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Reflections on six months of sheltering in place

Lynne Baab • Wednesday September 2 2020

On March 2, an epidemiologist friend contacted my husband Dave and me to say that we needed to start staying at home because of this new virus and Dave’s chronic lung disease. I spent a three days out and about doing a few last things, so the exact six month anniversary varies between Dave and me.

I stayed home almost completely for 4 months except for bicycle rides. In the past two months, since masks have been required in Washington State, I’ve been to the grocery store about six times and the big-box home improvement store about four times. We’ve sat outside...

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Creativity: Exaggeration and a few closing thoughts

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 27 2020

My family has accused me many times of exaggerating things when I tell stories. My perspective is that I might exaggerate emotions but seldom the actual facts, and that I stand in a firm tradition. Jesus used hyberbole constantly in his stories in order to intensify the impact. Looking only at the Sermon on the Mount, here are three examples: If someone hits you, give them the other cheek? (Matthew 5:39) Never pray in public? (Matthew 6:6) Never plan or make provision for the future? (Matthew 6:25, 26) Jesus uses hyperbole to make point.

I was delighted when I found a few...

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Creativity in C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 20 2020

Imagine that you are one of the first two humans created on a planet that is mostly ocean. God has given you floating islands made of mats of plants to live on. The islands are host to charming, companionable animals and a variety of trees with beautiful flowers and delicious fruit, and the surfaces of the islands shift and move with the waves of the ocean. God has shown you an island of fixed land and has invited you to visit that island during the day. The fixed island, God has told you, is forbidden at night.

The tempter comes to you....

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Creativity, imagination and Jesus’ relationships

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 13 2020

I have never before thought about the connection between imagination and equality in relationships. I love Cheryl Forbes’s insight about this: “Jesus’ relationships showed his imagination at work. A shepherd doesn’t favor his male sheep over his female sheep. Each is important him; he knows each by name and they know him.” [1]

In her book Imagination, she gives lots of concrete examples:

“Jesus reflected the same respect toward women and men. Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, his own mother were all treated as individuals who matter as much as did Peter and...

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