Religion

My heart was warmed. How special, a gift from my boyfriend. It was 14 years ago and I was spending time with Daniel and his family. The stone he had bought for me was a treasure; it bore the words, “After the storm comes the rainbow.” At that point in my life there were not many storms. Life was good, I was in love and waiting for the day I would be Mrs. Daniel Yoder.

When someone walked into my house growing up, it was hard for them not to notice the large set of World Book Encyclopedias that graced the shelves just inside our front door. No one ever accused us of being bibliophiles with book-covered walls, but we had enough books on a few shelves to keep me and my siblings piqued with curiosity. Nothing drew our interest as much as the standard (for the time) World Books that every home seemed to own back then (though a few of my more bourgeois friends had the more exotic Encyclopedia Britanica.)

I assume most Christians know something about Jesus’ frequent encounters with the religious leaders of his day. They know he often encountered the scribes and Pharisees who challenged him on his teaching.

The heat wave has been real. I’m not talking about those warm days when you sit in front of the fan and are back in your comfort zone. It’s like really hot.

As I write this column it’s almost reaching the 90s again, but I’m told cooler weather is soon in store for us. That would be a blessing for many.

Editor’s note: Glora’s mother-in-law, Lydia Yoder, is writing a special column this week. Gloria returns next week.

It’s funny how song lyrics get stuck in my head. I can forget the song and the artist, but one line can hunker itself in this brain of mine pretty tightly. After doing some “research” (Google), I figured out the song and artist of a line I always sing to myself lately. Boyz II Men recorded a song in 1994 called “Water Runs Dry” that begins, “We don’t even talk anymore, and we don’t even know what we argue about.” I understand the context of that song is a romantic relationship, but that lyric has been pretty front-of-mind lately. Let me tell you why.

When I was in college, my pastor told me about his favorite book in the Bible – Romans. He explained that, in Romans, the Apostle Paul outlines everything about salvation and how to live the Christian life. He said if he was only allowed one book in the Bible, that would be it. Then he said that if he was only allowed one chapter, it would be Romans 5 because so many of these things are summed up there. And then he said that if he was only allowed one verse it would be Romans 5:8 which reads, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He explained that he saw this verse as the best summary of the gospel. Finally, he said that if he was only allowed two words from the Bible they would be “but God.”

I came home and noticed a campfire under the pine trees. Well, it’s not exactly my home; it just feels like it.

Recently in the lectionary, the Jesus parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matt 13: 24-30) came up. The one where the master tells the servants to let the weeds grow with the wheat until the harvest. As an old farm boy, this is a difficult parable for me. I was trained to value that clean corn fields and pastures. I know one good way to interpret this parable is to say to myself, do not be so quick to draw lines among people. Do not be so fast to declare who is “in” and who is “out.” Patience, things may even change. And finally, God will take care of all this in due course. But that is hard, it caused me to reflect in a couple of ways.