Adam and Eve were given just a few instructions: Take care of the garden, name the animals, and don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They fell for a lie – a clever twist of the meaning of God’s instructions (something to the effect “Did He really say that?”) – and ended up restricted from the paradise they had enjoyed.

When the Israelites were rescued from slavery in Egypt, they – well, I don’t know if all of them did, but many of them anyway – followed Moses out of Egypt until they found themselves at the shores of the Red Sea. I imagine them running around, craning their necks, yelling, crying, shrieking – well, you get the picture. They were not happy. Perhaps they thought the great escape would be lined with flowers. But they walked through the sea on dry land and God used the sea to battle the Egyptian army for them. Did you note that? They had to walk. And later on they had to battle for the Promised Land. They didn’t expect that, either. In fact, a whole generation (whose faith was sadly lacking despite the Red Sea experience and was unwilling to fight heart and soul) died in order for the youngsters who had been toughened by desert living to do the work. The land wasn’t wrapped in a bow. They had to go after it.

When the Hebrews were ruled over in Babylon, they were facing genocide at the behest of Haman, the Amalekite. Esther – and might I say she was courageous in more than one instance and deserves to have an entire book named after her – made known to the king that she was one of the hated Jews Haman wanted to destroy. Upon learning this, the king set forth an edict allowing the Jews to fight for themselves, resulting in life for them and death for Haman. They were given a chance, and they took it. They fought back.

We’re not that different, you know. Many folks expect God to do all the work. We might think to ourselves, “I can’t do anything to change this mess.” “Wait a minute. You mean I’m supposed to do something about this?!” “What do you mean I’m supposed to do this? I don’t even know how!” “Just leave me alone and let me escape with Netflix.” Maybe we’re figuratively running around, craning our necks, yelling, crying, shrieking – you get the picture. I hate to break it to you, but that wasn’t the way God set things up.

Do you notice the common thread? People are expected to take care of the garden. They’re expected to nourish and prune. They’re expected to defend. Action is not only expected, but required. God meant what He said. He always does. Any questions?

Image: marek-studzinski-3D6yReT06p0-unsplash-1.jpg; parting_red_sea-apha-141121.jpg; lion-pexels-alexas-fotos-2220336.jpg; Scripture: Genesis 2-3; Exodus 12-14; Esther; Ecclesiastes 9:10

When I think of scones, lemon poppy seed comes to mind. Amazingly enough, some people come up with something entirely different. No, not blueberry.

They think of a stone: specifically a stone that was stored at a town in Perth, Scotland, named Scone – the Stone of Scone.  As with things of this nature, different sources both agree and disagree with one another. And whether or not it’s a tale or quite real, the story of the stone is curious.

Remember the Biblical account of Jacob? He was the one who gave and as well as he got when it came to deception. But he was raised to know God, and on a trip to escape the result of some of that deception, he spent one night using a stone as pillow. I know. I’ve always thought that would be the last thing you would use as a pillow, but I suppose if you were propping yourself up rather than lying flat, it could serve the purpose. You can daydream about it if you like.

Jacob actually did dream – only he dreamed that God told him He would give him and his descendants the land he was sleeping on, and that those descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth and live all over the place. Here is the first place that this blogger differs with some of the accounts. Some people say it was then that God told Jacob that a company of nations and kings would come from him. His DNA would see the world! Actually, that part comes later when Jacob returns that way and God changes his name to Israel. Maybe the timing doesn’t matter to you. I’m just throwing it in for your consideration. Anyway, as you recall, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven. He woke up, anointed the stone with oil, and named it Bethel. This was a memorial stone to mark the time he received the promise of God in a dream. Here is another part of the story, that diverges from what I’ve always thought. I thought he left it there as a memorial marker, but some sources claim it ended up in the possession of his sons and became the coronation stone for all the kings of Judah. Others say it was the coronation pillar referenced in regard to Israel’s kings (Judah and Israel were a divided kingdom after Solomon, as you’ll recall).

