for breakfast. Or, I will always listen to my child. Or, I don’t like to go fishing.
When my kids were invited to a special group outing that included fishing poles and bait, guess who had to drive?
I thought I could set up a chair at the pond’s edge, get out a book, and enjoy the late summer afternoon while all the children flung hook and bobber into the murky depths. Somebody else was the fishing expert.
Yeah, I volunteered to be a driver.
I had gotten settled in and read a couple of chapters when I heard my daughter shout. She stood on the dock, pole held high in the air, fish squirming at the end of the line.
Great.
She wanted me to bring the tackle box. I jammed the bookmark in place and marched through the thick grass to the dock.
“Look at my fish! We gotta get the hook out before it gets hurt.”
Sure. I set the tackle box on the rough wood the dock, flipped open the top, and gazed into the tangle of hooks, bobbers, weights. How did one get the hook out?
She sensed my confusion. Or just got impatient. I’m never sure which. “Grab those pliers, Mom.”
OK, I knew pliers. I lifted the metal tool and held it out to her.
“I can’t do that,” she said with a voice that sounded something like a jet engine starting up.
Like I could? “I don’t fish,” I said. Clearly a boundary was in order here.
“I’ll hold the fish and you get the hook out,” she said, gripping the squirmy fish in her nine-year-old hands.
Um, I don’t get hooks out. I stared at the fish, which stared back. This was no time for a “who blinks first” contest.
I drew a deep breath. Parenting involves courage more than you’d think. Extricating a hook from a fish’s mouth ranks pretty high on my “don’t want to do this” list but it had to be done. I stepped closer.
She squeezed the fish’s mouth open and I raised the pliers, trying to find the right grip. Stalling.
And I got hit in the face with a blast of pond water.
I wanted to blame the fish but I looked up then to see my young son standing a few feet away from me, holding a stained and wrinkled paper cup. An empty paper cup.
He stared at the fish while I stared at him.
Then he saw me staring and he shifted his weight. “I grabbed the cup from by the pond,” he said. “And I scooped up some water.”
Why?
“I didn’t want the fish to die before you got the hook out and I thought it might take a while,” he said with little-boy eyes cushioned in fat cheeks.
“So you scooped up the water and threw it in my face?”
He shrugged and tossed the cup down. “I missed him.”
There are some things a parent shouldn’t say. But one I still cling to is this: I don’t like to go fishing.
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by Kathy Brasby | Aug 16, 2013 | Hope
One of the unexpected aspects in the Bible is the laugh-outloud humor you can discover in various books.
An example comes from Daniel 3, where the king of Babylon – then the most powerful emperor in the world – decided to make a huge statue of himself and demand the people worship the golden image.
Notice, as we work our way through the story, the repetition of phrases.
King Nebuchadnezzar summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officers to come to the image dedication. Our author could have written “provincial officers” but he didn’t. Let’s see why.
The very next sentence reported that the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officers assembled for the dedication.
Then a herald announced the new decree: “As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.”
Our author could have simplified the instrument list to “all kinds of music” but he didn’t.
This time, we read two sentences before being told that “as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.”
Immediately astrologers denounced the Jews (who were in exile in Babylon at this point) and told the king, “Your majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, must fall down and worship…”
Try reading the story aloud and you’ll see how the repetition is similar to some children’s stories with a humorous rhythm.
Back to our story. A problem has arisen: there are Jews who would not worship the gold statue. So Nebuchadnezzar angrily summoned the three men (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) and demanded their compliance. He said, “Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good.”
The three Jewish men refused to bow down and face the king’s wrath. So, he had them thrown in to a blazing furnace but they survive.
And we read, “So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed…” There’s the repetition of officials again.
To the reader, which ruler seems ridiculous and which seems powerful? Through the use of humorous repetition, the author of Daniel mocks Nebuchadnezzar by repeating titles and the list of musical instruments, painting the king as petty and preoccupied with meaningless details.
Meanwhile, God is portrayed as powerful and reasonable. No silly repetition is attached to his actions or those of the three Jewish men.
Through humor placed skillfully in the text, the author’s meaning comes through clearly. Which ruler is petty? And which ruler is powerful? The reader knows – after a few chuckles in midstream.
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by Kathy Brasby | Aug 13, 2013 | Hope
After Uncle Walter had saved $4000 on his wife’s funeral, it was only fair that his daughters used the same tactic when it was time for his funeral.
Walter, age 93, died in Yuma, Arizona but had asked to be buried in Colorado – a trip of about 760 miles. When his daughters learned that the funeral home wanted $4000 to transport his body, they decided to do it themselves.
That’s what Walter had done when his wife died – and they could do the same for him.
But saving $4000 is not so easy.
Complicating the issue was that Walter had two rifles he wanted given to his grandsons in Monte Vista.
The two daughters, Pamela and Jane, piled into Pamela’s van with Walter and the rifles in the back and started out. They realized after a few hours that they were running late so they picked up their speed.
It wasn’t long before the flashing red State Patrol lights came up behind them and Pamela pulled over.
“Do you know what the speed limit is?” the officer asked when he got to the driver’s window.
With the speed limit sign sitting right in front of the van, Pamela had to fess up. “Yes, 65 mph.”
“I clocked you at 83,” he said. “What’s your big hurry?”
