In a Bible class today, the subject of the "Holy of Holies" came up and I commented that the High Priest went into that room only once a year to make sacrifices for sin.  I further added that they tied a rope around his waist or ankle so that if he touched the Ark of the Covenant--which meant he would die--that they could pull him out.

         This was disputed.  So I looked it up, and here is what I read in Jewish literature:
"According to the account of our rabbis preserved in the Talmud, the High Priest wore a rope around his waist as he made his way - absolutely alone - into the holy of holies...in the event that the High Priest said or did something wrong...he would be struck dead for his offense...the rope enabled his assistants to safely pull the corpse...out of the inner-sanctum in the event of mishap."(www.tbsoc.com/sermons/donnellyk5763.html)  (Read Hebrews Ch. 7-10)

          Also from "Torah Class Podcast,  Studies in the Old Testament", I read:
"...later on in the Temple era (the Temple was just a permanent Tabernacle), a rope was tied onto the ankle of the High Priest when he went into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur…..the Day of Atonement. The idea was that the lower priests, who would be standing outside the Sanctuary, would listen for the constant gentle jingling of the golden bells (on his robe) as the High Priest moved around, performing his purification rituals; if the jingling ceased for any substantial period of time, then they would assume that Yehoveh has likely killed the High Priest for some breach of protocol, and they would pull him out with the rope attached to his foot. The logic for this procedure is understandable: ONLY the High Priest can go into the Holy of Holies.

Jesus is our high priest, so we don't have to worry about all that.  This is kinda heavy, but some of you out there like details.  Hebrews 10:7,10,14  "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins...we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...for by one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified."  FOR EVER!!!

I got an email from a young man today whose father must have been in one of Ken's squadrons.  He has written a book, and mentions a Major Jackson.  Which he said was a pseudonym for my Ken.

He says, "In it (the book) I have several references to a major named Ken Jackson, saying that:  In the air and on the range, he could do anything the hot shot lieutenants could do, and unlike the other field grade officers, he was "one of the guys" without trying, while the others tried like hell but never came close to achieving that level of respect."

I thought that was a nice way of saying, "Everyone loved Ken."  And they did.  He was a class act. He was never puffed up about all of the things he had accomplished, or the rank he had made.  He never forgot that he was just a barefoot preacher's kid born in 1929, in the depression.

I remember him telling me that once, that when they lived in Hobart, Oklahoma, in the early thirties, that there was no food.  Not even cornmeal to make corn bread.  It was a Sunday night and the whole family went to church hungry.  When they got home, the people in the church had filled their kitchen cupboards with food.  They called it a "Pounding."  He said that his mom cried.

He said, "I had two pairs of overalls.  One to wear to school, and one to church.  Those were my clothes.  All of them."

When we got married, I was amazed at how little he wanted.  Things held no pleasure for him.  He was generous to a fault.  Anyone in need knew where to go, and he never turned anyone down.

"...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."   If it wasn't a free gift, nobody could ever afford it.

My son Scott is ambidextrous.  When he was young, he couldn't tell his right hand from his left hand.  He simply couldn't remember which was which.  Some things he did with his right hand, and others he did with his left.  In baseball, when he would bat, he would use one hand, and when he ate with a fork, or used a pen, he would use the other hand.  Sometimes he used both. 

When he was in Junior High, I was watching him play football, and every time the quarterback called a play, I could see Scott slap his chest with his right arm.  "Why do you do that?" I asked him later.

"Well," he said, "when the play is called--sometimes right, sometimes left--I have to figure out which way is which.  So I just do the Pledge of Allegiance when the quarterback calls the play--and know that my right is on my heart because that's what we do in school every morning.  The teacher says that we pledge with our right hand.  I've gotten used to pledging."

He probably hadn't ever had to figure that out, much less remember it, before football plays were labeled "right" or "left."  He had functioned just fine not knowing.

So if you ever see him standing around looking confused with his hand on his heart, you will know what he is doing. 

 The Bible says: "If there is anyone among you who is poor...don't harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your brother." Deuteronomy 15:7

"It doesn't specify which hand.  Some things don't require that you know your left from your right.  Simply that you do what is right. 

"...when you give alms, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."  Matthew 6:3

I will never have another child.  And I will never have another grandchild.  That is all over.  My first grandchild was born in 1982--so she is 34 next week.  My last grandchild was born on the same day as my first one--thirty-three years later, and he (Tate) will be one year old next week. 

But great-grandchildren are on the way.  I already have two, and another is coming in a few months.  My family is big and getting bigger.

The other day I was looking at a picture of Ken and myself on our wedding day.  We look so young!!!  Little did we know what was in our future.  We certainly weren't thinking about children, much less grand-children.  And certainly not great-grandchildren.  It was just the two of us.  We started a new life.  And because of that, our future began to unfold.