According to one legend, it remained in Jerusalem until 586 BC. when it was taken to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah. So the story goes, he also brought Tea Tephi, who was an heiress of the Davidic line to marry into the Irish royal line. The Irish apparently do have a stone they call Lia-Fail (stone of fate or destiny) that some believe to be the very same one.

It was used as a coronation stone for the Irish kings for over 1,000 years. Scotland invaded, and the delightful fellow who wanted to be crowned king of the Scots-Irish asked to borrow the stone. (I think of jewels, gold, crowns, and maybe a jeweled sword when I think of a coronation. The stone, however, is apparently a very big deal. I must admit, if it truly is Jacob’s stone, it is a very important artifact. And if, as the royalty believe, it ascribes them their kingly position, then it deserves honor, not a blogger’s snarky comments.) But, no. The new Scots-Irish king not only borrowed it, but kept it. It was moved to Scone which is where we get that charming rhyme – the Stone of Scone. So now every king of Scotland used it as a coronation stone, meaning it sat under their chair when they became king. Why under a chair? I don’t know. To lend authority to the throne? (At this point, I’m thinking of the story of The Sword in the Stone, and I do wonder if the author knew this story I’m sharing and if the sword only able to be pulled from the stone by the rightful king isn’t a sort of hat tip.)

In 1296 Edward the 1st of England conquered the Scots and took the stone. He had it housed in Westminster Abbey in London. He even had a coronation chair built around it.

Even though the Scots and English were united, the stone stayed put. Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom were crowned in the very same chair. Some believe the Davidic royal line was preserved in this way. A side-note, if I may. Having learned of some recent behavior of royalty, I’m guessing their concern was more cosmetic than honorable; unless, of course, they involved themselves in the occult, which is a whole other matter. Moving on.

In 1950, some university students broke in and smuggled the stone back to Scotland, believing that bringing it back was a right and symbolic act. But in moving it, the stone was cracked, and it broke in two. It was repaired using 4 metal rods, then hidden.

You would think the people of Scotland would be grateful, but they were angry, so the students eventually moved the stone to the alter of Arbroath Abbey where Scottish independence had once been declared.

When Elizabeth was crowned, authorities returned it to UK in time for her coronation. Then back it went to Scotland to be loaned for future needs. That seems like a decent compromise.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Not so fast. Upon examination, this stone was found to be made of sandstone from Scone, and the metal rods were only 3 in number, not the original 4 used to repair it. It was also found to be lighter than the original Stone of Destiny. Augh! What’s this trickery?! The stone used for the coronation in the United Kingdom for Elizabeth was, in fact, a fake stone. Those who take this sort of thing to heart believe, as a result, that Elizabeth was technically never crowned officially in eyes of God. And following that, all acts of Parliament have been fraudulent, every authority that comes from the Queen is fake, and judicial systems (even overseas) have been fraudulent since they are registered through the British Accreditation Registry (what we know as the BAR), and the whole legal system is trashed.

Sigh. If said stone hasn’t continued the line of royalty, it seems to have continued the line of deception – if you believe the story of the stone in the first place. It appears there are plenty of people who do.

Fortunately for the Scots, they’ve kept lists of complete genealogies of their kings (as they claim) back to the time of the stone. Why does it matter? Because they believe the stone belongs to them, hence, a kingly line. I won’t argue. I, myself, have some Scots-Irish-Welsh in me. But I wouldn’t blame someone without that sort of claim for being a bit miffed.

As I think over this storied history, I wonder two things: First, does a special stone make someone royal? I don’t want to dismiss important things having to do with tradition, etc. I’m just wondering. My admittedly incomplete research suggests that some believe it is a portal (Some people believe portals to supernatural entities exist in certain places on the earth and make revelation from those places more accessible.) to heaven. The account of Jacob’s dream would back that up. But if this is truly the case, is heavenly revelation given to someone – a king or queen – who isn’t given to reverence of God (in truth, not mere verbiage)? And secondly, isn’t the one referred to as “the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” the true King anyway?

