my religious upbringing

When my oldest sister went to college, she called home every Sunday evening to talk to the family. This tradition continued with my next sister and the next, and (somewhat more sporadically) with my brother. I remember feeling very grown up when I made my first college phone call home on a Sunday evening in September of 2002.

I still call my parents most Sunday nights. It's really quite fun to talk with them. Since they have no kids at home, and neither do we, I like compare our weekly stories of adventures because they are in many ways very similar. War stories from work, planning weekend getaways even when it seems like there's no open weekend in which to get away, exploring new restaurants or random midwest town festivals, having friends over for dinner and games.

Also, I've found that the course of the conversation is always unexpected. For example, last night my mom and dad were talking about a gig they had with their folk band, Good News. To get the picture, Good News is a folk/gospel group that combines 4-part vocal harmonies with guitar, mandolin, violin, banjo, and alto saxophone. My dad plays the sax.

He was pontificating last night, after their performance at a very enthusiastic Christian Cafe, that perhaps angels don't carry trumpets, but instead alto saxes. Mom and I both argued that angels were suppose to herald the gospel with a clarion call - not reedy, smooth jazz. But Dad came back and said, Yes, but doesn't it say somewhere that Jesus comes as a thief in the night?

I'm still laughing irreverently at that one. Maybe it's not as funny if you don't know my dad.

Somehow, it reminds me of a children's sunday school class I was sitting in on a few years back. The teacher was talking about Thanksgiving, and comparing each part of the Thanksgiving meal to the gospel. (Remember, these are 3-8 year olds we were dealing with.) He compared water in the glasses to Jesus, because Jesus was the living water. When the teacher asked the children what the turkey could represent, one of the kids called out, "Jesus is the living turkey!"