Now all of that is in the past.  And my off-spring will fulfill their own futures.  I hope that I have had an influence in their lives for the good.  My grandmother had such an influence on me.  I would like to be half the woman that she was.

But maybe I can be good influence on the other people that God puts in my path.  My daughter Pat said, "Well you can't feed all the poor, but you can certainly feed the poor people that you know."  I agree.  You can't influence the world either, but you can influence the people you know.

Just live your life so that your influence is good.  You are a child of God.  Try and act like it.  The only God some will ever see is in your life.

This church that I go to keeps me really busy.  Seems like one group or another is doing something every day--and doing it with food on the side.  I've only cooked once in the last two weeks.  I like it when everybody gets together and brings their favorite dish.  You never know what you are going to get for dinner--but it is always really good.

However, the side effect of all of that is that I am gaining weight.  Seems like everyone loves deserts and tries to outdo each other's cooking on that front.  I usually don't like sweets, but..........

Sunday, I will start teaching a Bible class again.  There are nine women, and I am excited about it.  And Saturday, a first cousin that I haven't seen in a long time is coming to stay over night.  Besides that, a second cousin (once removed) called to talk about our common great-grandfather.  Her name is Ann Harrison and she is big into genealogy and has traced our family back for generations.  It is really interesting to hear the stories she has uncovered and the people she has found that are related to us.

It is a rare thing now for cousins to be close to each other.  America is so mobile that everyone loses track of their other family members.  And we are so busy with our own lives that we let things slip.  I love to get together and talk about the "Old Days."

This is one of the remarkable things about the Bible.  They kept track of each other and made lists of who "begat" who.  You can trace Jesus all the way back to Adam.  Ann (Harrison) said that the Bible is a book of the genealogy of those before Christ.  After Christ, people quit keeping track of those things.  Probably because the new family of God weren't related by common blood.  They were--and are--related by the blood of Jesus Christ.  And because of that, we have a new Father.

The people of God talk about the good old days every Sunday.  The stories are timeless. 

When I built the house in Pryor, I added a room with an outside entrance for my dad.  He decided it was time to move in with us after my mom died.  I had become concerned about him because of his eating habits.  Every morning, he ate cookies for breakfast.

Well, I thought about that yesterday when I got up and looked around for something to eat, and lying on the counter were some cookies that Becky had baked for me and brought over.  I ate them.  For breakfast.  I am my father's daughter.  I decided it wasn't such a bad idea anyway.  They had raisins, and lemon juice, and eggs in them--how bad could that be.

My dad ate cookies for breakfast for years--and lived to be 94.  The way I figure it, if I take up the habit, I have--at the very least--sixteen more years to enjoy cookies.

We are what we eat.  We are what we do.  We are not what we think--because thoughts without actions are nothing but dreams.  But thoughts can lead to actions.  That is why the Bible says: "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks."  Luke 6:45

We need to be very careful what we think about.  What we dwell on--more often than not--ends up becoming the behavior that we display--and the words that we speak.  If you hold a grudge, you will eventually behave in a way that is not Christlike against the person that has offended you.  Maybe they just had a bad day.  Give it a break.  At the very least, try to keep your mouth shut.

"Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue, keeps his soul from troubles."  Proverbs 21:23

Today, I opened the last box from my move.  I had been putting it off because I knew what was in it.  Shoes.  Little glass shoes.  Monopoly token metal shoes.  Indian beaded shoes.  Dutch carved wood clogs.  There are even leather loafers, ballerinas and booties. All of them very, very tiny.

When I was seven, an older cousin gave me her collection of little glass shoes.  About seven or eight of them.  After that, I added to them.  When I went somewhere, I would sometimes find and buy a tiny shoe.  It was something to take home and it was small and easily transportable. And they didn't cost much.  Except for a pair of sterling "shoe" cuff-links.  But I figured that Ken or I might possibly wear those.  We didn't.

As I unwrapped them, I counted.  Ninety-seven.  You see why I put off opening the box.  I have cornered the market.  They are really hard to find anymore.   And what would I do with more little shoes?  They are totally useless things.  I would love to find someone in the family that would like to have them.  But until that happens, I will put them in glass display boxes on the mantle.  That should keep me busy for a few days.  And remind me of my idiocy.

Just think of all the things we have bought in our lifetime that are useless, silly, temporary and eventually discarded.  I tell the ladies in my Bible class that: "You want it when you are twenty.  You charge it when you are thirty.  You pay it off when you are forty.  And when you are fifty, you wonder what in the world possessed you to buy it.  So.......in your sixties, you get rid of it all." 

As we age, stuff doesn't matter much.  It's a shame that we can't learn that in our twenties.  Simplify, simplify.  Would anyone out there like 97 tiny shoes?

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupts and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:19-21