I am really trying to read the Bible through...Genesis to Revelation! And I really try to apply what I am reading in the Word to my life. I am S T R U G G L I N G through Leviticus right now. And when I say S T R U G G L I N G I do mean struggling. Yesterday and today, I was reading about the sexual restrictions and the punishments that accompany those acts. There are 30 verses on "forbidden sexual practices" and 27 verses for "punishment for disobedience." I thought...God, you couldn't just say....don't do anything but...if you do you are going to get punished? 1 maybe 2 verses and it would be taken care of.
Then, I smiled! You see, I thought of this sweet little girl when she was 2 and 3. Jane LOVED to write. She wrote and wrote....the problem, she didn't use paper! So, she began her writing career on a quilt that I made for her bed. I put the brand-new-just-sewed quilt on her bed and went out to the kitchen for a MINUTE; when came back into her bedroom...she had written on the quilt with a magic marker. I said (rather loudly and firmly) "you don't write on the bed, you only write on paper!" DONE. She was a smart little girl and she knew I meant it.
Then days or weeks later, she wrote on the wall in the kitchen. Crayons this time. AHHHHH...I knew that this was a teachable moment...SHE had to scrub the wall with a toothbrush and toothpaste....and the same admonition: you don't write on the walls, you only write on paper. DONE! She would remember THIS lesson because the wall was bathed with salt water tears, too!
Several weeks later, the kitchen floor needed to be scrubbed with a toothbrush and toothpaste by the same, smart little girl with the same admonition....
And then the straw that broke the camel's back or maybe it was a particularly tough day...I don't remember...but I came into the kitchen and right on the dishwasher...my sweet and smart little girl had written on the dishwasher. (These were just the large art pieces that she did, we had to have many talks about the books that she destroyed with her "writing," much to the disgust and shock of her older sister, Betsy who NEVER wrote on anything but paper. See note below)
I took that sweet, smart, little girl's hand and we went around the house. I pointed to EVERYTHING and said: you don't write on the walls, you don't write on the floors, you don't write on the carpet, you don't write on the furniture, [downstairs we went...still hand in hand] you don't write on the dryer, you don't write on the washer...we covered the house with EVERY possible place I could see on which she would want to write. Her little feet were flying to keep up with me. When Steve came home, I told him that Jane understood about the proper place to write NOW! Paper ONLY!
A couple of days later, it was Sunday and Steve and I were in the living room. Jane came in to announce...Daddy, I made you a picture! Both Steve and I looked at each other...I said...don't worry it's on a paper... To Jane we said, show us your picture. There in the kitchen (it really is the room where she did her best work) Jane had taken a pen and drawn a picture for her dad inside his sports coat. (She did a great job, she had covered one side with scribbling.)
What did I do? Laughed. I looked at Steve and said...it's my fault. His look was anything but understanding at my response...it was HIS coat... I explained that it was my fault because...I didn't tell her not to draw on his sports coat. That really was the last thing that she wrote on other than paper after that.
I realized when reading Leviticus that the reason those 50 some verses exist is because the Israelites had DONE all of those things and God was taking them around the house and giving them instruction. We really aren't much different now. There is always a loophole. There will always be the shade of gray. We will always look for a way to change it up and do things that we are not supposed to do. And what happens when we realize what we have done (or gotten caught doing something wrong, what do we receive from our heavenly Father? Grace. Amazing grace. I am so thankful today for a Heavenly Father who gives us the rules and forgives us when we break them. And then covers us with His Grace.
[NOTE: After reading this, I know my girls. Betsy will again think and declare that she was the perfect child. I only need to remind her of my first "quilting" project. I quilted a phone book cover. I had just put it on, and Betsy doodled 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth in ink while she was talking on the phone. And she wasn't 2. And mama wasn't happy."]
And without my children, I would have wondered why God needed 50 some verses to deal with forbidden sexual practices.
