“Thank God for Unanswered Prayers”

Numbers 9-11

Have you ever noticed how the grass is always greener on the other side of your memory?  We have a great tendency to only remember the good things of the past while ignoring the bad, or what about those that never seem to live and enjoy their lives today.  They’re always reminiscing about the good old days, but never bother to work at creating the good new ones.  That’s where we find the children of Israel in today’s reading.  They’re up and moving to the Promised Land, but complaining the whole way.  What’s their biggest beef?  “Where’s the beef???”  They want meat.  I can just see them sitting around camp beating their forks on the camel skins chanting, “WE WANT MEAT, WE WANT MEAT!”  Well you can’t say that God doesn’t have a wry sense of humor.  He circles the whole camp with a three-foot deep ring of quail.  Their greener grass just turned into browner feathers.  I bet that’s the day they each learned Garth Brooks' song, “Thank God for Unanswered Prayers”.

We find the greenest grass, the tastiest meat and the only God TODAY.  “This is day which the Lord hath made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in IT.”  Psalms 118:24

Searching for the right gift

Numbers 6-8

This passage is grunt work.  There’s enough of Numbers to tempt us to turn back, but what can we learn?  What are these chapters really about?  Giving to God and they gave plenty!  What do we give?  What gift can we give to God who owns the universe?   Our talents? If you sculpt, sculpt!  Our praise?  If you’re breathing that’s a good reason!  And while we’re out here meddling, how about our money?  Give it to Him, 10% of all you make and then more for the poor and needy.  These chapters are all about giving to God but the best gift was mentioned first in chapter 6.  The best gift is You!  Trust me, I don’t understand the mystery of this, but the truth is truly the truth.  What does God want, what gift brings Him the greatest pleasure?  You!  Not hard to find that perfect gift for God, it's just a Hard gift to give, isn’t it? 

Christianity and the Art of Home Repair

Numbers 3-5

We all need a great mechanic.  Someone we trust to repair our cars and the same with home repair, electricity and plumbing.  It’s important to have someone we can trust to fix the things that break in our lives.

There’s one person more important than all the others.  It’s our spiritual handyman, the one we call on when faced with the “unfixable” things in life.  We all have these issues: death, wayward love ones, broken hearts, homes and souls.  God calls out special people to play this role in the world.  That’s what’s happening in these chapters.  We will all, at some point, need someone who has been trained by God to minister Him into our hearts, homes and hearths.  We have one, my brother, Pastor P.R. Benson.  I do hope you do too.  Starting here in the early writings, God really does call some people out for this special role.  Find that pastor or priest.  Make them an integral part of your family.  Trust God.  Someday, if not already, you will need them.  That’s why God appointed them.  Remember He is with us and often with us through His Appointed.  

Kum Ba Yah

Leviticus 27-Numbers 2

It’s easy to get lost in Numbers and just skip over it.  Even its name, Numbers, can strike boredom in the hearts of artists, but there is plenty of meaning, meditation and metaphor if you go into it wanting that. 

This morning we learn that all the children are “camped” around the Tabernacle.  We love camping.   Two great truths in camping are all good camps have a fire and all good campers camp around it.  Fire in the wilderness provides three basic needs: light, warmth and safety.  Are you and yours camped around God?  He provides the same thing.  Come on in from the dark and cold and lay your bag beside the Fire.  It’s the only safe place to be in the wilderness.

OMG

Leviticus 25-26

"But I (God) will remember for them the covenant."  26:45

One of the greatest gifts on the planet is the gift of a second chance.  Are you like me, been given second chances pilled on second chances?  One reason God is so good is that He's always willing to give us another chance, to not hold us against us.  That's what these two chapters are about.  God's willingness, no matter what, to offer us unconditional, redemptive love.  Once we've staked our lives on Him by faith,  nothing in heaven or earth can get Him to let us go.  That is the wonder of the relationship; it's not our good, but His love for second chances.  What a gift.  Oh my God, we love you!!!

