NEVER EVER EVER let cats near lilies

Though this picture is the MOST ADORABLE thing you'll see all day, it's REALLY BAD and you should NEVER give cats access to lilies. Lilies are poison.

My kitty is fine now, but last week I was scared to death because he ate part of a lily. And lilies are poisonous to cats.

Lilies kill cats. (Click for more information.)

So make sure if you have cats, you don't bring home any lilies for Easter or anything.

SERIOUSLY your cat could DIE.

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Here's what happened with my little angel:

So, I had some lilies in a bucket (yeah I don't have a vase...) on top of my fridge. You know, it's high up where Kitty can't get it. No worries. At this point I didn't know they were bad for kitties.

Everything is going fine, they're blooming and my apartment smells so nice.

But then one morning, I got out of bed and found SOMEONE had barfed on the couch, and there were some lily petals on the floor. The flowers were starting to die, so they had fallen down.

Ah. Great, why do I have a cat? So I cleaned it up and didn't think about it much, until the afternoon when I remembered my mom and sister had told me lilies are very poisonous for cats. I started looking for information online, and wow, cats can DIE from that. It causes kidney failure. It's really really bad.

So I'm like, eh I don't want to bother with taking him all the way to the vet, eh, sounds too complicated... but then I started getting more and more worried.

I looked up the Chinese word for "lily" (百合花 bǎi hé huā), and I'm thinking, "man, it's possible that if I didn't speak Chinese, my cat would DIE." And I called the vet and asked them what to do. (From this point on, you can assume all dialogue is in Chinese.)

The guy on the phone asked when Kitty ate the lily and when he threw up, and if he's eaten any cat food today. I am such a bad cat owner, I actually had forgotten to feed Kitty that day. Wow. So I said I don't think he's eaten, and the guy on the phone said to see if he eats or not- if not, I need to bring him in that night because it's very serious.

I put food in his bowl and he ate some, but then I decided just to be safe, I'll take him to the vet.

And I threw out all the lilies.

So I told the little munchkin that we're going to the vet, and I tried to put him in a bag so I could take him, and he was really really not a fan of that- it took many tries to get him in.

Then we went out and took a taxi to see the vet. And you know, when the woman at the front desk sees me come in, she's not sure what to do because I'm white and oh no what if we need to find someone who can speak English. This kind of situation drives me crazy, but I get why people think that way- a lot of white people live in China and can't speak Chinese. So I have to be the one to talk first and then it's all good.

We go into one of the examination rooms and put Kitty on the table, and oh he's so nervous. Sticking a thermometer up his butt didn't help.

I told the vet all about it, and she said a lot of stuff I couldn't understand- probably the Chinese word for "kidney failure." She said it's very serious and cats can die from eating lilies. And she asked a lot of questions about when he ate it, when he threw up, how many times he threw up (I don't know but there were 2 spots on the couch, so...), did I actually see him eating the lily, etc.

She told me they would do some tests- I don't know enough medical vocabulary to understand it, but I knew it involved blood tests and I couldn't catch the rest. She told me it would cost 830 RMB. I said okay.

So then some other vet people came in and helped stuff Kitty into a sleeve where only his head and one leg was sticking out- man, he hated that. And they put the cone of shame on him. And I kept reassuring him in Chinese that it would all be okay. And the vet is petting him and calling him "mimi" (咪咪) which means "kitty" to try to get him to calm down.

Yeah and then they stuck a needle in his arm to get the blood sample and he started hissing at everybody and I told him, if you didn't want to come to the vet, you shouldn't have eaten a lily.

Okay so that's done, and they removed the cone of shame and took him out of the sleeve and let him be free. The vet said it would take 15 minutes for the results to come back. So I just hung out there in the examination room, alone with my poor sad little animal, who kept tensing up every time a dog would bark in the next room over.

The vet came back with the results and said it all looked normal, but we can't necessarily be sure yet- it may be too soon to tell. I should keep an eye on him and bring him back immediately if he throws up again.

