Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Study

Lamentations 1:20 – Look at Me

²⁰ ‘LORD, see how sorely distressed I am.
My bowels writhe in anguish
and my heart within me turns over,
because I wantonly rebelled.
In the street the sword brings bereavement,
like the plague within the house.
The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:20.

I find it hard to blame the author of Lamentations, because he is speaking for Judah as they stand devasted by God’s actions. “Lord,” they ask, “Do you really know how terrible this all is?”

Their situation is real, and their question is justified. In fact, I suspect this book is in the Bible precisely because that is such an excellent question.

But I’ve told you that I do these verse by verse meditations not to do biblical exegesis, as interesting as that is, but to meditate on the words and see what may come to mind. In this case, I started asking the question: “What if this question is either not justified or not well motivated?

Let’s look first at “not justified.” I don’t know about you, but I can work myself into a serious problem by not paying attention or by compounding one error with another as I try to fix things. As decisions pile up and then cascade into a landslide of consequences, I have the urge to ask, “Lord, why are you letting this happen to me?”

There’s a simple answer. “Whatever a man sows, that will he reap.” God made the universe in such a way that actions have consequences. When consequences come, it’s possible you may not realize what caused them. It’s a good time to ask, “Lord, do you see what’s happening? Why?” But be ready for an unpleasant answer to that “why” question.

On the other hand, you may be able to see the path clearly. In that case, the why isn’t the right question. You know why. If you were running wildly along the edge of a cliff and suddenly find yourself in a heap at the bottom, the why is obvious. It’s just not very helpful. “How do I get out?” is a much more helpful question.

After that, you can remember the obvious “why” and don’t do that again!

But the question can sometimes come with bad motivation. It’s possible to become so caught up in troubles that trouble becomes your identity. You may not feel precisely proud of it, but it’s you. If you didn’t have your troubles, who would you be? Being a victim becomes a way of life.

Among Christians, there’s a particularly dangerous form of this in which people find affirmation of the “rightness” based on people attacking them or “persecuting” them. Want to feel sure you’re right? Just wait until someone attacks you for your beliefs. “Blessed are the persecuted!” (Matthew 5:10).

But offending someone or making them angry enough to take action against you is not necessarily an indication that you are right. People do get annoyed at others doing right when they know they are not. This can result in persecution in school, at work, or in life. But as soon as you take that as the indication that you’re right, you’re on a dangerous path. The persecution doesn’t indicate you’re right.

You’re blessed if you’re doing right and “doing right the right way” and are persecuted for it. You aren’t blessed if you’re being offensive in order to feel important or find affirmation.

So when things go wrong, ask yourself why first. Often, you’ll find that you know the answer, and the problem is you. Good news: You can do something about that!

October 6, 2026
Lamentations 1:18: I Was Wrong

The LORD was in the right, for I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you nations, and look on my agony: my maidens and my young men are gone into captivity.
The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:18.

If you want to fix anything, the first step is acknowledging that something is wrong.

I just got done revising a utility I created, or rather had Gemini AI code, for sharing site feeds between the various websites that are related to my publishing company, Energion Publications. An interesting thing about AI is that while it is not precise about doing what I want, as I’ve been accustomed to for decades, it can create a lot of code very quickly. This introduces a weakness. If I ask for the wrong thing, I generally get the wrong thing. The AI follows my plan for better or worse.

The configuration file for my utility was grotesquely complex. It was precisely what I had asked for. The AI produced code that did what I asked. But my plan was not very good.

After struggling for awhile to learn how to use the code I asked for I realized that this wasn’t going to work. I could probably figure it out, but I’d forget it in a day and then I’d have to start over. I played around with it for a few minutes, and realized there was a massively simpler way to set this up. Minutes later I had new code which works just fine.

The first step in fixing this was to recognize that there was something wrong.

AI’s, in my experience, are not good at recognizing what’s wrong. They usually dig deeper to make the current plan work. On this point, AIs are not that different from humans. Once we have chosen a path we’re likely to stick to it, whether it’s working or not.

This verse is a key. “The Lord was in the right.” Conversely, I was wrong.

Admitting error is often the gateway to success.