Have a great week, dear readers. And rock on!

Images: megan-allen-YjiQSp9ftDM-unsplash-scaled.jpg; ben-guerin-Y96OcAtUWw0-unsplash-scaled.jpg; https://kaldanis.blogspot.com/search?q=stone+of+scone; Genesis 35:10-15; Genesis 28; II Kings 11:14; Mark 12:10; couldn’t resist

Walt Kelly’s cartoon strip, Pogo, ran in newspapers from 1948 – 1973. And although I was a kid then, one of his cartoons has always stuck with me. The text wasn’t original with Kelly, though. He borrowed the phrase from Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. After the Battle of Lake Erie, he is reported to have said to William Henry Harrison, “We have met the enemy and they are ours”.

People have differing opinions about what is going on between Russia and Ukraine depending on what they read and who they listen to. Allowances for opinions must be made (believe it or not), especially since none of us fully knows what’s going on. But when denial about bio weapon labs in Ukraine turned into an admission of their existence by Political Affairs Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, and we learned that US tax dollars were used to finance those labs, I’d say that little phrase in Pogo might need to be reintroduced.

Some sources say it is these labs (the bio weapon labs financed by your tax dollars) that Russia has been destroying with surgical strikes. Additionally, a Georgian “health center” has been used as cover for US bioweapon research close to the Russian border. At least that is an accusation leveled by Russia’s Foreign Ministry. If this is true, our dear nation is in violation of disarmament agreements. Other sources point back to 2005 when Senator Obama was part of negotiations involving biolabs. In fact, there seem to be a number of countries calling for an investigation – something the US press apparently has chosen to not share. With. The. People. Whose. Money. Was. Used.

We are not the only guilty party, at least according to the Russian Federation’s claim to the UN.  “The Kiev authorities basically agreed to make their country into an experimental platform and use their citizens as guinea pigs.” Again, if this is true, the Ukrainian people have been under threat of bio weapons. What a way to live. Oh – wait.

But the 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine ousting duly elected officials and installing the current government, a video clip of Senators Lindsey Graham and John no name McCain promising to give top military leaders what they needed to defeat Russia, and that nasty little video clip of Biden actually describing his pay-for-play exchange with, I believe it was ex-President Poroshenko back when he was VP, money-laundering and trafficking (did you read about the 100 trafficked children rescued? I did, but not from mainstream media), lend an unsettling credence to corruption defying the imagination. Corruption of this magnitude appears to reach to dark corners of every nation, and it looks like there will be hell to pay one way or another. It also looks like the USA had something to do with it.

Can I clarify? Just as we are careful to say things like, “not the Chinese people, but the CCP”, can we give our nation the grace to say, “not American citizens, but its corrupt deep state political machine”? Or corrupt cabal? Or maybe not. You choose. We should’ve known. We should’ve known, and we didn’t. But we let things slide that we shouldn’t have – I’ll tell you that much. If you have a lick of moral sensibility in you, you’ll agree.

You know what bothers me most? Our money was used for it, we didn’t know it, and our standing in the world is stained with the sins of those who did.

Sources: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/russia-wants-un-meeting-over-us-biological-activities-in-ukraine/; https://www.redvoicemedia.com/2022/03/whats-in-the-u-s-biolabs-in-ukraine-pentagon-operated-taxpayer-funded-biolab/; https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/russia-accuses-us-placing-bio-weapons-labs-its-borders/ri8082; Ron Watkins on telegram: Nunn-Lugar Report Aug 29, 2005; https://adinakutnicki.com/2022/02/28/putin-vows-to-crush-child-traffickers-in-ukraine%ef%bf%bc/; https://youtu.be/pYtcXS9zJXo

There are un-noted populations in times of war. Invisible, silent people in all nations whose lives are deeply affected walk past us at the gas station or grocery store and park next to us in the parking lot. They have a lot to say about one thing, but talk about other things instead. They don’t directly answer questions. They’ve learned to not mention anything on a calendar or clock, map or birth certificate, base or company.

