The Prince of Egypt

I had forgotten I had it.

That is, the VHS tape of the movie The Prince of Egypt.

It came out while I was in seminary, and I saw it in the theater.

And that was it.

After seeing that movie, I was fully and completely in a crisis of faith. It was the Passover scene that did it, really. It was just too hard for me to see an actual (albeit animated) reinactment of the killing of Egypt's children by the "passing-over" Spirit of God. I know, I know, they were oppressors, and their violence against others and unwillingness to listen to God and free the people resulted in the Passover, but still...

Seminary itself already shakes the foundations of your faith. All I needed was this movie--and I fell.

After a long conversation with my Old Testament professor the next week, I came to terms and peace with God and the Bible again, and my faith returned, but not without a "dark night of the soul."

I'm honestly not sure why I then obtained the VHS tape of this movie, or why it ended up later with my sister.

But this past week, she brought it back to me. And, while "Jed" stayed with her in her new classroom while she set it up (she's a teacher) and I went to do some work in Columbia (supply-getting and hospital-visiting), she let him watch it. I knew she would. I didn't try to stop her. But I felt kind of funny about it.

Since then, he's wanted to watch it 4 times.

I don't know how I feel about this.

I have watched it with him several times, stopping to explain various things in the best way I can, but it's hard.

So I wonder--what do (or did) you who also raise (or who have raised) your children in faith and knowledge of the Bible tell your children about the "texts of terror," the stories where God smites people, and people kill people, and the Lord seems scary?

I know what I say, and I'd be glad to share.

But it's hard. And since God is the Great Mystery, I am so afraid I'm saying the wrong things, or things that might scar my child in ways that would not please Christ, or be true to Him.

So I'd like to know what you say to your children about these things.

Please comment below, if you're willing to share!

Wayfaring Pastor: Wayfaring Stranger - Selah

My friend and colleague Mike just posted this on his blog earlier today. I liked it, and thought I'd share. Maybe it will touch you where you are, too.

Wayfaring Pastor: Wayfaring Stranger - Selah

Missing "LaLa"

On July 4, one of her favorite days of celebration, my mother-in-law joined the greatest celebration imaginable--around the throne of God.

After a whole morning and afternoon of having music played for her from the laptop she used in the hospital (everything from a version of the 23rd Psalm to "Amazing Grace" to our son's "1st recording" of "Jesus Loves Me" on YouTube), we finally played a song she loved, and had requested for her funeral. That song was "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe.

She was breathing as the music began. But with the the first words, we who were beside her looked at her again. She had slipped away. She no longer had to "imagine" the moment described in the song. She knew the glory of that time.

Now, just over 2 weeks later, her family is missing her a great deal.

"LaLa" gave her all to parenting her three children: my husband and his younger brother and sister. She took care of the husband she married at age 18 for 43 years. But the greatest joy of her life came with the births of her grandchildren...6 of them. It was with the first that she took on her new name. As a toddler, he was the first to call her "LaLa," because of the way she sang to him all the time.

On Wednesday, we will mark 2 weeks since the worship celebration of her life. It was grand...a celebration of who she was.

And I'm still giving thanks to God for bringing me into this family so I could know her, love her, be loved by her, and watch her love my child, for 7.5 years. She was a teller-of-the-truth-as-she-saw-it, a fun-lover, a lover of life, an adventurer, a Christian, a loving mother and grandmother, a care-taker, and quite a fighter through her 4.5-year battle with cancer.

She is missed, and she will be for quite some time. But thanks be to God for Judy, "LaLa," and her witness of faith, fight, and love. Thanks be to God for all the prayers and love that have come our way in this difficult time. And thanks be to God for the promise of eternal life with her and all the others who have gone before us in life and faith.

I hope you you enjoy the pictures of the time she and "Jed" shared...