Contemplative Bible Reading

Leviticus 16:20-22 (New Living Translation)

20 “When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat. 21 He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness. 22 As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.

I love this passage. Transfer all the bad of a people to the head of a goat. Drive the goat into the wilderness of no return. The goat carries away all the bad. Gone. Poof.

I once used this as the basis for a short story called “In a Puff of Smoke.” Transfer all the bad to something. Blow away, bury, banish the goat, whatever, and all the bad goes away.

God’s amazing grace saves me. I understand it. Some days my brain isn’t working as well as it should. Some days this spiritual concept doesn’t register with me. Such are the failings of the flesh. Rats!

On some of those days, it helps to jot a few words on a piece of paper, wad up the paper, and toss it into a trash can. Gone are the bad into a trashcan. Some days I write a blog post of a Facebook post. Look at it a moment and delete it. Gone are the bad to wherever things deleted from a computer screen go.

It is okay to put the bad in my life today onto the head of a goat and chase the goat out into the wilderness of no return. Please God, help me in my unbelief.