Prodigal: What is this?
Me: It is a Jewish Menorah for Hanukkah.
Prodigal: It is a large one!
Me: Yes, it is and today I wanted to share from the Midrash Exodus 24.1
This is from the book Jewish Spirituality A Brief Introduction for Christians by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
According to ancient rabbinic legend, two people Reuven and Shimon, hurried along among the crowd crossing through the sea. But they never once looked up. They noticed only that the ground beneath their feet was still a little muddy–like a beach at low tide. “This is terrible!” said Reuven. “There’s mud all over the place!” Digusting!” said Shimon. “I’m in muck up to my ankles!” “You know what? replied Reuven. “When we were slaves in Egypt, we had to make our bricks out of mud, just like this!” “Yeah,” said Shimon. “There’s no difference between being a slave in Egypt and being free here.” And so it went, Reuven and Shimon whining and complaining all the way across the bottom of the sea. For them there was no miracle, only mud. Their eyes were closed. Even though they walked right through it, they might as well have been asleep.
We think that we could never be like that and not notice God’s miracle. Look at today though. What has God been doing this week. Yes, there has been tough times that required a lot of your emotional strength, but we can become to focused on the mud and forget to look around at the big picture. God is changing things and we are walking right in the middle of it. Yes, there is mud but also there is a big sea that was parted just for us!
1 John 4:7
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org.