And she said, you know, it's normal for cats to just barf maybe once or twice a month, maybe he just has hairballs or something and he didn't eat the lily. No one actually saw him eat it.

I don't buy that- really, I find lily petals on the floor and barf on my couch on the SAME DAY- I think there's a connection. But I think he only ate a little and then threw up, so it got out of his system and he's okay.

The next day he was eating just like normal, and running around causing chaos just like normal, so he's fine.

All right. Ah this cat is so much trouble and I had to spend a lot of money for that, but I told him, it's okay, you're worth it.

AND WHAT DID WE ALL LEARN FROM THIS? I will never bring lilies into my apartment again.

Giant bears, however, are safe for kitties.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. In Search of a Better Gospel (posted April 3) "Last week was, I believe, a head-on collision between these two gospels."

2. why purity culture doesn’t teach consent (posted April 3) "They don’t teach consent because teaching consent would undermine one of their basic assumptions about people. Namely, the assumption that every single last person– most especially men, but also women– are basically nymphos who are straining at their leashes every single second of every single day and if you let that sex-crazed beast out for even just a moment then BAM it’s all over and you’re not a virgin anymore and that’s horrible because now you’re a half-eaten candybar or a cup full of spit."

3. Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney (posted March 7) "But what draws kids like Owen to these movies is something even more elemental. Walt Disney told his early animators that the characters and the scenes should be so vivid and clear that they could be understood with the sound turned off. Inadvertently, this creates a dream portal for those who struggle with auditory processing, especially, in recent decades, when the films can be rewound and replayed many times."

4. A “God’s Not Dead” Retrospective: The Day I Debated the M.Div. Dean of My College. (posted April 4) "A chemical rush went through my entire body as I spoke, which I took to mean that Jesus was speaking through me."

5. Everything You Don’t Know About Tipping (posted April 2) Lots of information here, with pictures and infographics.

6. Voice of Winnie the Pooh reading Darth Vader lines (posted April 7) "She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod. Oh bother."

7. Matthew 18 abuse needs to stop (posted April 10) "Christians who have treated others badly — who have, in fact, sinned against their brothers and sisters — treat this text like it’s their Miranda rights."

Palm Sunday in Chinese

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I'm so happy I went to church this morning. And I'm so happy I get to tell you all about it.

So I get there a half hour before the earliest service starts. And the church is already packed. I said good morning (早上好 zǎo shang hǎo) to the greeters at the door, and started walking up one of the side aisles looking for an usher who would help me find a seat. One of them saw me and waved for me to keep coming forward (with a palm facing down- different from how Americans gesture "come") and got me a seat between 2 old women. It's the earliest service, so the majority of the people here are old and like to get up early. (I go early because I work on Sundays.) And there are definitely more women than men.

Meanwhile, everyone's got their hymnals open, and they're singing "十字架，十字架 [shízìjià, shízìjià]" which means "the cross, the cross." Yeah the service hasn't started yet, but I guess since people get there so early, they have to kill time by singing. One of the church staff is up front leading the singing.

So we sang a couple of songs about Jesus' death, plus the songs that were to be used in the actual service.

Also, before the service, a lot of people are praying. Sometimes out loud. Like, just alone, with  their head bowed, but out loud.

So, time to start. The choir files in. Oh and if you came like, on time, instead of super-early, yeah you're not getting a seat. Try the overflow seating area.

We all stood up and opened our hymnals to sing the first song. (Actually, these books are a bible with a hymnal in the back.) It was about Jesus riding the donkey on Palm Sunday. In Chinese, of course.

Next, a pastor prays, and after every line, a bunch of people in the congregation are like "amen." In Chinese it's not pronounced like "ay-men", it's "ahh-men." People are ahhmening all through the prayer. I guess it's the thing to do.

Then we all sit down and sing the second song. YOU GUYS! It was the Chinese version of "Come Thou Fount." One of my favorite songs!

"Come Thou Fount" in Chinese

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!

