Tibayan Family 4 Father's Day Celebration

Morning Devotion

This morning my wife woke me up at 7am to do my devotions while she was driving around somewhere. I knew she was doing something for our Father’s Day celebration, so I got up to read Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah for morning devotion. I was not allowed to go to the kitchen, so I stayed in my study even though I was very thirsty. The impression the Lord gave me this morning was a thankfulness for being part of his people in response to Psalm 103. Isaiah 41 left in me a sense of God’s providence and our need for the Messiah, God’s servant.

Breakfast in bed

Frances came in my study and told me to go to our room. So I went in there and then I heard Elijah crying. I got up to get him when my wife screamed at me, “Get back in the room!” I realized she was with Elijah when he was crying. So she came in with a tray with rice, soy bacon, over-easy eggs, hash browns, and Hebrew National beef franks (my favorite). There was also orange juice and a small bowl of fruits. It was so good to eat! Attached to Elijah, who came in the room crying was a Father’s Day card that was from the two of them. It was encouraging to see them affected by my service to them, which is only by God’s grace and is not as good as they made it sound (from my perspective). But it was encouraging indeed. How kind of God! I was stuffed. Then the three of us just spent time on the bed together.

Driving in uncertainty

So she tells me to head west on the 60. I had an idea where we were going but did not make my hunch public in case I was right, I did not want to ruin the element of surprise. We hop on the 10 west and exit Venice (?) and get onto Pico. We finally ended up where I guessed we would, the Museum of Tolerance. I always wanted to go there! We were not able to get in until after 2:00pm, so we went out to find a spot to eat lunch in L.A.

Lunch

We were looking for the Apple Pan restaurant because it is rated highly for lunches in Los Angeles. We found it a few miles away from the museum, but it’s closed on Mondays. Frances and I laughed because that always happens to us. We ended up going to Brooklyn Pizza. It was really good pizza. We got an 18 inch one, half mushrooms, half sausage. We ate the whole thing and took some more pictures. An Asian worker came in speaking Hebrew to the worker who was serving us. There are a lot of Jews with kippas on around that area and it was neat to hear some Hebrew and try to pick up a little of the conversation (I only made out one word!).

The Museum of Tolerance

There’s a lot that can be said about this. Let me just say that the lady who gave her testimony of her experience during the holocaust was insightful and a powerful introduction to what we were to witness at the museum. I asked her about her belief in God and what she thought about him during and after these incalculable atrocities and she said she used to believe in God but no longer believes in the God she did as a child. She said if we want to call the goodness of humanity “God,” she’s okay with that. I thought that was sad and it made me long for her to know the Messiah her people were waiting for.

I’m not going to summarize all I saw. The hate-speech section was insightful and I think I’ll blog on that in days to come. Seeing a remake of the Auschwitz fence that thousands (millions?) of Jews walked passed never to exit was a sobering moment. To see the evil of humanity, the problem of sin, and the poor, insufficient, yet temporarily helpful solutions man was able to bring to the moment was both challenging and inspiring. It made me want to pour my life out in love and sacrifice for the good of others, but a love and good centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ, expressed in the gospel. Men nobly poured out their lives for noble deeds of love, and we Christians are called to likewise pour out our lives for noble deeds of love that would do eternal good to those loved and bring glory to Christ in the Spirit’s power. This is a museum I want to visit at least once a year as long as I live in L. A.

There were no pictures allowed in the museum.

UCLA

We ate with Helen and hung out with her. I ate another big meal since it was an all-you-can-eat dinner. We talked and hung out. We went back to her dorm room, took pictures, and then went home. It was a great reminder from God to worship him when we got a parking ticket. We tried to praise God, and then were able to by God guiding us to these thoughts: (1) God was sovereign over this ticket, (2) God is teaching us to be more careful, (3) God is teaching us not to value money over him, (4) we should value the time with Helen and see the money billed to us as a small price for time well-spent for eternity, and (5) we have to be humble, admit when wrong, and gladly face the consequences to learn the lesson. So may God be glorified in us paying UCLA.