October 4, 2026
Bound – Lamentations 1:14

14 ‘My sins were bound like a yoke
tied fast by his own hand;
set upon my neck,
it caused my strength to fail.
The LORD abandoned me to my sins,
and in their grip I could not stand.
Lamentations 1:14 (REB)

I’ve actually been meditating on this verse over the last few weeks while I haven’t been posting. I think it’s rather important. I first thought about sin/sins in the way I’m going to speak of them here when I read Ezekiel 23:49 and several other passages that suggest that what the people suffer is simply their own sins brought back on them.

Now this is a more graphic passage, in that we have the imagery of a animal, such as an ox, pulling a load that is secured by a yoke. This is a lamentation, so it’s important to “hear” the poet telling us about living under the yoke.

Frequently we think of sins in the plural, and see them as a sort of list of infractions against ritual or formal rules. We could imagine a workplace where a series of annoying or even stupid rules occur. Since we’re thinking about God, we imagine that we have to check off the boxes because that’s how you get to heaven.

This is not just a mistaken, but an inadequate view in so many ways. When there are suboptimal rules in a workplace, freedom is to be found in finding a better job, thus working in a better environment. You can compare workplaces according to how rewarding they are as a work environment. So you can compare “better” and “worse” workers on a checklist, and “better” and “worse” workplaces in a similar way. Freedom comes by escape to a better place.

But when we talk about “sin” in the biblical place, this is the wrong view. Note here that the sins are bound to the person. The penalty is, in one sense, a complete lack of freedom. The ox cannot escape the yoke, and the lament is that the Israelites were unable to escape the yoke made by their own transgressions. Finally, we have the observation that the punishment here is God abandoning the people to their sins. This is what is causing their strength to fail. It is not some invented judgment or punishment. It is rather the result of their actions.

But this takes us back further to the specific nature of sin, again as displayed in the Bible story. We think generally of making a list of our faults and failings and trying to overcome them. I once had a terrible temper. In fact, I still do. If I overcome that temper, I’ll be that much closer to God, right?

Not so. It’s a good thing to tame one’s temper, but the problem is that that’s just an item checked off the list. It all goes back to the basic rebellion, the desire to be independent of God and of God’s commands. And the gap made by that is great.

We’re not in the workplace, deciding whether we like it, or perhaps that we should move on to a better employer. We’re in God’s universe. The rules are the rules of life. As it says in Deuteronomy 30:15, we’re offered a choice of a way of life and good or death and evil. We don’t have the option of choosing a whole other plan.

This is a great lamentation. We’re abandoned, not to some externally planned torment, but to the results of our own rebellion against the way of life, the way that is life.

The starting point to recovery is simple. It’s coming to the point of sincerely making this lamentation.

May 24, 2026
Translating Puns

Dave Black’s intermediate Greek grammar, It’s Still Greek to Me, is scheduled to be translated into Arabic. One of the features of that grammar is some of the humorous headers that are English puns. Dave wonders how those will be handled in translation.

Anyone have suggestions? (Only humorous suggestions need apply!)

While I publish many of Dave’s books, this is not one of them. The booklet with a very similar name, It’s All Greek to Me, is Dave’s brief biography/testimony, and I do publish that one.

(Note: The featured image was generated by Jetpack AI, and one should not consider it to represent any puns, or likely anything else!)

September 14, 2025
Geoffrey Lentz on Wesleyan Bible Study

On Thursday I had the privilege of interviewing Rev. Geoffrey Lentz, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, regarding characteristics Bible study in the Wesleyan tradition.

Geoffrey and I have known one another for many years, and authored a book, Learning and Living Scripture, which was published, well, a long time ago. As Geoffrey pointed out in the interview, “Back then, Henry, even you were young.”

In this video we reference the new imprint, New Fire Press, and two new authored or co-authored by Geoffrey, Bold to Say: Learning and Living the Lord’s Prayer and Project Nebo: Empowering the Generations. Energion Publications (my company) produces this artistically and editorially independent imprint.

Here’s the video:

(Featured image combines book covers with an image generated by Adobe’s Firefly Image 3.)