They walk around with a lump in their throat and a smile on their face. If you push them too far, they might feel like smacking you upside the head. Nine out of ten times they won’t, and you’ll never be the wiser. They cry and pray in private.

They search for the best phone plans in other countries and apply for a passport. They learn which services are most dependable to deliver packages in and out of the country. They celebrate birthdays and holidays with someone missing. They keep their phones with them 24/7.

If you’ve ever hung the picture of a little boy or girl on your refrigerator, ever gone to school concerts and plays and fairs, ever replaced the tennis shoes you bought a month ago because he was growing just that fast, or ever prayed with that little boy or girl as you tucked them into bed, then you must understand that the warrior you envision – the one dressed in military fatigues – might look textbook to you. But to those invisible, silent people, he looks like the picture on the refrigerator.

Sgt. Tim Martin, an infantryman with Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, shows evidence of the long journey after returning from Operation Buffalo Thunder II at Forward Operating Base Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, July 2, 2012. During the eight-day mission, Afghan and American forces cleared more than 120 kilometers of rugged terrain and escorted approximately 60 truckloads of humanitarian aid for distribution to the people of Shorabak.

Remember the movie, Jeremiah Johnson? Well really, who could forget a movie starring Robert Redford (is he a beautiful man or what)? One of the things I recall is the huge animal furs he wore to keep warm.

I also recall animal rights activists throwing buckets of red paint (some reports said it was animal blood, others said paint) on people wearing fur coats. I would guess they felt they were doing the right thing. It looked like it wandered over to revenge, but only they could say for certain. One commenter on Quora wondered whether pouring buckets of crude oil over people wearing polyester or other synthetics or throwing pesticide on those who wear cotton wasn’t a similar act. My my my. That escalated quickly!

It’s the game we play. We all do it. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say we get sucked into it. Let’s call it the game of Either/Or. It’s a wonderful, magical game where you must choose to stand for only one side and absolutely be against the other. Those who hear you say something can automatically smack an invisible label on you without your consent or knowledge, and you can do the same to them. The devil loves this game because everybody loses.

It goes like this: If you like a speedboat ride, you don’t care about the clarity of the lake you zoom around on, and if you hate to see oil floating on the water, you must be an aging Hippie. If you support the timber industry, you don’t care about forests or the cute little animals who call the forest their home, but if you’re concerned about said animals, you have no comprehension of what’s necessary for the business and don’t appreciate the chair you’re sitting on. If you support some big businesses, you’re heartless when it comes to the environment and the little guy, and if you are a small-business supporter you miss the great contributions big businesses provide. On and on we go until someone gets hungry and asks, “But what if you like both animals and a good meal?”

We’re not quite at the questioning part yet in the current game. The game we play of late is a simplified version. If you spin the spinner and it lands on support your local police, you’re a racist; or a certain skin color, you’re a racist; and if it lands on a certain sex, you’re a sexist; but if you don’t know which sex you are – then you get a free turn. And another favorite – if you think everyone needs what some call a vaccination and others call the newest experimental gene therapy, you get a ‘don’t care about freedom’ label or, conversely, if you don’t believe everyone should be vaccinated with it, you get a trifecta of labels: anti-vax and think there isn’t a troublesome virus among us and you don’t care about others. And if you question the rules, you get a conspiracy theorist label and lose a turn. This is a multi-purpose label that can earn the person who gives it the “I’m smarter than you” award which can be traded back and forth among the players.

There’s an extended version of the game involving masks, lockdowns, and accusations, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll stick with the simplified version. There’s also a companion game called Truth or Die which can be played with either the simplified or extended version of Either/Or. This is a game that can be played by people who don’t even know they’re playing it, which leads to greater overall intensity of play for those who do.

When we arrive at a place of understanding that most of us really do want very similar things, we will stop playing the game. But the final rule of the game that brings it to a halt is twofold: unfolding the card we each get at the beginning of the game marked ‘God-given rights’ and rejecting fear and extending grace and forgiveness. And we’re not there yet.