Sean Connery, God and Jesus

Leviticus 21-24

Remember the movie “The Untouchables” about Federal agent Eliot Ness bringing Al Capone to justice?  The movie starred Kevin Costner as Ness and Sean Connery as the local Chicago cop, Jim Malone, who showed him how to get Capone.  There was a scene at the beginning of the movie where Ness and Malone are meeting in the balcony of a Catholic church and Malone is explaining to Ness what it would take to get Capone. 

Malone to Ness, “You said you wanted to know how to get Capone.  Do you really want to get him?  You see what I am saying.  What are you prepared to do?” 

Ness, “Everything within the law!” 

“If you open the ball on these people Mr. Ness you must be prepared to go all the way!” 

“I want to get Capone.  I don’t know how to get him!” 

“You wanna get Capone here’s how you get him.  He pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital you send one of his to the morgue.  That’s the Chicago way!  Now do you want to do that?  Are you ready to do that?  I’m making you a deal.  Do you want the deal?” 

“The Lord hates a coward.” 

            “You know what a blood oath is Mr. Ness?”

“Yes!!” 

“Good cause you just took one!!!”

Difficult reading today in Leviticus about defects and being defective.  That however is not what made me think of the above scene.  This is:  

“God said to Moses, ‘And if a man injuries his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth’”.       Leviticus 24:19-20

Skip ahead 2000 years.

Jesus is on a mountaintop teaching His disciples and us.

“You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.’”       Matthew 5:38-39

Lee, do you know what a blood oath is? 

Yes.

Good cause you just took one.

Sometimes I don’t like the Bible.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Bathroom scales

Leviticus 17-20

More rules, some are serious, some are helpful like provisions for the poor and laws for apple trees.  Another helpful one is standards for weights and balances.  That’s such a wonderful gift.  It’s great to know that a gallon is always a gallon, a foot is always a foot and a pound is always a pound.  It makes for civil and fair markets.  Didn’t you hate it when a half-gallon of ice cream went to 1.5 quarts?  Of course for my own benefit a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts should probably come with only two and my wife would love it if our bathroom scales recorded every pound as a half.   Standard weights and measurements, a great thing…I guess!!!

Freebird

Leviticus 14-16

Unclean, sinner, sick and sore, half gone, bloodied and scared, scrubbed but still stained and all gone with no hope.  Ever feel that way?  I have many times.  I can remember once I was neck deep in it.  My dad took me way out into the hills of east Tennessee to see an old country judge.  I was guilty to Hell, but my dad’s reputation was able to make atonement for me.  I guess if you count all our sins and shame we are, and always are, guilty to Hell.  Three great additions to the law this morning are scapegoats to bear all our sins and guilt, atonement that creates us forgiven and freed birds that fly away our uncleanliness.  These are the most beautiful set of truths ever established.  It’ll be cast in God’s blood in about 2000 years and our free bird will fly away forever.

“If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be traveling on, now

Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see

But, if I stayed here with you now

Things just couldn’t be the same

Cause I’m as free as a bird now

And this bird you cannot change

And this bird you cannot change

Lord knows I can’t change…”

Post Script:  My wife edited this and struggled with my public use of the word Hell.  If you read Leviticus it is intense.  Death is common and blood flows like a river.   But what really provoked me was how the writer depicts the grave nature of sins consequence.  There's two choices, death or Hell.  Blood was demanded and blood was always paid!!!

Karaoking  “Freebird”

Grasshoppers, foreskins and scabs

Leviticus 10-13

Laws and rules, rules and laws.  Have you ever noticed how religion and laws don’t mix?  They make for a cold faith of legalism.  There are enough laws in today’s reading to make you dizzy.  There’s only one mix worse than religion and laws and that’s religion, laws and humans.  I’ve had a long and bad history with these three.  There’s got to be a way these can coexist in a wholesome partnership and there’s only one way! 