Next, the choir sang a song. It's hard for me to understand what they're singing. Anyway, meanwhile I'm trying to use my phone to look up words from the hymns we just did, but today I couldn't get a signal. There are always words I don't know at Chinese church.

Then someone announced the two Scripture passages for today. The first one was Genesis 22, when Abraham almost sacrifices Isaac. The woman who was doing the announcement kept saying the reference over and over, to give us time to find it, and thank goodness because I do not yet know all the books of the bible in Chinese.

The whole congregation read together, out loud.

Next, she told us the second passage was from Matthew 21 (the story of Palm Sunday), and said the reference a bunch of times so we could all find it. Then we all read it together. With an "ahh-men" at the end.

And someone else announced the title of the sermon and the name of the pastor who was preaching, and then the pastor showed up. (About half the time there's a woman preaching and half the time there's a man. This week it was a man.)

The sermon always starts out with the pastor wishing peace (平安 píng ān) to us, and then we all respond by saying "平安 [píng ān]" back to him. And he (constantly) addresses us as "弟兄姊妹 [dìxiōng zǐmèi]" which means "brothers and sisters." People are always calling each other brothers and sisters at Chinese church.

"Do you know what day today is? It's Palm Sunday." That's how the sermon started. And I'll just write down what I remember from it. I didn't understand everything, of course.

Here goes:

So first he was talking about the similarities between Abraham giving up Isaac and Jesus' death. (Another dimension here is the Chinese one-child policy- remember how God told Abraham, "Take your son, your only son Isaac..." Chinese parents get that.)

And the pastor said, Abraham believed in resurrection, even though he had never seen it.

And then when he was about to kill Isaac, God didn't let him. Like when you pay the bill at a restaurant- God was like, I got this, I got this. God paid. Just like we don't have to pay because Jesus already paid for us. God was like, I got this, I got this.

(Because Chinese traditionally fight over the bill at restaurants. Everybody wants to pay it.)

Also something about how we have a lot of pressure in our lives, and Abraham had a lot of pressure. I'm not sure how that part related.

But Jesus was different from Isaac, because Isaac didn't know what was going on. Jesus ALWAYS knew his goal. And what was his goal? To die on the cross. 

Also a bit of talk about Palm Sunday and how everyone was so excited about Jesus, but a few days later they wanted to kill him.

And then he talked about when Jesus prayed before he was arrested- "Father take this cup from me- but not my will but yours be done." And what were the disciples doing at that time? (The pastor has an amused smile at this point- he smiled a lot throughout the sermon. Seems like he enjoyed it.) They were sleeping!

Hey, if a man was killed out on the road, and somebody accused you of killing him, but you were innocent, would you accept that? Well that was pretty much Jesus' situation. He was God. He never sinned.

When Jesus was crucified, he wasn't wearing any clothes. Not like the pictures.

All of you here today- it's not random. God planned it, and God cares for each person.

And he mentioned sometimes people go to the Buddhist temple and they think if they pray and worship, then God will give them something- but that's not how our God works. God loves us.

Also there was a story about an old woman who was a Christian but her husband wasn't, and as she was sick and dying, she said, "I'm not afraid of death- the one thing I'm afraid of is not seeing you again." And then later the husband became a Christian. Was that story at all related to the rest of the sermon?

All right, that's all I remember from the sermon. I'm putting all this on my blog because American Christians may be curious about Chinese Christians, and whether or not "the gospel is watered-down." This is one of the churches that's officially recognized by the government, and it has a bunch of security cameras and there are probably people keeping tabs on it.

But I haven't heard any suspicious teaching from there. I mean, there's stuff I disagree with, but it's all within the realm of things that American Christians often say. (But of course, different parts are emphasized in Chinese culture than American culture.)

Maybe "watered-down" is just a term people throw around when they accuse other Christians of not being real Christians.

Next, some announcements. Some stuff going on for Easter next week- I didn't quite catch it all, but it involved colorful eggs and I'm sure I can't come to that because I work on Sundays. Darn.

