Last week I was with a Jewish family as they left for the airport on a trip overseas. The father was making food for the flight, and he started laughing with his kids about the huge amount of bagels he had packed. He told me that once he was on a trip where there wasn’t a kosher meal served and then the flight was delayed, and he had learnt the Jewish habit of packing way more food than needed. I found it lovely that the children were amused and the family was enjoying the preparation for leaving.
It wasn’t until a few days later that I realised how beautiful it is how these kids’ parents make joy for them out of laws that could be difficult to keep. Not only do they offer to God their love in the times when it isn’t easy to give what they believe He wants them to, but they pass on a message, and a feeling, that there couldn’t be anything or more normal or more happy, adventurous, and uniquely special than this way of doing things.
Over the Face of the Waters 