Project Nebo

Bold to Say

September 13, 2025
Wisdom – You’ve Got to Want It!
Wisdom cries out in the street.
In open spaces she raises her voice. …

My son, if you take my word,
and store my commands within you,
Bringing your ears close to wisdom,
and stretching your heart to understanding.
If you call for understanding,
and use your voice for discernment,
If you seek her as silver,
And dig for her as buried treasure,
Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,
and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 1:20 & 2:1-5, my translation

In James 1:5, readers are told that if anyone lacks wisdom (and if you don’t think you lack wisdom, you probably do!) that person should ask God, and they will receive wisdom.

It’s as simple as that.

Well, maybe not quite that simple.

There’s a military aphorism that states: “In war, everything is simple, but nothing is easy.” The two halves of that saying illustrate the change from chapter 1 to chapter 2 of Proverbs. We have wisdom calling out, seeking people, being as obvious as possible. Then suddenly we turn around, and we are being told to listen carefully, seek diligently, even dig for it.

What’s going on?

Wisdom is, in fact, simple. Yes, simple. It’s out there everywhere you look. Right and wrong actions have consequences. Success or failure can be found in recognizing and acting on these things.

And wisdom is, in fact, available. You can discover wise ways of doing things. There are many places where wisdom is calling out, calling to you.

It might be
- An older person in your family who has a wealth of experience
- An expert in their field who can pass on good information and outline courses of action and results
- The physical world, where you can quickly learn about falling, living, starving, and even dying, and if you are observant, living!
- Somebody from another culture who may have a different perspective than you do.
- Somebody whose mind works differently than yours does.
- The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, working in and through people and creation.
- A younger person, viewing a situation with more innocent eyes.
- A good book, written by someone with experience and knowledge you lack.
Wisdom is everywhere.

Wise people are much rarer. Why is that?

You have to want it. Like the military aphorism, wisdom is simple. It’s out there. It’s available.

But wisdom isn’t easy. It calls out to you, but it doesn’t force you to listen or to act on what it says. You have to be willing to make changes, to act in ways that may be unfamiliar to you. You have to be able to recognize where you’re wrong. Or more importantly where you may be wrong, so that you can correct your actions–or not.

The problem is that wisdom is often uncomfortable. The wise thing to do is not what you perceive to be the fun thing to do. Following wisdom may hurt your pride. None of that is easy.

Over the years I have frequently been called on to pray with people about decisions they are trying to make. I’ve found that most of the time, the person I’m praying with actually knows what they ought to do, but they really don’t want to do it. What they’re praying for is an excuse to take a different road, one that is easier, or more satisfying to their pride.

When I reflect on those prayer times, I’m immediately reminded that I spend much time in prayer hoping that God will provide me with a different path, an easier path.

Proverbs 2 gives us the unpalatable answer. Yes, you can have wisdom. No doubt about it.

But you have to really want it.

(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
August 16, 2025
Wisdom Has Questions

Wisdom cries aloud in the open air,
and raises her voice in public places.
²¹ She calls at the top of the bustling streets;
at the approaches to the city gates she says:
²² ‘How long will you simple fools be content with your simplicity?
The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Pr 1:20–22.

Last week I discussed starting a study of Proverbs and noted a different way of receiving the text. This does not result from a prophetic vision, or from a prophet hearing a voice, but rather from collective (and collected) wisdom from a culture. This is life-time learning, rather than special, instant revelation.

We like instant revelation. We like answers. We especially like answers that come quickly and fit in with our existing lifestyle and our prejudices.

The “wisdom” we can gain in this way has another advantage. It can be formed into “ammunition sentences,” sentences that we can fling at other people to shut them up. Often such sentences begin with “the Bible clearly teaches.” We fill in with things we clearly see, largely because we failed to see the whole of scripture.

I saw a sign in front of a church the other day. The first line read: “God has the answers!” And the second read “Are you listening?”

That’s good. God does have answers. But sometimes God’s answers don’t match our questions, and the reason is that we’re not asking the right questions, or more specifically, we’re asking questions that limit the range of God’s answers. Sometimes we’re even asking questions in order to avoid God’s answers.