“Do not think that I (Jesus) came to abolish the law or the prophets.  I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Matthew 5:17

We are now free from all laws except one,

“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:15

Sarah, the law of loving is a lot easier than the law of looking for a white hair in a red scab!!!  Love dad.

blood, guts and God

Leviticus 6-9

Tough few chapters.  It’s a hard deal for God Almighty to form a relationship with man.  Blood, guts and death laying around everywhere along side pleasing aromas, fire, oil and “the glory of the Lord.”  These are heady days, serious and mysterious, for all humankind.   God is beginning to make Himself known and the first thing that is most evident is that this is serious business.  The second, sin is a killer!  But there is a seed of great joy.  It’s God’s insistence on man playing a role.  This God isn’t far removed and lost in theology.  He’s right there among the blood and fire pounding out the relationship along side us.  I love God for that.  He’s with us. 

Designated God

Leviticus 5

Deuteronomy 4:15-19 (passage I am teaching on)

In the passage in Deuteronomy the children of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land and be faced with cultures that make all kinds of images to represent the gods they worship.  God is warning them not to make idols for themselves. 

What are Christian idols today?  In this context, that of worship, I am convinced the two biggest idols we have created are salvation and church attendance.  Now before you burn me at the proverbial “delete post” stake, hear me out. 

Many Christians today have replaced their personal relationship with Christ with their salvation.  They've been saved at some point and that is the extent of their “personal relationship”.  To them salvation is not the door to the relationship, it is just a ticket to heaven.  It has no bearing on their daily lives.

Next is church attendance.  Many Christians substitute going to church for their personal relationship.  Both of these, in this context become idols.   They are substitutes for a living, vibrant and essential, personal relationship.  A relationship built on Christ and practiced by a personal Bible study, meditation on God’s word, prayer and service love toward God and our neighbor.

Obviously, salvation is necessary to have a personal relationship with God.   Church attendance will be a natural out growth of this relationship.  We, however, must guard against anything taking the place of God in our lives and His desire for that relationship to be personal.    

Perfumed wheat, bloody fingers and The Golden Girls

Leviticus 2-4

Let’s do something.  Try and erase from your heart and mind all knowledge of God.  Now imagine that I tell you that there is a Being who is all-knowing, all-powerful and present in all places simultaneously.  That this Being has and will always exist, that He has made everything that is and that the entire universe is under His authority.  Lastly, He makes all the rules and when we break any of them, we offend Him personally and when we keep them, we bring Him personal joy. 

Your first reaction would be “I don’t believe that!!!”  But if I insisted you might say, “OK, prove it!!!”   Now for the sake of this story let’s say we are at Panama City Beach, FL and I say “ok, I’ll prove it.”  I turn toward the Gulf and say, “Being, divide the Gulf of Mexico” and it actually divides in half so that you can walk to Galveston, TX on dry land if you chose.  Here would probably be your next thoughts;

I am afraid of this Being!

How do I get Him on my side?

How do I keep from making Him mad at me, personally?

That is where we find the Children of Israel in today’s reading.  God is beginning to teach them who He is, what He is and the first baby steps on how to relate to Him. 

Now let’s not jump ahead theologically, to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Let’s stay in the early stages of the covenant relationship ordained by God to the great ancients of old.  It takes some time to come to grips with the idea of God, much less Him personally.  I for one would have been sacrificing everything in sight just to say;

“Thank you for being a friend,

Traveled down the road and back again

Your heart is true You’re a pal and a confidant

And if You threw a party

Invited everyone You knew

You would see the biggest gift would be from me

And the card attached would say

THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND!”

Sounds like God

Exodus 40-Leviticus 1

Strange thing happened in today’s reading.  God stopped talking from Mount Sinai and started talking “from the tent of meeting.”  That reminded me of another time God chose to change the way He speaks to the world.  It’s one of the favorite verses in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:20.  “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 

Help me to sound, and act, like You today.

