Jonah and Nineveh and me

This picture isn't Nineveh, but I figure Las Vegas fits.
I'm in Luke now and playing catch up this week. I am still sick and tired of being sick, but finally feeling some brain power returning, which is surprising as I am on three different forms of steroids, (I promised Steve he need not fear roid rage, as my energy is still lacking), a new antibiotic, (the Mercedes of antibiotics was a total disappointment) and some sort of narcotic that is meant to suppress my cough, (I wonder what it would be like without this).
I was reading one of Paul's letters yesterday, hence the run-on sentence, he inspired me.
Back to Luke. In chapter 11 Jesus brings up Jonah and Nineveh and I was struck by the contrast between the mercy of God and the judgement of Jonah.
In Jonah's eyes the people of Nineveh weren't worthy of mercy, in God's eyes they were.
Earlier, in Luke chapter 7 a sinful woman comes to anoint Jesus, weeping with every drop of scented oil, cleaning the dirt of the road with her tears and wiping it away with her hair. The comment of the host is, "Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.'" Luke 7:39.
Jesus knew exactly who and what sort of woman was touching him. He saw past her circumstance, her failings and right into her heart. She was a sinner, a repentant sinner, seeking mercy and forgiveness and receiving it.
I want to be like Jesus, but I still struggle with the Jonah in me.

Funny Father

The pictures really don't have anything to do with anything except that I think they are funny. These are part of the artwork that makes an average bridge in Perth, Scotland whimsical.
I have moved beyond Exodus in my reading now, but I keep thinking about a couple of verses in chapter 32. Moses is on the mountain with God and he has been up there a while. The people at the bottom of the mountain are apparently feeling deserted so they start building an idol. It's starts in verse 7, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.'" That struck me as an odd statement, and then I actually laughed when I got to verse 11. Please don't judge me, because the circumstances were anything but humorous, but really, don't you at least have to smile?
"But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, 'O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?'"

The next time I hear one parent accuse the other with, "Look what your child did!" I will think of Moses and God on a mountain.