Old Testament Culture, Faith-Promoting Rumors, and Neat Stuff in the Here and Now

One of my friends at work sent me an email that I strongly suspected was a faith-promoting rumor. It asked the question, Why did Jesus fold the napkin?

You may have seen it, and I’m choosing not to give you more than a Readers Digest version. It goes on at some length about the napkin that the disciples found neatly folded inside the tomb after the Savior had risen and claims that in the culture of the day, a wadded-up napkin signified that the master had left the table, and the servant could clear it, but a folded napkin meant that he was coming back.

Snopes.com had nothing to say on the subject, so I asked a friend at church who is majoring in Hebrew and has considerable knowledge of Old Testament cultures if he had heard this story. He has taught early morning seminary and really knows his doctrine. He told me that napkins were largely a feature of Greek and Roman culture, which is where we as humans first began to consider the topic of etiquette, and that this sounds like an instance where meaning and symbolism are being projected backward in time. I’m sure there’s a fancy Latin name for that sort of thing, but I was too distracted by the smell of baking pie to be interested in looking it up.

So, nice story, but not likely to be grounded in fact. [Except the part where He is coming back.]

Adventure the First
So I say to Coffee Dude as I am checking him in through our security system, “Can you believe it’s November already?”

And he says, “Yeah, and I’m finding that the older I get, the faster time goes.”

I look up and tell him, “Just wait till you hit 50. You won’t believe how fast it goes then.”

“I wouldn’t have said you were 50. I thought, in your 40’s.”

“You are my new best friend! My oldest is 30, and I wasn’t young when I had her. I’m 56.”

“Woah.” He looks stunned, bless him! “I would have said 42.”

“You can marry one of my daughters.” [I was so happy that my inner grammarian was momentarily dumbstruck. He may marry one of my daughters. Assuming she agrees.]

Adventure the Second
One of my readers de-lurked, and I found a great new blog to read. Girls, go check out that Log Cabin quilt on the back of her couch! It reminds me of the ones that I made for all y’all.

Adventure the Third
I spent part of Sunday afternoon reading articles which I had missed in the issues of the *Ensign* that I’ve received since the move. It made for a sweet and peaceful finish to my Sabbath. The November [General Conference] issue came in Monday’s early mail, so I have more great reading ahead of me.

Adventure the Fourth
Dinner with the Trainman. Still grinning. Still nibbling at leftovers.

So yes, I had a very good day on Monday. Looking forward to another conversation tonight.

In an article on Meridian Magazine, I found this recipe to try for Family Home Evening.