Echos from a "hollar"

Exodus 38-39

I find myself a long way from home serving You among strangers.  Comforting that You and Your word remain the same.  Everyone in today’s reading was still about Your business, the business of making work in the service of others.  One of man’s great gifts and rewards is Your consistency.  You remain the same yesterday, today and forevermore.  Good news for an old soul that finds himself in a forgotten “hollar” in the coal mine mountains of eastern Kentucky.   Good news for those scattered in the rich soil all over this earth.  We are all like the children of Israel, scattered like seeds along the path to the Promised Land, Heaven. 

Happy growing!!!

Sincerely, God

Red Bird Mission, Kentucky

Exodus 37

There is an idea in art called the “sincerity of materials”.   This means that the materials the artists use to make art should reflect their belief in the value of the idea they want to convey. 

There’s “pure gold” in today’s reading.  Pure gold everywhere, Ark, Mercy Seat, candlesticks and vessels.  I don’t have anything made of pure gold.  I do have something better than pure gold, my relationship with God, my salvation, my wife, four children, my daughter in law and my three grandchildren.  These are all more valuable than pure gold to me.  That is the truth of this chapter.  The pure gold was a metaphor for the valuableness of God to us and of our relationship to Him.  It would the embodiment of “Sincerity of Materials.”  

High Voltage Face

Exodus 33-37

I was listening to an album the other night by an artist that I liked back in the 70’s, Mac Davis.  This morning’s readings reminded me of one of his songs.  It went like this:

“Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble

when your perfect in every way

I can’t wait to look in the mirror

cause I get better looking each day…”

I remember distinctly several years ago looking in the mirror and thinking, “dad gum, you look worn out, like you’ve been ridden hard and put up wet.”  At that moment I realized that it wasn’t going to get better - all down hill from there. 

Now you might be thinking what does this have to do with Moses on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments.  When Moses came off the mountain, it said the skin of his face “shone” so that the children of Israel could not look at him.  The reason, he’d been talking to God!  I’ve seen people like that.  Godly saints whose faces shine with the radiance of God.  Sure cure for what ails you in the mirror.  No need to “go green” here, up that voltage.  Spend all the time with Him you want.  Shine on, shine on…

Unexplainable God

Exodus 29-32

A powerful passage of beauty and violence and engraved between the two is Bezalel, the great saint of art, the first human who God filled with the Spirit of God to make art.  Now that’s a winning line on a resume.  It would be the only line needed.  There’s an ongoing puzzlement that has perplexed mankind and this is a great opportunity to solve it. The puzzlement - What is art? The answer - It is a word!  Art is a word God made up to identify the things artist make to help explain the unexplainable.  And the most unexplainable idea in all of human history is GOD!!!  If you read these three chapters alone there are great mysteries about God that will eternally defy the pen.  That is why God made art and more importantly artists.  Priests, scholars and layman don’t get to play.  Only artists, and the first was Bezelel.  AMEN

Woven Treasure

Exodus 26-28

Gold, silver, bronze, ruby, topaz, emerald, turquoise, sapphire, diamond, jacinth, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, jasper, acacia wood, blue, purple and scarlet cloth, skillfully woven, finely twisted linen and pure, clear oil.  These are the materials God showed Moses how to use when creating His wonderfully nomadic sanctuary.  See any connection to these verses in the Bible

“For You (God) formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mothers womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.”  Psalms 139:13-14

And

“Do you (you) not know that you are a temple/sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”  1 Corinthians 3:16

I’m going to be a better person today. 

Blood and Gold

Exodus 23-25

I had an argument with someone last night about my belief that the object, as the vehicle of art, has been replaced by the idea or concept.  And then I have this reading this morning where God dictates to Moses all the objects He wants made for the sanctuary.  The beauty is that all the objects are to develop one concept.  God wants to have a personal relationship with us.  All the objects were made to create a method by which this “personal relationship’ could take place.  God and man have an object, the sanctuary, by which they can form, the most startling revelation in the history of human beings, a personal and loving relationship.

Don’t you enjoy your salvation!!!

