Never Sure What to Expect

Probably this is a normal part of the human experience, but as I only get to experience life with my own peculiar brain, let me lead off  saying that living with my brain is a bit like having an unlabelled chemistry set. My brain is constantly mixing together all the stuff that comes its way and I have no idea what to expect the result to be. It generally looks nothing like what went in. 

So here's what is in the latest reaction. I am working on memorizing my way through Hebrews this summer and was working on chapter 9. For some reason (maybe watching too many BBC Miss Marple episodes with Miss Dog Lover - hmmm, a catalyst?) the part about wills struck me (verses 15-17):

Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

I got to pondering what an odd idea it is in law that we should have any say whatsoever what goes on after our own demise, how that might hint of a universal belief in some sort of eternality of life. Anyhow.

Next reagents:  someone used the expression "over my dead body" in my hearing and I started thinking about how that  expression relates literally to warfare, how the person in this case is willing to lay down life to prevent a certain outcome. I did a bit of googling and there does not seem to be any definitive word on what the expression came from.

Then we added in a few milliliters of a discussion in a thread about a recipe (Capitol Rolls in Indiana, PA, for the curious) that had reportedly "gone to the grave" with the baker. 

And then, what seemed at first to cancel the reaction, I saw a link to a story about a sweet woman whose family wanted to share her generosity after her death and did so by inscribing the recipe for her best-loved cookies on the back of her gravestone so all could enjoy.  Only before reading the article I saw the photo and jumped to the conclusion that this woman had spent her life saying she would share the recipe only "over (her) dead body" and that her family had made good on her promise. 

So there you have a lab report on the materials going into this thought experiment. I am not too sure where it is going to go once the reaction has run its course. But I am very uncertain whether "over my dead body" means something will NEVER happen or will SURELY come to pass.

I'll leave you with this query: does a will gives the writer authority to say This Will Happen When I Die? That could make dying one of the most important things we do.

On Children and Alligators and Gorillas and Polar Bears

I spent a restless night tossing and turning, thinking about the little boy killed by the alligator at Disney this week. I think it is exactly the fact that his dad fought with the alligator that gets my attention. 

I remember some years back when my young son with reactive attachment disorder was in intensive family therapy I read about an Alaskan mom whose child was attacked by a polar bear. She fought it off so savagely it left the child alone. I told my son this story because I felt I would gladly be that mom if it would help him to understand that I loved him.

But there has been no real healing in my son's life. And I feel that I have fought that alligator fiercely, and have seen my child deliberately hurl himself into the pit with the gorilla, over and over, his whole life. So I identify with these parents. 

There are some alligators you cannot stop. There are some children who cannot be stopped from throwing themselves into danger. I am glad to know the One who does rescue from the dragon and bring up from the pit. I pray He will be merciful to these families, to my son, and to other children like him.