“Daddy, do you have any seedlings left?”

— Sullivan, on if we can have more kids

“Man, it was dry in there.”

— Carla, on the The National Aquarium

Leviticus and Numbers tell me not that God is merciless, but rather that His bodily condescension at Christmas and Calvary is sublimely loving.

Leviticus and Numbers tell me not that God is merciless, but rather that His bodily condescension at Christmas & Calvary is sublimely loving.

“Well, I think he can get a pretty intense look on his face when he’s playing something like this, but I don’t think he ever looks like a pirate getting an enema.”

— Scott describing Carla’s imitation of Itzhak Perlman playing the finale of Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D. (Go ahead. Picture it.)

Exodus 32-34 is very revealing of God, whose character up to this point in the Bible has been largely obscure.

Can we please re-christen our gridiron game the more accurate “tackleball”?

“How you say Thanksgiving in French is … ‘Franksgiving.’”

— Sullivan, giving his parents language lessons in the car on our way downtown

Gee, Aaron and his sons’ ordination was awfully involved and bloody. Why?

Read Exodus 16 and then tell me God, as a rule, wants to give us anything more, materially, than daily bread. I dare you.

Ha! The Lord of the Flies couldn’t make gnats! (Exodus 8:18)

Jannes and Jambres’ counter-miracles, genuine or not, show that supernatural acts are not necessarily signs of godly origin.

Moses & Aaron: the Bible’s first wizards.

OK, Exodus 4:24-26 is the strangest passage of Scripture I’ve read so far.

New (?) public energy saving idea: Install smart street lights that are aware of moon phases and cloud cover—and then dim accordingly.

Like Jacob, I want my last words to be blessings.

“But Dad, what is God? What is he? Is he just a big huge blump of air?”

— Sullivan, overhearing Carla and me talk about God’s kingdom

The Pharisees forgot that the nation of Israel’s eponymous forebear was blessed not because of merit, but despite sin.

Would that we love God and one another with the same kind of unflagging love that made Jacob work fourteen years to marry Rachel.

I’m thankful that unlike Isaac, God our Father in heaven—who blesses us abundantly—can’t be tricked by usurpers!

I’m going to start tweeting some thoughts and notes as I read through the Bible in a year in hopes that they’re edifying to all.

“Mommy and Dada, the other night, when I was asleep, my eyes went ploop! (with hand motions indicating quickly opening eyes) and I looked into my pillow and I saw gray telephone wires. And then I saw a big gray pipe with a gray whistle on the top. When the whistle blew, it was telling us that water was going to come shooting out of the pipe. All that was in my pillow! My PILLOW!”

doing anything = not doing anything else. (reaction: chagrin –> acquiescence –> action)

doing something because you desire to > doing something because you feel obligated > doing nothing

“Excuse me, Daddy. God didn’t make this dinner. Mommy did! So, thank you, Mommy, for making this good dinner.”

— Sullivan, after Scott says grace