To Him for Whom Icecream is a Staple

Floating in that dreamy half-sleep, my pillow, the covers just right, the lights out, the house quiet. He bursts into the bedroom.

"Mm,mm." The sound of spoon on glass. Scrape. Scrape. Stir. "Mm." Chomp. Crunch. He's added those blasted chocolate chips. Smack. "Mm." He plops onto the bed. Mostly scraping now.

"Want some?" He asks cheerily, as if we're sitting next to each other on a park bench on some sunny afternoon.

"No. I just want to go to sleep," I whine. "Why do you eat ice cream just before going to sleep?" I snarl.

"Because I can't eat it while I'm sleeping."

Two Gods

On Sunday,Ronnie Stevens quoted someone who has said, "There are two Gods; the one you want - and the one who is there."

Perhaps due to the winter weather, I've been hibernating when it comes to phrases and sentences that catch my attention. For a couple of weeks it was this one, referring to Jesus in a sinking boat with the storm raging and his friends panicking...

"asleep on a cushion"

Several times a day I've thought about that. Chewed on it slowly as if it was all I knew. A man in a boat that was sinking

"asleep on a cushion"

In my reading of Mark, I'm seeing how often people try to tell Jesus what to do. And he doesn't do what they say or say what they expect. In the past I've imagined him center-stage, dispensing healing, gathering children in his arms, teaching on a hillside with throngs of people before him. I realize those images come from movies and flannelgraphs, not from honest reading of the gospels.

He had no halo, no aura, no supernatural authority that made people speechless, move out of his way, feel that nothing bad would happen to them if they were in his presence. Even those closest to him thought they could influence him, tell him where to go, what to do. Read the gospels with that in focus and see how often people tried to control him. Notice his responses.

The firm, "No, we're not staying here. That's not why I came."
The heartbreaking response to the news that his mother was outside, "Who is my mother?"
The scorching rebuke to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!"

"asleep on a cushion" while his friends were frightened to death, frantically bailing water. They force him to wake up. He has no pity. Instead, after telling the sea to hush, he rebukes them. "Where is your faith?"

There are two Gods: The one we want (imagined, pretend, synthetic, flexible, comfortable, you fill in the adjectives).

and

The one who is there
Sleeping on a cushion in a sinking boat in a raging storm
Unperturbed