Added thoughts:

I really loved the readings today.  Blood and gold.  Two of the most precious materials on earth and the two mediums God chose to work with when creating objects to be used in developing a personal relationship with His children.  Life and value are what I associate with the mediums, blood and gold.  That is what a personal relationship with God produces.  Everlasting life through Christ Jesus which makes you of ultimate value.  

Eagles and earthquakes

Exodus 19-22

God came to earth in this morning’s readings and He sure didn’t come “wrapped in swaddling clothes”.  Fire, smoke and earthquakes.  That’s what I would expect when God visits, especially when coming for the reason He came this morning, to LAY DOWN THE LAW!  I appreciate the fact that the basic elements of the universe are disturbed when God shows up.  Keeps our attention and that attention focused.  Got me focused, but not on the laws or earthquakes. He focused me on Him and in particular on one thing He said.  “…and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself…and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  It’s good that God flies us over all the fire, smoke and earthquakes to keep us for Himself.  God’s dangerous, but He always makes safe passage for His loved ones.  Welcome, beneath the wings!

PS:  For those theologians among us who say, and rightly so, these wings were only offered to the children of Israel.  He offers the same ride to all of us in 1 Peter 2:9-10

For the Birds

For the Birds

Exodus 16-18

Doesn’t seem to be a lot of joy in the camp of the children of Israel.  These chapters have them “grumbling” all the time about the feeding program and Moses sitting around dawn to dusk listening to their disputes.  I hope Christians don’t sound that way today.   Makes for poor p.r.  You know what helps to make me joyful?  Birds singing. I always try and listen for them.  Wonder why birds sing?  What if God made them to sound like dying cats!  Bet there would be a lot fewer bird feeders.  

Springs of water

Exodus 13-15

I had the perfect blog for today.  This morning I found the children of Israel leaving for the Promised Land and two of my own children, Zac and Sarah, leaving as well.  Zac to Boulder to pursue his sculpture program and Sarah back to UT.  But it’s become too personal for a public blog so I'll write about something else that has come to mind in today’s reading.

Complete dependence on God.  That’s where we find the children of Israel.   They’ve left Egypt, are in the desert and they don’t even have water to drink.  Complete dependence upon God is nearly impossible today.  I’m too affluent.  Affluence can be a great god.  My cabinets, refrigerator, closets and carport overflow.  My bank account, billfold and retirement funds do the same.  And if my affluent gods give me too much there are ample storage units to come to my rescue. 

In Genesis 15 it says that the children of Israel came to Elim where there were “12 springs of water…”.  If you counted the sources of fresh water coming into my home there are exactly 12.  (good coincidence)  Twelve springs of fresh water.  I one time thought that if I turned one on and left town for a year and came back it would still be running.  Gratitude and thanksgiving should be what really “overflows” in my home. 

Affluence can easily replace God if I am not continually aware of His goodness.  Water is a good example.  No one has a right to water.  Millions of humans will do without today and thousands, around 9000, will actually die of thirst today.  I have a hard time thinking of dying of thirst knowing that I own 12 fresh springs.  But my point is this.  What if God chose to put me in charge of water?  Not to give it to people but to make it.  He took all the water away and then said, “Lee, from now on you get to make all the water on earth.”  You see it wouldn’t be 9000 that that would die but in 4 days all 4.5 billion of us would die.  I couldn’t make a drop.  

Here’s what got me thinking about all of this.  When the children of Israel left Egypt the Bible records that they plundered Egypt of all their gold and silver.  America, I mean Israel (Freudian slip, my bust) had all the affluence in the world but they couldn’t produce one drop of water.  How many fresh springs flow into your home?  We could use a little praise practice and there’s a good reason.

Being passed over

Exodus 9-12

Great Passover story this a.m. 

