We started work today on Lee's class for Summerama next week. We're making two "stone tablets" four feet tall that contain the ten commandments. Pictured, you see us cutting the styrofoam that will become the "stone" tablets. Stay tuned for the whole process, but in the mean time, we're thinking about the original REAL stone tablets.

When God called Moses up on the mountain, He gave him something that had never been given to any man before. God wrote his laws in stone and gave them to to Moses. When Moses came down the mountain, he saw the people reveling, got angry and threw them against a rock, smashing the stone tablets. While we don't know what was on his mind, I think he may very well have been upset - not so much at the sinfulness of the people - but more that because of their behavior, these people didn't deserve such a gift from God.

We think of the ten commandments as a set of rules. We memorize them, recite them, almost thoughtlessly refer to them, but one thing we don't do is treasure them as a gift from God. God loved - and still loves - us so much that He gave us ten different ways to separate ourselves to Him.

What if we thought of the ten commandments as God's gift to us? His way of saying "I love you". Not rules to be adhered, but ten different ways to say, "Let me make you better.'