Then we stood up and sang another song from the hymnal, and prayed the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. Every week we recite the Lord's prayer, but I don't have the Chinese version memorized yet.

Then the pastor came back and raised his hands and prayed for us. And after he said "amen" we all sang, "ahhhhmen, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhmen, ahhhHHHmen, ahhmen. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHmennnnnnnn."

And that's the end of the service.

A lot of people stay in the pews and pray after it's done. And there's a massive crowd trying to get out and another massive crowd trying to get in for the next service.

I prayed for a little bit, then dropped some money in the offering box on my way out. They don't "do offering" during the service- they just have a box at the entrance to the church.

Yep. I love going to church in Chinese because it's something so familiar wrapped in something so foreign. And God is there. 

Stay tuned for next week- I can't wait to see what Easter is like.


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Other posts about going to church in China:

How we took communion

I want to find God again in China

But where's your Scripture to back that up, Jesus?

Jesus has a few things to say about the Pharisees' "traditions" in Matthew 15:1-20. Apparently they focus way too much on following the rules, and miss the big picture.

And back when I was a "good Christian," I read this passage and agreed. Ah yes, how silly the Pharisees were, making up all those extra rules that weren't even in the bible. But if it's rules that are in the bible, no matter how arbitrary, well that's a different story.

But now I think the "good Christian" interpretation misses the point.

Image source.

Okay first let's summarize what happens in Matthew 15:1-20. Some Pharisees were giving Jesus a hard time because his disciples "break the tradition of the elders" by not washing their hands before eating. Jesus doesn't address their objection, but instead asks why they have a loophole to get around God's command to "honor your father and mother." I'm not exactly sure on how this worked, but I guess sometimes people would say "I can't take care of my parents- everything I have is devoted to God." Well that's convenient.

That's an interesting point. You know, I've always believed "God first, others second, myself third"- which yeah, there are several problems with that, but for now let's talk about putting "loving God" above "loving others." It implies that in some cases, you must make a choice between these 2 options. It implies that in some cases, you must "love God against your neighbor," as Richard Beck puts it.

So in Matthew 15, we have people who are apparently so devoted to God that they're unable to help their parents. And Jesus is like, yeah, no.

(Another interesting thought: It's so tempting to say "yeah they weren't really devoted to God, they were just saying that to get out of helping their parents" because everything would then be tidy and convenient. But what if there really were people who did so much "for God" that they weren't able to take responsibility to help their parents? Doing something that sounded more spiritual, rather than helping others, because they really thought that was the right way to follow God. Dude, that's been me, so many times.)

Jesus gives us a relevant quote from Isaiah:
"These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules."

Hmm that last bit reminds me of every time people say "the bible" when they really mean "my interpretation of the bible." For example: "Are we going to follow the bible or just take the easy way?" And "This is the biblical way." Or everyone's favorite: "The bible is clear..."

Alright. We're halfway through the passage. So far, so good. Jesus makes a distinction between God's commands and the Pharisees' traditions. Jesus backs it up with Scripture.

In the second half, not so much.

"What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, this is what defiles them. ... Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts- murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them."

And God is sitting up there in heaven going, "well that's news to me."

I mean seriously! What about everything God commanded back in the Old Testament about being clean or unclean? What about Leviticus 11, which explains which animals are clean and therefore can be eaten, and which are unclean?

Yeah Jesus, this whole "what goes in vs what comes out" thing sounds great and all, but we're dealing with a bible that contains the word "unclean" over 100 times just in the book of Leviticus. And I don't think it was talking about "evil thoughts."

So, Jesus, are you going to follow the bible or be led astray by what "sounds good"?

Here's the point: Loving people is so much more important than following all the rules.

And you know what? Even though the Old Testament contains a ton of rules, it also hints that the rules aren't really what matters:

"Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustic
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?"

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings."

A-freaking-men. Image source.

But here in the second half of the passage, Jesus doesn't quote Scripture. He just acts like this is common sense. You eat stuff and then later you poop. How could that make you unclean? "Unclean" is really about the kind of person you are. Quite a different definition than we were using in the Old Testament, huh?

