A BUNCH OF LOOSE CONNECTIONS

I'm reading a book called "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs. It's one of the five books I have on the go and I have to say, my book reading has dwindled down to about 5 or so minutes a day when I sit on my couch, stare at the books I started with every intention of finishing, pick one up, flip to the bookmarked page, scan the page I read last (just to refresh my memory), look outside, think about sleeping and then go make some cookies.

Today I read about 7 pages of this book before deciding that I needed to blog about some random thoughts that are loosely connected in my mind.

I've been struck in the last couple weeks of images of Bible characters as real human beings. I've spent a bit of time dwelling on the "every day" of bible men and women. The other day, I was trying to think about what the disciples would have done day to day, minute to minute. We get a glimpse of portions of their days: Jesus teaching them, sitting down to a meal. I was trying to envision a regular group of guys - young guys, probably in their 20's or early 30's. I would imagine that most of them would have been energetic; one or two might have been a risk taker - the one that always walked the line between appropriate and inappropriate. What would their jokes have been like? What would they have talked about? Girls? Would they have gossiped a little? Would they have laughed at an off colour joke? Some of them probably did. They were humans, right?

In the book I'm reading today, pg 41 mentions that after Adam and Eve sinned, God showed mercy and clothed them in animal skins before kicking them out of the Garden. It got me thinking about the reactions Adam and Eve might have had to that: the animal skins. This would have been the first time Adam and Eve experienced death of any sort, right? Was this a lesson on how to make clothing or did they instinctively know how to kill and skin and animal? Did Eve cry when she realized what death was?

Then I was reminded of a conversation I had with Kelly not too long ago. She was talking about Luke 8:26-39 (or Mark 5:1-20): when Jesus and his disciples meet a demon possessed man who lives among the tombs. She was giving me some perspective on that story and pointed out that this man would have been among the most unclean of the people the disciples and Jesus had yet encountered. This man was:1) Demon possessed/crazy, 2) Naked/dirty,3) Lived among the dead - in the tombs (off limits), 4) Lived close to a herd of pigs (taboo). I wonder what the disciples' reaction was when Jesus stood in front of that man and loved him. I know that I would have backed away, turned away, run away.. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have walked right into what looked like the bottom of the gutter and stood there to extend love, forgiveness and healing.

I guess (if I can try to draw a conclusion of sorts) the more I "humanize" the key characters of the old and new testament, the more I see God taking us out of our regular human mind set and turning things upside down in order to most effectively show His great love for us regular human beings. Does that make sense at all?