Where’s Bob?
Years ago, my aunt in Arizona bought me some adorable handmade tissue box covers. They are the kind of sewing art that makes you want one of every design, so you can have a different one in each room in the house. They are some of the most unique pieces of sewing art I’ve ever seen, and my aunt offered to get me as many as I wanted, but I settled for only two of them. Growing up, it was crocheted covers that adorned everything in the house—from the spare roll on the back of the toilet to the winter doorknob covers to eliminate some of the static. While crafting isn’t my own personal strength, I truly appreciate the artistic abilities of others.
Plus, a beautiful cover gives some dignity to an object that goes through a lot of workplace drama in our house. If you’ve ever reached for a tissue only for the chain to break, you know the drama; the frustration of having to dig blindly into the cardboard to fish the next one out. In our family, we blame “Bob”—the imaginary little guy we picture living inside the box. Bob runs things like a one-man machine with a crank that pops the next tissue up each time you grab one. It can be a thankless job, but we try to tell Bob thank you when we think about it. Whenever the chain breaks, we just say Bob is taking his fifteen-minute scheduled break. Even if it’s not on our schedule, we understand. 😁
So, today, I asked hubby for a tissue, and he reached in to get one, but…
It wasn’t just a broken chain; the box was empty. My husband reached in to dig one out and said, without any fanfare or forced humor, “I guess Bob moved to another box.” It caught me by such surprise that I lost it and just laughed (out loud for real) for a long time. 🤣 Now I’m wondering if Bob moved into the Christmas box to take a nap—or a vacation since it’ll be a while before that one comes out again. We may have to offer him a raise to come back to the polka dot box. Teehee.
I did find an active Etsy seller who’s got 180+ designs of these couches, and the store says they’ll make them to-order as well. I’ve never ordered anything from Etsy, or even set up an account there, but it said it was last active on May 26th, so I hope that’s a good sign that it’s a good store. It’s called Royal Makings, and this link goes straight to the couches.
I hope this brought you a smile. Never forget the value of a joyful heart.
Proverbs 15:13a BSB
[13] A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.15.13.BSB
Proverbs 17:22a BSB
[22] A joyful heart is good medicine.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.17.22.BSB
And with that, I’ll close with a picture that may possibly be Bob’s new job site…
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Lives Without Love
When I read more about Leah today, from Genesis 30:14 through Genesis 30:27, I feel heartbroken for her. She has had four children, she has had two in proxy through her servant girl, but she still feels unloved. When her son collects some mandrakes from the field (thought to be translated from Hebrew meaning “love plant”), Rachael asks Leah if she can have some to help with her infertility. Leah gets upset and accuses Rachael of trying to steal her son as she has done with her husband. So Rachael makes a deal with Leah to exchange some of the fruit for Leah to have her husband back in her bed with her.
After all is said and done, Leah conceives and bares three more children, two boys and girl. She gives Jacob Isaachar (hired/reward), Zebulun (dwelling) and Dinah. When she named Zebulun, she said, “Maybe now that I have given him six children, my husband will live with me.” Finally, after Leah had her three new babies, Rachael finally conceived and gave birth to Joseph meaning “may He add” and hoping this was the end of her infertility and disgrace.
Both of these women had so much pain. Leah was unloved and lonely, and Rachael was infertile and felt rejected by God. But they were sisters. They could have loved each other and been there for each other through everything they went through. Leah could have cared for her sister’s infertility and invited her to help raise her nephews and nieces, but she was so bitter about the fact that her husband really wanted to be with her sister (and had actually married her in ceremony) that she did not care for her sister’s pain. I wonder if she had drawn closer to her sister, would she have felt less lonely? And I wonder if Rachael had cared more for her sister’s inability to change how their husband felt about her, and her inability to change the looks she was born with, would Leah have tried to spend more time with her. It seems that bitterness and envy made both of them lonelier and restricted both of them to lives without love of one kind or other–be it without a husband in the dwelling or without a child to raise.
Hebrews 12:15 talks about the root of bitterness and the torment that comes with it. I think feeling like you are living a life without any love in it would certainly fall under the definition of torment. But since the chapter ends with Jacob finishing his work for Laban and asking to return to his homeland with all his wives and children, maybe there is hope that once they all live together, the sisters can find love for each other again.
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I’m a firm believer that God is the true owner of all things in my life. I even say that God owns the copyright to all my works, which is why I don’t keep them in hiding until I can get registered copyrights, though even without the registration, I know my works are copyrighted as soon as I create them. Still, I know some people fear theft of their intellectual works, so they don’t get them out there. But what if we lived as if we didn’t own any of it, and what if we lived as if all we have is given to us to share?
In today’s reading from Leviticus 25:14 through Leviticus 25:18, we read about God’s idea of fair sales practices, and how He says to stay secure in our land. First, He says that when people sell to each other, they should never exploit each other. In context with the passage, this refers to land for sale between years of jubilee (every 50 years) since on those years, all land goes back to the original owners. Yesterday’s post introduced jubilee, but I didn’t comment on the last verse about owners returning.
So, because the land is not sold permanently, God explains here that if it is close to an upcoming jubilee, the price of the land should be reduced. If it is a long way off, the price should be raised. He tells them that what they are actually selling is not the land, but the amount of crops the purchaser will be able to produce. For this reason, and because He is The Lord and their God, He says for them to make sure not to take advantage of each other.
The last statement in today’s section says that if men will keep God’s commandments and obey all His rulings, they will be able to live securely in their land. Secure living: Can you imagine such a thing? No need for a Department of Homeland Security. No need for burglar alarms or spiked fences. No need for guard dogs (or attack cats :-)). Just living and doing whatever God has guided us to do each simple day of our lives. Can you imagine just how awesome this would be. I know I can.
I would love to be “anti-war,” and to have peace, love, and butterflies all the time, but I know it’s not realistic. The people who march for peace and rage against our soldiers and our right to defend ourselves might as well boycott ADT and all other home security companies because the message is the same… “We don’t want security forces; we want peace.” And I would love it if such could be true, but it can’t be true on this earth as it stands now. It could work if every person on the planet earth would do things God’s way, but they won’t, so we’re left with war between those who are lawful and those who make their own law to do whatever suits them. And because of war, we have to protect ourselves–or employ others to protect us–from those who live according to the wanton desires of human flesh instead of seeking God’s perfect will.
Did you notice that before men created a golden calf to worship, there was no law about not creating golden statues? The more men misbehave, the more laws must be created to rein them in. A child gets hit by a car, and new speed-limit laws are put in place to protect other children on that same street. Multiple accidents happen at an intersection, and a new traffic light goes up to better govern the crossing. The “Department of Homeland Security” was not created until November 25th, 2002. It was a direct result of the lawlessness that cost multiple lives on September 11th, 2001. Lawlessness creates a need for more laws, but lawfulness (especially to the will or Our Creator and Savior) brings security to our lives, our homes, and our lands.
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April 27, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Adonai, Almighty, Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible reading, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Creator, crystalwriter, fairness, God, Holy Bible, home, Israel, justice, land, law, lawfulness, lawlessness, Leviticus, Lord, Old Covenant, Old Testament, Parashah, Portions, Scripture, security, The Complete Jewish Bible, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, www.biblegateway.com, Yahveh, Yahweh | Leave a comment