Today will be a short post, just to upload some thoughts about today. About 2,494 years ago, God was at work, albeit silently, to deliver His people from imminent danger. This great deliverance occurred on the 14th of Adar (a month in the Jewish calendar). It just so happens that today also is the 14th of Adar, and our family is celebrating a holiday that is actually mentioned in the Bible (see Esther 9) called Purim (which means lots).
So how, and why, are we celebrating Purim?
First off, the how. We are taking parts of Jewish tradition and appropriating it for our purposes as Christians. There are two primary aspects to observing this day.
1) Reading Esther out loud, in its entirety. We invited my mom over, and I stood up and read the whole Book. (Granted, we had a 10 minute intermission after chapter 4.) Another aspect that we tried to incorporate was having the kids clap their hands and say "Yay!" every time that Mordecai's name was mentioned. When Haman's name was mentioned, we all said "Boo!" Our daughter is so cute that she didn't want to say Boo, just Yay.
2) We ate triangular shaped food. Jewish tradition says that Haman had a triangular shaped hat (though some say pockets, or weirdly enough, ears). As a further blow to Haman's reputation, we eat even his hat/pockets/ears by eating traingular shaped food. The primary food associated with Purim is a delicious cookie called hamantaschen (literally Haman's ears). We had a LOT of hamantaschen. Being the non-Kosher Christians that we are, we also got some triangular Beef and cheese bites and ate those. All in all, it was a very tasty lunch.
Secondly, why are we blood-bought believers celebrating a "Jewish" holiday?
I've mentioned it a number of times on this blog I believe, but we celebrate some of these holidays because they are but a shadow of Christ. By remembering the physical deliverance by God through the Christian Book of Esther, we see through it to the greater reality: the spiritual deliverance by God, not for some Jews 2.5 millenia ago, but to me personally. Purim is not a boring remembrance of a past event, it is a microcosm of the very personal Deliverance secured for me by the Son of God Himself, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Every "Jewish" holiday we celebrate is primarily about Jesus, and only secondarily about the shadow of the past, like Esther's deliverance.
I assume, if I don't make any blog posts before then, that I'll try to get frequent blog posts for Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter. Until then, remember, "God made you special, and He loves you very much!"