And no Scripture to back it up...

Wow.

I'll say it again: Loving people is so much more important than following all the rules. Even if they're the bible's rules.

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This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.

Previous post: Jesus' Time Management (Matthew 14:13-36)

Next post: Jesus didn't want to break the rules? (Matthew 15:21-39)

Click here to go to the beginning of the series.

I taught about Easter, in China

“哈利路亚 基督复活。” Hallelujah, Christ has risen. Image source.

Easter is coming soon, and the school where I work has been encouraging us teachers to do some lessons about it. (English school for adults in China.) Because you know, we teach English but we also want to teach about culture in western countries. Students are really interested in that.

So you know, some teachers are doing egg decorating and Easter egg hunts and making cute little rabbits, which should be really fun. I'm interested to see what kind of creative things the students do with those. But ... you haven't really taught about Easter if you haven't talked about the religious part.

How, though? I've heard stories about persecution in China, and foreigners being kicked out for talking about Jesus. On the other hand, Christianity is among the government-approved religions in China (they are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism). I've been to several churches here, and almost all have been packed. (And also full of security cameras.)

So the rules about religion are inconsistent. Perhaps the best explanation is the Chinese government doesn't want Chinese culture to be taken over by western culture- so foreign Christians trying to convert Chinese are highly suspicious, while a church with Chinese leaders is not. (And actually, there are some churches where ONLY foreigners are allowed- the government doesn't want them influencing Chinese people.)

Or maybe it's more complicated than that.

Anyway, back to my story. I did a class about Easter a few days ago. I showed the students some pictures of Easter-related traditions- some were religious (like Ash Wednesday) and some were not religious (like Easter baskets). They started asking me about why do we celebrate Easter, and what is Good Friday, etc, and I'm not going to just tell them the answers- I think students learn better when they find the answers themselves.

So I told them to pick one of the traditions and use their phones or the school computers to go online and find some information about it. And then come back in 15 minutes and explain it to the class. In English.

That was pretty fun. The only downside was that they were mostly finding information on Chinese sites, so that wasn't helping them practice their English. If I do a class like that again- where they have to research on the computers- maybe I should make some changes to deal with that problem. (And then when they used English sites, they would just copy down phrases like "commemorate the resurrection of Christ" and I doubt that they even know what those words mean. So yeah. Definitely gotta make some changes to the lesson plan so they use more English- English that they can actually understand.)

But overall, I liked the class. The students learned about Easter, and I didn't teach them anything religious.

I really don't know how paranoid I should be about talking about religion with my students. During the class, I was thinking, "Oh geez, everyone is baidu-ing [Chinese equivalent to googling] Easter... that's gonna look suspicious, we're gonna get our internet connection shut off." Probably a little too paranoid.

In an American school, there would certainly be no problem with what I did. It was clearly education and clearly not forcing religious ideas on students. But what if the Chinese government doesn't see it that way?

(Though I will point out, the only people I've heard say we're not supposed to talk about religion in China are Christians.)

But man, we're supposed to do classes on Easter this month. Easter is a Christian holiday. You can't just not say that. That's not good education.

"This song means something different now."

Back when I was in college and part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, one of my favorite songs we used to sing was "Cover the Earth."

I'm pretty sure it comes from Isaiah 11:9 (or Habakkuk 2:14, which is similar), "... for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

One summer, I went on a missions trip to China. And wow, you guys. It was like nothing I had ever imagined. It was so different from everything I had ever experienced in America. (Yeah that's how China ruined my life.)

And God was there.

When I came back, we sang that song at one of our InterVarsity meetings. And wow. I said to one of my friends, "This song has a different meaning to me now that I've been to China."

Before, I had no idea about what "the earth" really was. All I knew was the United States.

Wow.