I love this story because of what it means to me personally.  We all get passed over.  Promotions, raises, not being picked for the team, being a member of the in-group, all of us get passed over now and then.  As an artist hardly a week goes by without a “passing over” arriving in the mail.  Lost this show or that commission.  Getting passed over is not for the thin skinned.  But the exact opposite is true of this original Passover and the one so personal to me.  There was a lot of me that God had to “passover” in order to save me.  I was a lot like the Prodigal Son who “squandered his estate in loose living.” Luke 15.  There was a mountain of “squandering” in my life that God had to passover.  I would imagine, if we were honest, the same could be said of us all.  But the clear sweet fact is that the Passover is personal not universal, so I always see it in light of me.  The good news, so does God.  He solved my Passover dilemma in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrated His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  You see it is not my sin that compels God but His love.  Yes there was a lot of me to Passover but praise God it doesn't measure up to His love.  I’m Passed Over.  

Skypeing God

Exodus 5-8

The plagues on Egypt

My oldest son in New York has been texting me all through my quiet time. 

The Old Testament sure would have been different with today’s technology.  The plaques would have been crashing hard drives and identity theft and God would have Skyped Moses. 

The thing I love most about modern technology is how easy it is to connect with loved ones.  Loved ones should always stay intimately connected.  I guess that’s why there’s the Bible and prayer.  

I'm Sore

Exodus 1-4

3:7 “…for I (God) am aware of their suffering.”

I am hurting this morning!  I started a new sculpture yesterday and my body is paying for it.  Making large scale sculpture is hard on a 53 year old body.  In one sense pain is really a blessing.  It’s my body’s way of informing me that it’s still alive, albeit sore, and needs attention.  Pain fills me with empathy for my body which moves me to action to care for it.  This same miracle occurs with my heart and soul.  Isn't it wonderful that we are born with the ability to feel not only physical pain but emotional/spiritual pain as well?  Don’t our “hearts” often experience painful suffering over the plights of loved ones?  But what exactly is hurting?  Our spirit?  Our soul?  I'm no theologian so I don’t have a ready answer but the one thing I do know is that I’m happy to have been given such a gift.  Why?  Because, just like making sculpture moves me to the rubbing alcohol bottle, this more meaningful pain of my spirit moves me to reach out and offer aid and comfort to others. 

What got me to thinking about this is the short phrase quoted above.  Moses is being called to go get the children of Israel out of Egypt and we are given the text of the conversation between God and him.  God tells Moses, “for I am aware of their suffering.”  You see we are the created physical manifestation of God ‘in His image.’  When we hurt and suffer God is empathetically aware of it.  Just like sitting in this recliner right now my body is making me empathetically aware of its plight.  So the next time you have used your physical body to the point of soreness or your heart is being ripped asunder by a wayward child, or your son is about to move, alone, half way across the country be of a thankful heart.  In some great mysterious way our suffering is being directly felt by God.  God is love!!!  And God is always moved to action by that love for his sore and hurting children.  Now that’s a great truth on pain worthy of praise.   

my studio

My studio

Me in Amber

Just finished Genesis this a.m. and the end of the lives of two great men, Israel and Joseph.  Both die.  We all are appointed to die.  Great mystery death.  As an artist I find myself contemplating death a lot.  Not mine but death in general.  My latest body of work deals with mortality and immortality.  I take 10,000 samples of my DNA on toothpicks, q-tips etc. and imbed them in amber and encase the whole thing in resin.  By doing this I am preserving myself with the idea being that at some point technology will advance to the point that I can be “reborn”, ie: “Jurassic Park”.  The concept for the work is how humans are consumed with their own immortality.  We diet, exercise, use vast amounts of cosmetics and ingest mountains of vitamins, minerals and prescription drugs, all on the premise that we might cheat death, if not forever, at least for a few years.  We don’t like to think about death so we have become enamored with life.  With all this effort to achieve immortality I thought it would be good to do work about it.  To draw attention to a truth about life and death.  

Here are two truths I believe most relevant.  One, everyone’s physical body will die.  Let’s be straightforward.  Joseph was embalmed.  Why?  Because, if left alone after death he as well as us all would just rot.  Our bodies would bloat, burst open and smell, to quote my Granny, “To high heaven.”  If left completely alone animals and insects would consume what was once our cherished selves but would now be a carcass.  Enough of the blunt. 