Over the years I’ve prayed with many people who were seeking God’s guidance. Many of these people were genuinely uncertain, and were trying to seek God’s will. But more of them already knew what God wanted them to do, often because it was clear in terms of ethics, simple right and wrong, but who were hoping they could get a word from the Lord that would set them on a different path, one they preferred to what they already knew. Maybe God’s voice will allow me to take a different turn.

When you approach things that way, it’s easy to end up believing you’re following God’s path, or the path of wisdom, just because you want so vigorously for that to be the right answer.

I remember once having a conversation with a couple of friends about a business decision. Business decisions are hard for me. In this case I was discussing two options and trying to decide which was the next step. I had struggled with the decision for days. I don’t even recall now what the issue was, but suddenly in the midst of the conversation I held up my hand and said, “I’ve just realized I’m doing this wrong. Option A would result in behaving unethically.” My advisors hadn’t seen that, because they didn’t understand all the processes involved. As soon as I explained what would happen, they recognized what would likely happen, and so the decision was made.

What slowed me down? I knew the process and should have recognized the problem immediately. But I didn’t. I wasn’t responding to the right questions. I was missing them because I wanted something to be true, but it wasn’t. No amount of wanting would make it true.

“Wisdom is calling out in the street.”

And wisdom is often providing questions. Ant Greenham, in his book The Questioning God, says:

Our foundational identity as human beings, female and male, is inextricably linked to questioning, to inquiry. The fall of humanity notwithstanding, people are repeatedly called to respond to God in the context of mental and spiritual engagement. And the centrality of a questioning approach is reflected throughout the Bible.
Ant Greenham, The Questioning God, (Pensacola, Florida: Energion Publications, 2012), 4.

Greenham goes on to point out the numerous ways in which God’s interactions with us consist of God questioning us. We may have questions of God, but God has even more questions to ask us. I’d suggest as a quick example that you check Job 38. After much discussion and complaint, God becomes active and what does God start with? Lots of questions!

This approach suggests that God wants us to use our mental capacity. Here’s a famous verse, but let’s think about it again:

The fear of the LORD is the foundation* of knowledge; it is fools who scorn wisdom and instruction
The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Pr 1:7.

Too often this verse is used to contrast the supposed wisdom of the speaker, which the speaker supposes came from God, verses the use of human intellect. “Don’t trust in your education, your degrees, or your own experience. Do what God says instead!” That’s the common advice.

I’ve received this advice from some as an admonition not to trust my study of Greek and Hebrew in interpreting the Bible, but just to let the Holy Spirit tell me what the text means. But the second half of the verse challenges that. “It is fools who scorn wisdom and instruction.” I can be listening for God’s voice in so many ways, while ignoring what I have already learned. Often when I’m searching for an answer, I’m directed (in various ways) to look at the scriptures and the wisdom of the community of faith over the centuries for an answer. I’m directed to, not away from, the sources involving intellect.

I’ve written a few times before on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. There’s lots of history and debate around that. But I like it a great deal. Today, I’m focused on one element: Reason. We like to put reason down in favor of more spiritual sounding approaches. But in the end, it is with your reason that you will comprehend the messages sent to you by God. That’s why God so frequently asks questions. God wants to awaken your reason.

I want to note one final thing. Intellectual activity and engagement is not exclusively the product of academic instruction. In fact, a great deal of foolishness takes place in academic settings. Any group of people can become so inward looking that they lose site of the whole of creation. They can no longer hear wisdom calling in the street because they are in a room with the windows closed and their select set of sources.

Intellectual activity is also the farmer learning to manage crops, run farm equipment, and take care of animals. God can and will speak wisdom in that setting. The Greek classroom is not more about wisdom and instruction than is the farm, or the corner grocery store. Wisdom is calling out in all these places and through all these processes.

God is asking you questions about everything. Are you listening?

August 9, 2025
God as Father
I intended to schedule this post for Sunday morning, but life intervened. Jody suggested that as my final post for Father’s Day Week, I should look at divine fatherhood overall through scripture.

She had some difficulty with the concept of God as father, because while she and her father were able to reconcile before his death, she had difficulty thinking of her relationship to Father-God in a positive way. Many people have that very problem due to the way they related to their own fathers in this life.

