Ensign: Riddle Me This
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 12 August 2016
Without the n, I'm a bird, and
Seen without c and n, I'm across so it's said.
All together now I'm in court,
Often on someone's head.
What am I?
For the forty days leading up to school starting where I live -- it starts on the 24th of this month -- I've taken time nearly every night to ask the kids riddles. I started doing this last year before I would tuck the kids in bed and Jeffrey especially got excited asking me for a riddle, which for me is a few lines telling you about a person, place, or thing without identifying it. My goal's to get Jeffrey (and Martha and Sarah who are also listening this summer) to think outside the box, and I'm doing this as much to challenge myself to see things in a different way, so this year I'm not relying on riddles I pick up in books or off the Internet -- I'm writing them myself!
Paint me, I'm not a house.
Pinch me, I'm not a spice.
Punch me, and I'll feel it
on me, but not in me.
What am I?
Don't worry, I'm saving the answers for the end! The word riddle in Scripture is variously translated as ... well, RIDDLE where it first appears as what Samson poses to thirty men at his wedding reception. (The full story's in Judges 14, and it doesn't end happy for anybody but Samson.) The queen of Sheba's "hard questions" to king Solomon in 1 Kings 10, "dark sayings" referred to in Psalms and Proverbs, the allegory of the two eagles in Ezekiel 17, and "dark sentences" in Daniel 8:23 also refer to riddles that refer to truth in a oblique way. Take time to look through these passages, and you will find something they all require. Understanding.
It's made, it's heard, it's heeded.
To keep its spirit, the letter's often bleeded.
What is it?
Understanding makes it stick with you. When we come to the New Testament and Jesus' public ministry we find the Son of God telling stories! If you want deep and esoteric meaning that will guide you to live a meaningful life, Jesus doesn't start with it -- He starts with someone [I was about to change that to say something, yet that works!] that we can relate to. Go to any of the thirty-nine parables we see in the Gospels and you'd think that in two millennia we have mined every possible meaning out of them, both in and out of the church! We'll only have done that when we stop being human beings, when we stop being children of God.
Absent without, by your, time to --
I end all of these, yet when
I end, I begin to arrive.
What am I?
I once read that in Jesus' parables your self-protectiveness is off guard. That is, you don't realize that the elder or younger son in Luke 15's parable of the lost son could be YOU if you're coming back after a long time away and you've really screwed up or you're resentful that mercy's being shown to him who did ruin his life. I could go on, but check out the other thirty-eight yourselves. Some are obvious, some not so that every parable is about someone or something found, be it a sheep or a coin or a son, and the happiness that results from both parties, the seeker and the finder. You and I can make God happy, and we don't have to understand it all, we just have to stand for Him. Amen.
Crown, skin, law, and leave,
The answers you see
At the end you be.
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch and I hope to be an encouragement too! If I'm not or you want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!
Thank YOU, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that we can count on you to provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We come to You in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You also for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus Christ.
And I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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