How do you explain that you have a body in the back and you need to get it to the funeral home by 7 pm? Well, Pamela gave it a try. “It’s my father,” she concluded.
The officer jerked away from the van, his eyes bouncing toward the van window but then he turned away.
Jane leaned across her sister to wave a note from the funeral home in Yuma. He glanced at the paper and then skittered back to his car.
“Do you think he’ll ask about the rifles back there?” Jane said.
They didn’t have any paperwork for the guns. They were traveling from one state to another with a dead body and two rifles. This couldn’t be good.
They both stared straight ahead, then, trying to look as innocent and inconspicuous as two middle-age women caught speeding down the highway in a van carrying a dead body could look.
The patrolman came back to the window, never looking at the back of the van. He tossed the warning into the front seat. “Go ahead,” he said, leaning away from the vehicle. “Be more careful, OK?” He nearly sprinted back to his car and raced away.
So the sisters pulled away from the shoulder of the road. “Dad,” said Pamela, “You got us out of a tight spot again.”
And saved them $4000 to boot.
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by Kathy Brasby | Aug 6, 2013 | Hope
I could have said this story happened on an ordinary day but there were no ordinary days with my youngest. Allow me to illustrate.
I was fixing dinner one evening when he wandered into the kitchen. He was about 5 at the time but pushing a step ladder up to the counter was no problem.
“What’s that,” he asked.
“Hamburger patties.”
He tilted his head. “Can I call it ‘sook’?”
“Um, those are still hamburger patties.”
But for dinner that night we had sook on a bun.
Another day we went shopping. He carried a quarter and five pennies into the store and laid them on a shelf. As we were leaving the store, he discovered his loss and we had to backtrack in search of his loot. We searched long and hard but could only find the quarter and four pennies.
“We need to go.” I finally laid the law down.
He went, with a long face. “I’m going to miss that penny.”
Not long after that, he came to me with eyes drooping and mouth downturned. “I’m sorry. Mom.”
Uh-oh.
“I’m sorry, Mom, but I can’t fly.”
I did wonder how he figured that out.
We were eating breakfast one morning when he announced over scrambled eggs, “Do you know what a Gurgler is?”
I had to admit my ignorance.
“They’re a machine that sucks down people and things.”
“Yuck,” I said.
“I hate to tell you this but if you meet one, you’ll die.”
“Oh, no!”
“But it’s OK because they live on the other side of the world.”
“Good.”
“Mom,” he said. “They’re on the movies.” I believe an eye roll was included in that comment but I wondered what movies he’d been watching.
He liked to help me bake so one day we stirred up a batch of muffins using a whisk to mix. Soon the batter stiffened and he lifted the whisk with the muffin ingredients clumped onto it. “Look! I have a lunk!”
He ate the lunk, too, after it baked.
Then came the day when he rushed into the kitchen, his arms flailing and his face red and hot. “Mom! Becky says I’ll get wigworms if I drink my potty!”
Um, I still can’t get the scenario figured out.
But I’ll bet it wasn’t an ordinary day, either.
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by Kathy Brasby | Aug 2, 2013 | Hope
The Bible utilizes allusion so well that so that we often forget the familiar phrases are allusions.
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to a place, person, or event. Allusions engage the reader and often help the reader remember the point of the passage. A writer using an allusion often can make the point simply and directly.
A modern-day example: “After that line, his nose should have grown like Pinocchio’s.” We remember the story of the wooden boy whose nose grew whenever he told a lie.
Some familiar biblical allusions include:
“He was a Good Samaritan yesterday.” This refers to Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan.
“She turned the other cheek after being insulted by her co-worker.” This one refers to Jesus’ teaching about forgiving rather than taking revenge.
“You are a Solomon when it comes to decisions.” We remember King Solomon, who prayed for wisdom.
But the Bible also contains more complex allusions which we, reading with modern-day glasses, don’t recognize at first.
An example is the story in Exodus about the baby Moses placed in a basket on the Nile River. The word translated “basket” is the same word translated “ark” in the Genesis account of Noah. So those reading Hebrew would recognize the allusion in the Moses story as referring back to Noah and his family being saved in the flood.
The Noah story involved a renewal of creation while evil was pushed back. So the allusion in the Moses story reminds us of the new beginning as Moses, the future rescuer of Israel, was saved from evil intentions. Moses would one day lead the Israelites out of Egypt and slavery.
His rescue from the Nile was reminiscent of Noah’s rescue from the flood. The allusion to Moses’ basket/ark helped readers capture the idea of God’s new beginning.Another example involves Joshua, who followed Moses as commander of the nation of Israel. The night before the Israelites prepare to circle Jericho the final time, Joshua stands alone outside Jericho when a man confronts him and orders Joshua: “Take your shoes off your feet, for the place you stand upon is holy.”
That command is the same wording given to Moses when he first encountered the burning bush in the wilderness. God called Moses to a mission: freeing the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
Joshua is now called, as Moses was, to lead the Israelites. Moses brought them out of Egypt. Joshua will take them into the Promised Land.
As we read the exact phrasing used to call both Moses and Joshua, we understand that this is God’s mission. Joshua is, in a sense, the second Moses, God’s chosen leader.
Allusions deepen the meaning of narratives in both biblical texts and in our own writing. We can learn from the intricate allusions we read in the Bible.
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