It was always easy to throw around words like "everyone" and "the whole world", without realizing what you're actually talking about. So much diversity in the world, so many languages and cultures and different ways of doing things, so many fruits and vegetables I've never even heard of, so many little jokes and puns in every language, and I'll never know half of it. The world is so big and so different, it's mind-boggling (and you guys, I've only been to China. What if I went to like, other foreign countries too? I think that would be way too mind-blowing for me to handle.)

But God is there! God is everywhere, and when we talk about his glory being shown in the whole earth, and all people seeing it, wow that is a BIG THING we're saying.

Same idea with Psalm 96. It means something different to me now, now that I know about China. All those mentions of "the nations" and how God's greatness will be proclaimed there- wow. Wow.

God lives. He is alive and active in every culture in the world, in ways I could never understand because I only speak English and Mandarin.

God is the God of the whole earth. And that is saying something.

Open the heavens, O Lord. Pour out your spirit.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 96. To read other people's posts, click here: Ascribe.

Blogaround

Image source.

1. How to Bake Scientifically Accurate Cake Planets (posted March 27) I have a new goal for my life.

2. Artist Makes A Vehicle That Prints Propaganda Phrases On The Ground As It Moves (posted March 31) This is so cool- a bike that uses water to write Chinese characters on the ground.

3. The Pokeymans Project. Badly-drawn pokemon. This is hilarious!!!

4. Christians don’t abandon 10,000 children (unless we’re standing up for our beliefs?) (posted April 3) Lord have mercy.

5. Oldest Case of Cancer Discovered in Ancient Skeleton (posted March 18)

Tomb-Sweeping Day

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Today, April 5, is 清明节 (qīng míng jié), Tomb-Sweeping Day, in China.

On Tomb-Sweeping Day, people visit the graves of their ancestors, bringing flowers, fruit, and other food. They burn fake money for them, and sometimes other fake stuff- paper houses and cars and whatever else their ancestors might need in heaven. Because when you burn it, it goes to heaven. (Or maybe we should call it "the other world" instead of "heaven"- it isn't quite the same as the western idea of heaven.)

It's a serious day, about respecting one's ancestors.

Image source.

While asking people to tell me about Tomb-Sweeping Festival, I realized that my ideas about religion in China were totally wrong. I thought, you know, China is officially an atheist country. I thought that meant most Chinese people were atheists like the atheist friends I have in the US- they believe there is no god and no spiritual anything and no heaven and when you die you're just dead.

And I was really confused about Tomb-Sweeping Day because it sounds to me like a religious holiday.

But now I realize, although most Chinese people don't follow a specific religion and don't do religious practices, they believe in stuff like a god or heaven or ghosts. (And a ton of superstitions.) They're "not religious," but not like my friends in the US who are not religious.

And now all those times I've heard little comments about God here in China suddenly make sense.

I'm pretty happy about this, actually, because it means they're more similar to me than I thought. And I can talk to people about those shared beliefs. For example, in conversations about Tomb-Sweeping Day, I've mentioned that I also believe people go to heaven when they die, but I think heaven is super-nice and they don't need us to send them anything. And my friends agreed, yeah heaven should be super-nice! But we send stuff to them to show that we care about them.

One last thing: I've heard Christians say that Chinese people worship their ancestors and therefore it's BAD. But this holiday sounds more like respecting and remembering. Yeah, it involves bowing down (because that's a way to show respect in China), but it doesn't seem to me like it's "worship." Either way, how about we learn about it and why it's meaningful to Chinese people rather than just saying IT'S BAD?

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Jesus' Time Management

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Upon learning about John the Baptist's death, Jesus goes off to "a solitary place," according to Matthew 14:13-36. He probably wants some alone time because wow, a really messed-up thing happened and it's not okay, and he needs to grieve/pray/question the goodness of God (maybe?).

But a huge crowd of people found out where Jesus was. And "when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick." Did he feel like, "oh geez, I have to deal with this right now? Well I'm Jesus so I have to stop and help them... ah man..." or did he actually want to help the sick people? Because, you know, we all feel like that sometimes, right? Someone really needs help, and oh man it's just not a good time at all but you know it's the right thing and you have to...

