“These are the instructions on animals, birds, fish, and creatures that crawl on the ground. You have to distinguish between the ritually unclean and the clean, between living creatures that can be eaten and those that cannot be eaten.” Leviticus 11:46-47 (MSG)
Last week Wendy and I were talking to the mother of a young toddler. She commented on the fact that her daughter, like most children that age, will put anything in her mouth. She said that she and her husband and been doing yard work with their little one playing around them. Before they knew it, their little one had streaks of dark brown mud running in streaks down the corners of her mouth. She’d attempted to eat her first mud pie.
When children are small, we do a lot of rule making.
- “Don’t eat that, it’s dirty.”
- “Don’t touch that. It will hurt you.”
- “NO! That’s not good for you.”
- “Did you touch that? Go wash you hands.”
- “Wash your hands before supper.”
- “There will be NO dessert until all of your peas are gone!”
Throughout the book of Leviticus, when I read the list of do’s and don’ts I hear the voice of a parent setting boundaries for their children. Some of them are no brainers. Some leave me scratching my head. Then again, so did some of the rules handed down in my house growing up.