Watch out for Rabbiby

March 17, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

I’m reading through the New Testament this year. I’ve done the Bible in a year plans and tend to read quickly just to get finished and don’t focus on the text. So I thought I would try a plan on my iPad for just a chapter a day and try to soak it in. Yes, I’ve gone digital. Sometimes I miss the onion skin and writing in the margins. But I like to take notes and be able to find them again. I can categorize and sort on the iPad. I also enjoy shuffling translations on the fly.

Sometimes, digital bites you in the behind, though.

Take this morning. My text was Matthew 23. Almost completely in red. Jesus said it, I’d better pay attention:

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbiby others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. (Matthew 23:5-9 ESV)

After finding a suitable definition for phylacteries, I moved on to define rabbiby. Stumped. Nothing on the web but alternate suggested spellings. Why is it in the Bible if I can’t get a definition? Get behind me Satan, I’m going to figure this out. I plugged away at the word and searched. Twenty minutes of painstaking research has brought me to the following conclusion that I would like to share with you:

1. Rabbiby could be the plural of Rabbi.

2. Rabbiby might be a term of derision used by average citizens.

3. Rabbiby possibly is a greeting given between brothers who are both scholars of the law. “Hey Rabbiby, you gonna finish that?”

My research is incomplete on this matter, and I welcome any insight. I have but one other theory – that print editors are slightly better than the digital ones. Butthatisonlyatheory.

Seeing Lovely

January 9, 2014.Reading time 3 minutes.

The oddest thing happened. My wife put this picture of our family that had been taken on Christmas Eve up on ‘TheFacebook’ and it got over 100 likes.I realize that’s not odd. People are typically nice and will like anything that scrolls along their wall. What I found odd were some of the comments about how one child looked exactly like me, another looked like my wife, and this one is so tall, etc. I found myself scrutinizing the photograph like an FBI criminologist to see if what they said was right. Turns out, some were. How has it escaped me that my youngest looks like my wife? Or her sister’s smile is just like mine? The oldest two used to resemble us, but don’t so much anymore. I think that’s new, isn’t it? I see these people every day – how am I missing these details? What else am I neglecting to see?

Also strange was the number of times a picture including me was described as beautiful, gorgeous, or lovely. I’ve long given up on being beautiful, and I’m okay with it. I’d honestly rather be “rugged”, or “dashing” or something else that sounds equally outdoorsy and masculine. Okay, so I do know that I’m blessed to be standing between a beautiful wife and four equally beautiful daughters. A thorn among roses, as it were. The comments were for them and me by association. I get that. But do I miss even that sometimes? Like I said, I see them every day – the highlight reel and behind-the-scenes looks. Am I so dense as to miss such beauty God has put in my life?

But we all miss it sometimes, don’t we?

I had to snap this picture of the blood-red sky on the ride in to work a few weeks ago. Gorgeous, unique, stunning. But is the crystal blue sky I see every other day any less beautiful?

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Philippians 4:8

I enjoy the flow of the verse and maybe too often miss the instruction. Think… Think on these things. Don’t just let them happen around me. God has placed lovely things all around you and me. When all I can see is base, unjust, and ugly, I will choose to think on lovely things. Oh, and I’ll look at my girls more too!