And we can expect that any human representative is going to present an imperfect and challenging representation of God. This is an inevitable result of the human condition. When Jesus told people that they knew how to give good gifts to their children, he doubtless knew that there were people in the crowd who truly did not know how to give good gifts. There were likely people who didn’t know how to give at all because they were so self centered.

But that parental relationship is still a valuable analogy. This works two ways. First, parental love and commitment to children provides one of our better examples of a loving, self-sacrificing commitment. When I talk about good and bad parents, readers have no problem thinking of examples. We may differ on were the boundaries lie, but we do have an image of good parents.

Second, this works in reverse. We are told in this way that as parents, we are to be the sort of parents who can point the way to God. Being “godly” as a parent doesn’t mean adhering to a set of doctrinal standards. It means having a particular attitude.

My own observation over the years is that children do well with quite a variety of parents. One critical common characteristics of parents I believe would be called “good” by their children later in life is simply that those parents cared. They were committed to doing right. They may have failed. No, they almost certainly did from time to time. They weren’t perfect, but they tried.

And so Jesus could point to the idea of a good father as a way to point to God, and people can get an idea of what God’s love means.

The best way to discover some depth in this view of God is to look at the experience of people with God. I frequently refer to the Bible not as a compendium of doctrine, but as a book of experience. That experience is primarily the experience of people with God.

Jody spent a year looking at texts about God the Father. I’d suggest just such a project if you want to build your relationship with God. Here are a few key points.
- God as creator is God as Father. At creation God not only produces human beings, God then goes on to care for them by providing a garden, animals, and companionship.
- God is not eternally indulgent. God is patient, but there comes a time for trouble. Witness repeated failures of the people, and events such as the flood, slavery in Egypt, the exile, and so forth.
- God’s parental love is not determined by our being the cutest or best behaved children. Hosea, particularly the first few verses of Hosea 11 or all of Ezekiel 16 (which is some rather rough reading!) emphasize.
- God’s love is not limited, as seen in John 16 & 17 and many other passages. God keeps loving right up through death on the cross.
- God’s love is relentless. See Romans 8:31-39.
- God’s love will win in the end. See Revelation 21 & 22.
We spend our time worrying about the little things. God’s love is the big thing.

God is Love!

(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
June 17, 2025
Joseph Husband of Mary

I’ve been using texts or subjects that Jody suggests to me this week, all dealing in some way with fathers. Today, again, I’m not going to provide the text here, as it’s a bit long. My suggested reading is Matthew 1:16-24 & Luke 3:21-23.

“[T]he son, as people thought, of Joseph.” That’s the relationship note in Luke for Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus. We’re not told a great deal about Joseph, and we might take something negative from this lack of mention. But I think the clearest thing we hear is quite critical. “When he woke Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had directed him” (Matthew 1:24a). There’s your testimony about Joseph.

Some years ago there was a big flurry of publications and teaching about a simple prayer, just one verse, in 1 Chronicles 4:10. It’s called the prayer of Jabez. It deals with widening our territory, and having God’s hand with us. It has been extremely popular.

Now other than being promoted well out of context and out of proportion, I have nothing against the prayer of Jabez. It’s a good one for certain occasions. I don’t think this particular prayer is the solution to nearly as many things as people claimed, but it’s good. On the other hand, for many people it became the prayer of prosperity, the request for God to make the one praying important and successful. As such, one can get out of balance with it.

But here’s another line. Joseph receives instructions in a dream, and when he wakes up, he does what he was told to do. It might be nice for that to become true of all of us. When God speaks, we listen.

You see, this is the opposite of what we usually do. “Oh Lord,” we say, “hear our prayer.” That’s good. We want the Lord to hear our prayers, but it’s much more important for us to hear God’s message, God’s call, to us. That’s when things can really happen.

I don’t mean that we’ll suddenly get God to love us more. God loves us. But when we can take any steps in God’s will, the results will be good. We’re regularly asking God to be with us. It would be better for us to ask God to help us be with Him! That’s the good place.

Want to learn more?