I'm not sure how I feel about Jesus thinking helping people is such a drag...

So then we get to the part about the feeding of the "5000." I have no idea why Jesus first told his disciples (who had only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish) to feed them all. Please discuss in the comments section.

So Jesus takes the loaves and fish and somehow there's magically more, enough for everyone, with leftovers. Let's talk about that. Did that food just materialize out of nothing? What DNA did the fish have? Isn't it kind of creepy that Jesus created a fish that had never even been alive? Were the new loaves and fish just copies of the original ones?

Did the new fish and loaves bear evidence of things that never happened? Like a flat spot on the side of the loaf that had rested on the pan during cooking- except there never was a cooking. Or food in the stomach of the fish and oxygen in its blood.

Were these new fish and loaves really just like real ones, or would there be some test that would expose them as having just popped into existence? Why would God go to all the trouble of making a 100% lifelike fake fish if it was just going to be eaten 2 minutes later?

Also I'll just leave this here: Last Thursdayism. Okay now we can go on to the next part of the passage.

Image source.

Matthew writes, "The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children." And wouldn't it be great if he had written that in a different, non-sexist way. But oh well.

So in the next part, Jesus finally gets some alone time, and he goes up on a mountain to pray. Ah man I want to do that.

And when he's done, it's the middle of the night, and the disciples are all in a boat in the middle of the lake. Because Jesus told them to go. So wait, he planned it this way. He wanted to walk on water.

That's a little odd. You'd think Jesus would have a good reason for doing every miracle he did. This one just seems like he did it because THAT'S SO FREAKIN' COOL! I mean if you could walk on water, you would do it just for fun too, right?

Was it to show his power over nature and impress the disciples? Maybe? Was it because this was the most convenient way for him to get his alone time?

And at first the disciples are terrified. Because, obvious reasons. And then Peter asks Jesus to ask him to also walk on water, and there must be some sort of cultural thing I'm missing there, because "if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water" doesn't make much sense to me, at least as a way to find out if it really is Jesus.

But it's pretty cool that Peter got to do that.

And when he panicked, Jesus called him "you of little faith," but he had more faith/guts/impulsiveness than the other people who stayed in the boat.

And when the boat landed, another massive crowd came with their sick people, and Jesus healed them too. Again, I wonder if it was like a chore or he actually wanted to.

Image source.

Okay those are my thoughts as I read Matthew 14:13-36. Now to try and pull out some "take-home message"...

I've heard Christians say isn't it great how Jesus, even though he was kind of emotionally exhausted, still took time to heal those sick people. And we should do that too.

But Jesus also took time for himself. When he went up on the mountain to pray, was it because there were no more sick people in the world? Isn't it a little selfish to take time for himself when there are people in need out there?

In this passage, Jesus spends quality time with crowds of strangers, with his disciples, and alone. All of these are important.

But... are they really all important? Wouldn't it be better for him to just run around healing all the sick people he could get his hands on?

And wouldn't it be better for me to never ever buy anything nice so I could donate all my money to help people who don't have clean water?

Jesus took time for himself. Of course he spent tons of time helping people, but he also took time just for himself. Where is the balance? And where is the balance for other things like how much money I should give away? Maybe the answer is different for each person.

Maybe it's something to think about and pray about, and there's no "right answer."

Discussion questions:
Any ideas on how that whole materializing-food-from-nowhere worked?
Why did Jesus walk on water?
How do we find a balance between taking care of our own needs and helping others?
Any other cool observations about this passage? I'm sure I missed a lot of stuff.

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This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.

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"We are the people of his pasture..."

Did I ever tell you I totally love Chinese? Here's what I made this week for Psalm 95:

"Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care."
Psalm 95:6-7

"来啊，我们要屈身敬拜，
在造我们的耶和华面前跪下。
因为他是我们的神，
我们是他草场的羊，
是他手下的民。"
诗篇95:6-7

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 95. To read other people's posts, click here: Come. Notice. Worship.