On Friday night, Jen and I went to see the movie "Dan in Real Life." It's a fantastic movie, and I highly recommend it to all of you AE Bats. When you'll see it, you'll understand why - there's a family that gets together and plays and sings and is goofy. They play the piano and have talent shows. They catch up. Something tells me if you would have caught them 20 yrs earlier or 5 years later, it would have looked the same. I miss those days for us. I had a whole post arranged in my head, a plea to return to those days, but I didn't write it.
The next day, we spruced up the house and then Izzi's boyfriend, Michael, Josh - Jen's brother whom I will refer to here and in other posts as "Josh" - and his girl friend (I separated the words in case they are just friends who kiss) and his mom came out. We had some food, after which I discovered Josh and Kristin had never heard "Go Dog Go." So we read "Go Dog Go" and then we lit a fire. It was a perfect night - about 60 degrees and a harvest moon so bright that I could see to the lake's bottom off the pier.
Then the kids - the bigger ones - changed clothes and played night time tag games like "Candyman" and "Ghosts in the Graveyard."
So much to say that I think I'm choosing not to say it. I'll just reprint this verse that keeps coursing through my head:
10-12 When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you're going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn't build, well-furnished houses you didn't buy, come upon wells you didn't dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn't plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don't forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt.
13-19 Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don't fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don't provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don't push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you. Do what is right; do what is good in God's sight so you'll live a good life and be able to march in and take this pleasant land that God so solemnly promised through your ancestors, throwing out your enemies left and right—exactly as God said.
20-24 The next time your child asks you, "What do these requirements and regulations and rules that God, our God, has commanded mean?" tell your child, "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and God powerfully intervened and got us out of that country. We stood there and watched as God delivered miracle-signs, great wonders, and evil-visitations on Egypt, on Pharaoh and his household. He pulled us out of there so he could bring us here and give us the land he so solemnly promised to our ancestors. That's why God commanded us to follow all these rules, so that we would live reverently before God, our God, as he gives us this good life, keeping us alive for a long time to come.
25 "It will be a set-right and put-together life for us if we make sure that we do this entire commandment in the Presence of God, our God, just as he commanded us to do."
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