The light is green... go!

This evening I went with the family to the store to pick the girls up some new jeans. Katie and I were in the front, Eliana and Giada were in the middle row, and Bianca was all the way in the back. I eased our vehicle into the left turn lane, and waited there for the light to turn green. In the meantime, the lights for the three lanes to our right turned green. The cars in those lanes began to go, but since our light remained red, I stayed where I was.

After a few seconds, Bianca called to me from the back, "The light is green, daddy... go." I assured her that the light was not green, but she called again, this time with a bit more intensity, "The light is green... go!" I tried to explain to her that the lanes next to us had green lights, but that our was still red. She would have none of it, and in exasperation she yelled, "THE LIGHT IS GREEN... GO!"

Could it really the case that this little kid who was sitting not just in the back, but in the way back, the back back, the backety-back, the penalty box, was giving me driving instructions? A backseat driver is certainly an annoyance, but a three year old?

I had to stop and wonder how often I do that with God. How many times have I told him how to drive, rather than just let him do the driving? How many times have I been sure that he must not understand that the light is green, and that it is time to go, when he is quite aware of what color the light is, and is going to wisely navigate me to my destination? I really couldn't believe I was getting backseat driving instructions from a three year old, but I am sure I have been guilty of doing the same with my Father. Maybe we should all just trust him to get us where we need to go. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Who are you and why are you naked?

I was reading in the Gospel of Mark today and was intrigued by a few verses that I am sure I have read a number of times, but that I don't seem to remember. At the conclusion of the account of the betrayal of Jesus, we read these curious verses in Mark 14:51-52: "A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked."

Since my books are all in a crate being shipped overseas, I can't consult any of my commentaries. If anyone has any ideas about this guy, let me know. In the meantime, I will try to do a little research and get back to this in a future post.

Four body parts used to make sounds

Today I attended a fascinating session about language learning. We made all sorts of verbal sounds and discussed the way we formed each phoneme. We were introduced to a number of phonemes that are not used in the English language, and it was interesting to hear people try to pronounce them. The kicker came when the person leading the session told us that we use four body parts to make sounds. Those four are the tongue, the lips, the vocal cords, and the nose. I laughed out loud when he said this, since I am not so sure that is a complete list. I think I might use one or two other parts of my body to makes sounds...