Leviticus 8

When God ordains Aaron and his sons as priests, He has the people perform the sacrifices in a specific order: first the sin offering, then the burnt offering, and finally the ordination offering (which includes a wave offering). Logically, this makes sense; Aaron and his sons must first atone for their sins before they become God's appointed ones. After that, they sacrifice the burnt offering as an act of thanksgiving and fellowship with God, strengthening their relationship with Him. Finally, they get ordained as priests to do God's holy work, ending with a friendly wave toward God. ("Hey, Dad! How's it going?")

After these sacrifices, Aaron and the other priests must stay at the entrance of the tent of meeting for a whole week "to do what the LORD requires" (verse 35). I knew if I had to stay in one place for a whole week, I would get a bit antsy. OK, maybe if it were my room and I had access to my books and music (as well as sustenance and a place to send those brown Rebels down the Sarlacc pit), I would be fine, but of course Aaron and his sons didn't have the benefits of media and entertainment. They had the benefit of something much better: the honor of doing God's work. When God nudges me to do something, I know I should consider it the highest privilege and pleasure to do His bidding, but all too often I feel like a languid, selfish bum--which once again evinces how much more I need to devote myself to Him.

OK, so Aaron's a priest now--but wait, didn't he just commit a massive blunder a few chapters ago with the whole golden calf thing? As heinous as that was--and remember, Aaron also told a rather farcical lie to Moses in a pathetic attempt to cover it up--God still gives Aaron another chance. He knows that we make mistakes, and although He doesn't like sin, He still loves us and wants us to push to our best.

Thus reminds me of this TV show I used to watch as a youngling called The Puzzle Place, which was a rather moralizing show with what looked like second tier (or below) humanoid Muppet-like characters. In one episode the characters are running a relay race when one character, whom I'll call Keyser Soze, drops the baton, causing his team to lose the race. The characters spend the balance of the episode belittling poor Keyser, calling him "Butterfingers." But of course, they somehow realize the error of their ways and, as an apology, they present the race trophy to Keyser. Well, you know where this is going. That's right--Keyser drops the trophy. My brother and I were laughing like idiots, so I honestly forgot how the episode ended; maybe the characters decided to decapitate the hapless Keyser.

Anyway, the point is that God still gives us chances, even if we, like Keyser, keep screwing up--and I thank God for that while also knowing that I shouldn't exploit His grace. And as a final tangential note, now whenever I think of relay races/batons, I always think of this scene from one of my favorite comedies, the utterly hilarious 21 Jump Street. (Contains some salty language; if you're not into that stuff, you can stop at 0:40.)