There are many weirdo’s in the Bible.  I’ve been pondering this concept as I sit in my chair listening to the birds outside my window. It’s snowing outside and everything is being laid to rest with a clean white blanket.  I love that clean white blanket because it covers up the ugliness and dirt of the previous melting snow.  Most of us enjoy beauty as opposed to ugliness.  So a fresh coat of snow is just what the doctor ordered for these sleepy eyes.  Did I say I had coffee….hmmmm….guess that goes without saying?   Coffee, a seat by the window, a light dusting of snow, birds chirping in the tangled branches and warm puppy snores at my feet.  Who could ask for a better morning!   And yet I sit here in my comfort and ponder ugliness.  I ponder the dirt under the white, hungry cold birds foraging in the snow, and the half empty cup of lukewarm coffee by my side.    Sometimes we just see ugly.  I think its human nature.  Now what does seeing ugly have to do with weirdoes in the Bible?    It’s simple we naturally consider weirdo’s to be strange, ugly and to coin a phrase “queer”.

Take for example good ole Noah!  I mean how much weirder can you be than to build a massive boat upon an Earth that had never felt one drop of rain and then to end up drunk and naked in his tent.   Is it a wonder that he was mocked and ridiculed even by his own son?  Then there’s Moses who was a weak coward and couldn’t even manage to string two words together without stammering, and yet, albeit timidly, thought he could go before the pharaoh of Egypt and lead his people out of bondage.  Oh my God, let’s not forget about Abraham who at approximately 116 years old believed he could impregnate his wife Sarah of 90 to become a great nation!  I mean, come on people…Can you possibly get any dumber than that?  Oops …spoke too soon there is dumber.  There once was a little boy named David who thought himself able to take down a nine foot giant warrior with a handful of stones and a leather strap!  I guess we should give him some slack since he was young and the young do tend to think in grandiose ways.  Okay….so I won’t pick on David but the others…they’re weirdo’s!  There no “ifs” “ands” or “buts” about it.   A bunch of oddballs to be sure!

But I guess the biggest oddball from the Hebrew Scriptures would have to be Jesus Christ, himself.  He was homeless according to Luke 9:58 He himself even admits, “Foxes have lurking holes and the birds of the air have roosts and nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”    Not only was he homeless but “many said…He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear him.” “… and they say, Behold, a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and [^[a]especially wicked] sinners!”   Even Isaiah a great prophet from the Old Testament likened Jesus to, “a scrawny seedling,    a scrubby plant in a parched field.” Furthermore he went on to say, “There was nothing attractive about him,    nothing to cause us to take a second look.  He was looked down on and passed over,    a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.  One look at him and people turned away.    We looked down on him, thought he was scum.”  (Isaiah 53:2)

With all the thoughts in my head I glance out the window and notice the snow has stopped but not until it completed its work to make the world look new and clean.  Also the birds have found their seed and settled within their nest content with full little bellies.   My Keurig beckons with promises of hot magic liquid to replace the lukewarm in my cup.  Responding to its call I struggle out of my chair and catch a glimpse of my reflection in the window and notice the oddball looking back at me and I have to laugh!

They say the Bible is a looking glass or a mirror, if you will, that reveals our truest of natures.  And then it hit me like a ton of bricks!  I had been seeing myself in the Weirdo’s that live within the pages of the Holy Book.  Hmmm….lets  see if I can do this justice…  Okay first of all there was Noah who had been mocked and ridiculed. Yep, been there and done that.  I won’t mention the drunk and naked aspect…some things should be left unsaid.   Then Moses came along with his cowardice and stuttering’s and I see myself as the red-face stuttering girl trying to talk in class.  Old timer, Abraham, came up next and I realize that most of life has been lived and I’m getting older every day.  And then there’s little David with his rocks facing the giant and I look to see what’s in my hand, nothing, and I wonder what good I can do.  And last of all there is Jesus who was nothing pretty to look upon, homeless, crazy and who hung out with outcast and oddballs of his day.  From His example I learn acceptance and my heart is happy.   I pause to thank God for the ugly.  I realize if not for the ugly in our lives we would never really know true beauty.  It’s in our ugliness we learn and we grow and we mature and become better human beings.  Noah did indeed build his boat that rescued not only man but animals of which I am fond.  Moses parted the Red Sea and his people walked on dry ground.  Abraham and Sarah had Isaac and the Jewish nation was born.  David killed Goliath and became a king.  Jesus laid down his life on an old rugged cross and saved a world!  Now I wonder what He’s going to do through me!  How exciting!   I’m glad the Bible is full of weirdo’s for it’s in them that I see myself!