After Jesus is born, Joseph has another dream telling him to go to Egypt. And what is the response? “So Joseph got up, took mother and child by night, and sought refuge with them in Egypt” (Matthew 2:14). Again, here goes Joseph, following God’s directions.

There’s a power in this approach to life. It’s not about demanding that God make us successful, but rather about listening and doing what God tells us to do. Not so that God will accept us or love us, but because God has accepted us and already loves us. And because of that acceptance and love, God has the best plans for us.

I wonder what would happen if we took that one line about Joseph to heart as much as, or even more than, the prayer of Jabez. Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had directed him.

Will you?

June 13, 2025
Luke 15:11-32 – The Prodigal

I’m not going to provide my own translation or paste the text from another one here today, as the passage is long, but I’d strongly suggest re-reading the story before you continue. Read it carefully.

This parable is often called the parable of the prodigal son. Many commentators, however, have considered it much more about the prodigal father, in the sense of a father who was lavish and extravagant about his love and generosity. This latter view is not bad as the meaning of the parable.

I’d like to suggest, however, that we can look at this parable in more than one way, and the meaning shifts as we do so.

The first view is one that I heard many times before. The prodigal son has done many horrible things in his life, and finds himself at rock bottom. From that final landing place he manages to grasp just a little bit of hope. Maybe, he thinks, I can persuade my father to take me back as an employee. The lesson of the story seen from this point of view is that you should be willing to repent and come home, and the Lord will accept you.

Not bad. Even true.

But the next view is that this is the story of the father, a father who always loved his son, who gave him early access to his inheritance, and waited for his return as long as he was away from home. We can gather that he lived with this hope because he sees that son returning from a long way off and comes to welcome him. From this point of view, this is the story of the father’s grace, love, and willingness to accept the returning wanderer.

Even better. Also true.

But the third point of view is the other brother, the good brother, the one who stayed home and worked hard and thought he was pleasing his father. He’s satisfied with is goodness and believes his father owes him respect for his diligence in keeping the family business going and providing support for his father in his old age.

Not very nice. But very true.

Contrary to the way many read this story, I actually think the older son is the target. You see, I am the older son. Yes, I’ve done some wandering, but not as much as other people I know. In fact, I lived a quite respectable and productive life while I was out of the church. When I came back, I was ready to start teaching the Bible and diligently doing God’s work.

I had to return, but not from a far country. Just from a little ways down the road. And yes, the father was there waiting for me. I was a respectable wanderer who returned in good time and was able to put what I learned in the meantime into God’s work. Many said it was part of God’s plan, that God had been preparing me to work.

So now I can look at people who have wandered far from God. They’ve gone off and become addicts, criminals, God-haters. They’ve really hurt my heavenly Father. They’re the bad people who need real redemption and not just a little adjustment to their lives.

But you know what happens? When they show up, the angel choirs break into hallelujahs. God welcomes them into his arms. There is great rejoicing over this one sinner who repents. Even, no, especially, the ones who fell the farthest, who behaved most despicably, who were the least respectable in human terms.

And yet … there’s the father waiting, watching, jumping up joyfully, welcoming, feasting.

And I’m left to keep on trying to do everything the father wants me to do. Why don’t I get the reward that I think I ought to get?

It’s actually very simple. Even when I make the story about me, the older brother, it’s still God’s story. It’s still about the Father whose grace reaches everyone and who’s holiness is so far above that if I were to concentrate on it, I wouldn’t be so incredibly foolish as to try to compare my accomplishments to those of my wandering brethren. We all need to come into the Father’s care and receive the Father’s grace. None of us have anything of our own to bring.

The story becomes also an invitation to let God take us to the place where we don’t feel superior to the returning prodigal, no matter how long he has wallowed with the pigs, or how much money and life he has squandered.

In fact, the pig sty is closer to the Father than the management office on the Father’s farm.

If you are living in that place of service, and waiting for your reward, and wondering why others you think are less worthy than you seem to cause all the rejoicing, consider saying this: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” He’ll interrupt you. You won’t get any further. Because he has been calling you his son all along.

He’ll rejoice that you finally realized it.

June 12, 2025