The second great truth, I believe, is that we are all very truly immortal.  What makes me me and you you lives forever.  Our physical bodies are just the vehicles by which our real selves, our sprit and soul, get hauled around. Our physical bodies give us the ability to be animated on this earth.  I believe that every human from the moment the egg is fertilized, at that exact instant, becomes immortal. That is why I make the work shown here.  To draw our attention to our own immortality.  How do we spend our immortality?  I believe what Christ taught, that we will spend eternity in one of two ways, with God or without Him.  This belief is exactly why I make the art I make and why I write this blog.  To express this hope.  The hope that I have only found in Christ.  I was reminded of this fact this morning when I read in Genesis 49:33 about the death of another physical body, Jacob.  It said “he drew his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people”.  The “gathered to his people” part was what I was drawn to.  I believe he truly was gathered up to be together with all his loved ones who had made a conscious decision to believe and to live there with them and God forever.  Now that’s what I call the good news, news worthy of making art about “until the cows (or in this case, the Lee’s) come home.”

"Me in Amber" 10,000 q tips embedded in amber
encased in resin, 4'/1'/8"

On lee's knees

It has dawned a beautiful clear cold morning.  Just finished the Joseph story in Genesis.  What a compelling narrative.  Attempted murder, slavery, false rape charges, hopelessness and then a great renewal and redemption over the plight of the earth.  All this occurring in one family.  It is the story of all families.  We all have great tragedies, sorrows and troubles nesting in our family trees.  Our tree lineages are darkened by all manner of misfits and malcontents.  I know there are many broken, splintered and diseased limbs in my tree.  Grandfathers drinking away fortunes, great uncles still tarrying in far off lands for minor crimes committed years ago and wives’ and mother’ hearts crushed by divorce, drug abuse and death.  But we do not despair, such are all family trees.  But think of the great branches, those tightly engrained into the trunk that is growing ever deeper into the good earth of God’s Heart.  Those ancestors of lore like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or in my case Wayne Lee or Nellie Kimbraugh.  My great branches support limbs like me who, by grace, have grown branches like Aaron and Sissy who have now sprouted Reese, Cora and Knox Lee twigs. 

In my front yard lays a great limb dropped in yesterday’s strong winds.  It had died long ago and had finally fallen when the elements had long beared up against it.  And such is family life.  But the good news, it fell from a great tulip popular still standing strong and steady, waiting out the cold of winter to beautifully bloom in the spring.  Shall this be you?  Yes, we only have to continue to sink our roots into the good richness of God’s Heart, the sweet and life giving, nutrient rich Heart.  Just like Joseph. Don’t you just love family, And God!!!

On lee's knees

1-1-2012

“Sunday Morning Coming Down”

Good morning God.  We are grateful to spend our first few minutes with You on this New Years day.  The readings, Genesis 32-35, were about a very troubled family whose faults are all too clear.  Why would You, when documenting Your people, place in writing a record of sex, lies, killing, rape, deceit, bickering, and conniving?  So much about You startles me!  All of humanity is flawed from beginning to today and You faithfully have it recorded.  Why?   Maybe because we are all the same.  From Lady Gaga to Billy Graham we are all struggling with this bittersweet dilemma of being human.  We all believe ourselves to be relevant, (Damien Hurst’s, “The Improbability of Death to the Living”) and so we sat about trying to convince ourselves, and all those who will watch, that we are.  Some of us, like the Children of Israel and the two mentioned above, get our lives documented, most “live lives of quiet” attempts.  All along the way You are there, gently but with loving exuberance, urging us to submit our humanity to Your care and leadership.  Some do, like Pastor Graham, and live a life of humble good doing.  Others, like Lady Gaga, struggle to know who they really are.  And then there are the rest of us who live somewhere in between.

Can You suffer a prayer for all of humanity?  May we all grow closer to You or meet someone who will willingly guide us closer to You.  And Father, allow me and mine to be guides.