Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani

On Sunday, we got to hear our friend Josh Rang speak. He made a comment that struck me in a new way and led me to a new awareness. Let me set the stage by explaining two things first . . .

Thing One: For most of my life, I’ve heard about how, while he was hanging on the cross, Jesus Christ took on the sins of the world—paid the price for our sins—and that God the Father turned away from his son. Matthew 27:45-46 says “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ - which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (NIV)

On one level, I’ve certainly realized that this must have been most painful for Christ and have been grateful for his sacrifice. On another level, I really couldn’t understand what this meant.

Thing Two: Josh talked about how a loving father doesn’t discipline his children in anger, and commented if you are angry when you are disciplining a child, something is wrong. He added that God is never angry at us, as his children, because he poured out all of his anger on Jesus that day on the cross. He still may be disappointed with us and does discipline us when we fall short but he is no longer angry with us.

From there, my mind began to wander. I have four kids. I have to discipline them sometimes. But what if I disciplined Jameson every time MelodyJoy disobeyed? What if I took privileges away from Jameson whenever Jordan left his clothes in the bathroom? (Not that Jordan would ever do that.) What if I made Jameson mow the lawn any time Phillip didn’t get it done when I asked him to?

Furthermore, what if each time this type of thing came up, I was furious with Jameson? What if I screamed at him? Physically got in his face? Grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward me? Sometimes I have disciplined the kids in anger, usually with some small bit of justification. Boy, did my anger create heat, but without any benefit!

So now, as I play this out in my mind, I’m punishing one of my kids for wrongs he didn’t commit. And I’m in a rage as I do it. Don’t you think he would find that unfair? That he would resent it? What kind of separation would that put between him and me? How abused would he feel? I bet he quickly would have an unmanageable anger in response to me and our relationship would be destroyed.

Now, think about Jesus Christ’s situation. He accepted the punishment not for the sins of just two brothers and a sister, but for all of mankind. Further, the Father poured his wrath out on the Son, severing--at least for awhile--what had been the perfect relationship for time immemorial. If I think it’s unbearable for one sibling to suffer unjustly for another, how much more would it be so for Christ? But he took on the punishment and accepted the anger of God for a season in order to shield us as Christians for all eternity.

This is all a bit too verbose and I’m guessing my analogy is flawed in some respects, but it helped me better understand, especially at an emotional level, what took place on the cross 2000 years ago. I plan to send an email to Josh and ask him what he makes of my thought process here.

Daddy Phone Video

Hillary Sets the Tone for the Relationship, Take 2

Tramp Kids

Melody, Jordan, Hillary and Jameson hit the neighbor's trampoline on Sunday afternoon . . .

Graduation Day

I don't have any pictures from graduation itself--some may be coming if other family members forward photos along to me--but here are a few from Sunday.

Before graduation, we did gifts with Phillip. Jameson felt the need to present his gift with proper deference and respect . . .
Phillip wore the suit that my mom bought him. Here is he showing off the watch that we gave him . . .

My mom was able to come out from Oregon for the week, which is something we never would have expected a year ago or six months ago.

Jeannette's good friend Ellen made the trip with Mom to help her just survive all the details of life on the road. It was great to have her around and get to show her a little of our life in Indiana . . .

Here MelodyJoy is admiring Grandma's necklace . . .

Because Jeannette's dad was around, we made sure to get some family pictures. Rest assured that his pictures will be better than this one, but this can serve as an appetizer . . .

We also got a picture of Phillip with his namesake, Grandpa Phil, as well as Grandma Debbie, Grammie (or is it Grammy? I never know) and Grandma Muntz . . .

After graduation, we tried to get some pictures of Phillip with his friends and with family . . .

We're proud of Phil and his good work in school. We're not sure what's next on his agenda. He's deposited at Cedarville University and that seems like a good option for him but Ellen works at Corban University out in Oregon and talking with her kind of reignited his interest in going there. He really misses Oregon and going to Corban would get him back to his old stompin' grounds. He's applied for admission now and we're waiting to see whether he's admitted and what his financial aid looks like. Be praying!

Hillary Sets the Tone for the Relationship

Random Photos from Phil's Graduation Party

Yesterday was Phil's last day of high school and last night was his graduation open house. Since he thought Jordan's party went well last year, he wanted to do the same thing: coffee and chocolate with games in the basement and lots of seating around the tiki torches in the backyard. Most of the Blackhawk open houses ended by 9:00 so we scheduled ours from 9:00 to 11:00 to end the day.

We decided to reuse some of the coffee cups from Jordan's party last year so Uncle Jamey, Jeannette and Aunt Laura crossed out the 2009 on them and wrote in 2010. If there's one word that comes to mind when you hear the name "Muntz," it should be "frugal."


Phillip works the front door . . .

Playing around-the-world down in the basement . . .

Hillary's mom and Jeannette's mom . . .

Lots of chocolate treats to be had . . .

The weather was supposed to be terrible but we prayed and there were just some sprinkles in the first few minutes, then it dried up. Just a few minutes past 11:00, when the party was supposed to end, there was a downpour, but during the main two hours of the party, the weather was beautiful. Jordan's boss and his wife enjoyed our swing and said they felt like they were in Hawaii . . .

Time Traveling

My mother is in town for Phillip's graduation on Sunday and she asked if we could drive over to Richwood, Ohio, about 130 miles from Fort Wayne, to visit the cemetery where my Grandma and Grandpa Hayden are buried. So we drove about two and a half hours through the farm land of Ohio to the Claibourne Cemetery on the edge of the little town of Richwood (population: 2300).

The first three pictures are of Grandma and Grandpa's plot and the fourth is of Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Hayden's marker.

While we were in town, we also visited Mom's cousin and he showed us the house where my grandparent's lived in retirement until Grandpa's death in 1964. I think I can remember a little about the interior of this house from when I was a toddler, though I'm not sure (it could be home movies that I remember).

All in all, it was a pleasant day . . . filled with roughly seven hours of conversation about family history. ;-)