Together We Read

Like many families, we try to get together for a few minutes each evening to read from the scriptures and hold a family prayer. This can get a little crazy some nights with all the different schedules. Tonight was one of those nights. You all know it was Curly’s birthday. By the time we finished his party, it was nearly 10:00. I had to enter my Tupperware order before midnight because some of the specials were ending (and I can’t pass up a good deal!), so I shooed everyone downstairs to watch a movie. I got my order done with 4 minutes to spare and then I waited patiently for the movie to end.

At 12:25, my sweetie came upstairs. Behind him was a procession of big kids carrying sleeping little kids to their beds. When they were all settled, those of us who were still somewhat functioning gathered around the kitchen table. I opened the Holy Bible to Leviticus 13. The Drama Queen asked for the number of verses and when the Dog Walker told her there were 59, she suggested that maybe we could just read half a chapter because everyone was so tired. Since I had the book, I had no intentions of short-cutting, so I simply began to read.


For those of you who are not familiar with Leviticus, it appears to be a handbook for the priests. This particular chapter tells the priests how to decide if someone is a leper. I’m not sure who started with the giggles, maybe it was my reading, or maybe it was the Dog Walker, but by the time we were finished, we were laughing so hard the tears were flowing all around. After 38 verses of horrible descriptions of leprosy, it describes a “freckle.” The Drama Queen and Prima Donna doubled over with fits of laughter. The Dog Walker was so amused that he spit on me! That just made it ten times worse!


Verse 40 states, “And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald;” (talk about obvious).  And in 41, “And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald:” At this point we all looked at my sweetie (who just happens to be ‘forehead bald’).


Then in verse 45 “the leper must put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.” My girls did an excellent job portraying this for us in a visual way just in case we missed it during the reading.


Teach thought maybe we were being just a little too light-hearted about the scriptures, but I believe studying together should be a time for us to learn and enjoy each others’ company. Maybe if we start at 9:00 PM it won’t be as funny as it was at 1:00 AM. And maybe instead of a horrible boil, it will just be a freckle.