{"id":6621,"date":"2013-04-30T10:26:59","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T17:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=6621"},"modified":"2013-04-30T10:26:59","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T17:26:59","slug":"birthday-parties-in-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/04\/30\/birthday-parties-in-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"Birthday Parties in Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sketchbook-drawing-1\"<\/a>A random sampling from the sketchbook, which always includes both words and pictures.<\/h6>\n

There’s a telling in Luke’s book* where Jesus is talking with the cursed, two-faced tax collectors and other such sinners. The over-righteous Pharisees are looking on, judging him. They think he’s naive at best. I myself wonder at his choice of teaching . . . three parables about lost “objects” and the joy in their finding. Instead of the “expected” he emphasizes the positive (a party!), the searching, the waiting, and the overall goodness of God. Contemplating it influences my own approach to life and how I relate to people around me. Here are notes from the sketchbook:<\/p>\n

How is it Jesus, that you didn’t take opportunity
\nWhen audienced by the obvious sinners
\nTo tell them who they were
\nAnd what they needed to do?<\/p>\n

Or, would you say, they already know,
\nHave heard it enough from others,
\nContinually telling themselves?<\/p>\n

And You, pure spirit, make it clear by contrast.
\nSo you skipped all that
\nAnd instead just said
\nHow much rejoicing happens in heaven
\nWhen one of these lost is found.<\/p>\n

Like the coin . . .
\nA coin<\/em>! Inanimate,
\nLost, but by no fault of its own.<\/p>\n

Like the sheep . . .
\nAlso lost, this of its own doing
\nThough by its own nature, bereft of adequate brains.<\/p>\n

Like the rebel son . . .
\nLost as consequence of deliberate action . . .
\nPlenty smart . . . too smart,
\nA willful decision to leave.<\/p>\n

On this one the father waits,
\nNot like the others where he\/she seeks.<\/p>\n

In all cases, there’s a party in heaven.<\/p>\n

And that’s<\/em> what you thought your listeners most needed to hear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

________________
\n*Luke 15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the goodness of God that ultimately gets our attention, humbles us, and brings us in. Check out the notes from the sketchbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6648,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions\/6648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}