The tomb

A friend of Sarah’s from MOPS has a large house, it is actually two houses that are joined by a corridor. I asked to see around the house and she said to wait a moment and she would take me around. She was hesitant to take us down the corridor, but decided to show us anyway. It was very “special”, she said.

In a dark corner of the corridor was a rock formation with a cave that had a large rock beside the entrance. In the cave was a tomb, and in the tomb was the figure of a man, it looked plain enough to be a figure of Jesus, but was obviously made of wax or plastic.

She began to read a poem, or maybe the lyrics of a song about Jesus, his death and resurrection. I cannot remember the words, but they were powerful and emotional. At the climax of the poem she declared, “Up from the grave he rose.” And the figure in the grave arose! I was taken back and overcome with emotion to see a graphic depiction of my Savior rising from the grave.

She continued to read the poem which described the poet’s personal encounter with Jesus, and the figure of Jesus looked intently at me. The poet explained how Jesus had admonished he/she to write with the words, “He struck me with his pen.”

At the end of the poem, she told of how a disciple of Jesus had invited her to join him down the path as they followed Jesus together.

A man appeared from the end of the hallway and beckoned me to join him down an unknown path, and I followed him…

Cigarate! (pronounced "see-gar-AH-tay"

We knew we were in trouble – there were just four of us and twelve of them had gathered. They were Makah – they had the bodies of humans but the face and head of a cow. The had the minds of humans, except sometimes they were very irrational and unable to reason, so they would do bizarre and unpredictable things.

We had had a conflict with these Makah over property, so now they were assembling for battle. They knew no other way to resolve conflict.

It was time for the battle. We all gathered in a large tent, the four of us surrounded by dozens of them. The battle followed traditional Makah rules – it was to begin with speeches made by the leaders of each side, this informal address should be full of witty remarks, back-handed compliments, boasting, and story telling of brave warriors and battles from the past. As jovial as the beginning of the battle was, these stories could sometimes become “blood stories”, and the Makah would engage in bizarre savagery.

We started with jesting, which escalated to loud boasting, which became passionate tales of legendary heroes. The Makah leader got so carried away, he wanted to tell a story that would demonstrate his strength and frighten us with brutal reality – a blood story. He told the story of “The Princess.” The forbidden Makah legend was the story of a kidnapped princess and the vengeance of the king. As he described how the king killed one of his enemies, he approached one of his own men and killed him. Then he killed another, and another, and another of his own men. On and on through the story, until he had killed fifteen men and the story ended. His men, who had been numbly hypnotized by the poetic rhythem of the story, snapped out of their trance in an excited frenzy. Now for our story. We chose another deadly blood story – “cigar`ate”

Nate pulled a beat-up metal tube from his pocket, held it to the sky, and shouted “CIGAR`ATE!” And all of the Makah raised a fist and echoed, “CIGAR`ATE!”

Inside the tube, Nate had three cigars. The Makah loved tobacco, but it was very rare and extremely valuable in this country.

Nate lit the cigar and told the story of a Makah who had received a precious tobacco ‘cigar`ate’, but had it stolen. As he told the story, he would walk up to a Makah and give him a puff on the cigar and let him participate in the story.

“… and there was the man who had stolen his cigar`ate, standing across the room, calmly smoking. He approached the man and asked for it back, and the man said…..NO,” and as he said NO, Nate drew his pistol and shot the Makah, “ so he slew him.”

Then Nate would pass the cigar to me and I would continue, but we would sometimes say YES, and take the cigar back without killing the Makah. For them, it was like playing a deadly roulette game, if you win, you get to smoke a tobacco cigar for free, but if you lose, you die. The Makah were so interested in the chance to smoke the cigar, they did not even notice how their numbers dwindled until none were left. And so we won the battle with the Makah with a cigar`ate.

Like Joseph before Mary

Before she really met him, Michelle thought John was an arrogant jock like all the other football players at Ridge Creek High. John knew she was one of the cutest girls in school and was afraid to even look at her.

It was in P.E. class their sophomore year that she changed her mind about him. They were learning to play flag football and Michelle and her twin sister Laura had somehow been matched up against John his friend Jason. She expected him to show-off his athletic prowess and make her feel like a non-athletic idiot, “And then they’ll probably try to ask us out on a date.” She scoffed to her sister before they started to play.

At the end of the game, Michelle was asking John out for a date, because he was completely different than what she expected. He was a gentleman, he was fun, he was encouraging, he was like a coach or a brother. But when she asked him out, he lied and said he already had a date.

They had several other classes together and started spending more and more time together. Michelle would often ask him out on a date and he would always find a reason to say no, and the more it happened the more it became like a game and they would laugh about the lamest excuses he could make. But when she asked him the real reason he did not want to go out with her he said it was God. God was a new part of his life and he talked about God like he had a relationship with Him. He said God was teaching him to think differently about "dating" than the rest of society does. She was intrigued about his faith and wanted to know more about it. God was real to him. As their friendship grew, God became more real to her.

They became best friends and shared a deep concern for each other. (I suppose you might call it real love, but they were afraid to admit it. )

After graduation, their relationship changed, the stakes were higher now. They both knew they had to choose what their future together would be. Michelle was desperately in love with him by now but she was afraid he would always want to be ‘just friends’. John cared about her very deeply, and wanted her to have the same kind of relationship with Jesus that he did. One day they were walking down a road and talking. Michelle was never afraid to ask him anything, but he did not know what to expect when she stopped and turned towards him.

“John, will you marry me?” she said.

Surprised and secretly delighted, he answered with a question,

“Are you proposing?” He said.

Now she looked at him very seriously and put her hands on his shoulders and said,

“John, I’m pregnant”

Anger flashed threw John’s mind. Of course it was not his child, he had never even kissed her and avoided even touching her. His convictions about sex were very strong and he was committed to abstinence until his wedding night. So who could the father be? Bitter rage and jealousy burned against whoever it could be.

He tried to suppress his anger and bitterness in his question,

”What will the father think if we get married?”

“John, you are the father.” She said.

The words hung in the air in front of him like they were written in the sky. Time stopped, and he stood there, absolutely bewildered. Impossible. Impossible. He thought, standing there like Joseph before Mary. He pulled away from her and held his head in his hands. “Michelle, you know that’s impossible, how can you say that?”

She knew this conversation was going to be hard for him to accept...

"I artificially inseminated myself," she answered.