WOB, LOT'S WIFE, CROSSROADS BLOCK

This week in my on-line study of Women of the Bible, we are studying Lot's Wife. For many this is a familiar story of the woman who was turned to salt, because she looked back. Seems like a huge punishment for a quick glance, doesn't it?

What I am taking away from this study of Lot's Wife is that she was pretty attached to her life. I think her looking back literally would be a natural thing to do. But when it says 'looked back' does it mean perhaps that she longed for the lifestyle she was leaving behind and couldn't let go of? Was it more than a curious glance? I think so. I think she was reluctant to leave her old, comfortable, sinful ways.

I do think when you live with sinful ways around you, they grow on you and you become tolerant of them, and sometimes absorb those views as your own. In our current society tolerance is so often preached. It would be so easy to lose site of your own values under the guise of being tolerant of others, and then having that rub off on you as normal. I think that is one of the greatest dangers our society faces at this time. It is so important to take a stand for values you believe in. It is possible to love the sinner but hate the sin. We don't need to accept the sin as normal, all in the name of tolerance.

From my journal, when I made my block last year:

In pondering the quilt block for Lot's wife, I have several thoughts. What would Sodom look like with burning sulfur raining down? Would it be red and blinding? Would it be white and gray ash, reminiscent of pictures of the towers on 9/11? In the end I decided to make the 'stripes' of increasing urgency to look back dark. Dark represent evil to me. It represents the evils of Sodom that Lot's wife was so reluctant to let go of. I'm combining that with blue, the light. That's a color I associate with heaven.