Robert Fulghum is the author of the book I am basing my Lenten series of sermons upon, but he was also once a minister, and even before that, a teacher. Teams of three students would rotate turns being artists and models - one sitting still and the other two sitting up close, concentrating on drawing one physical feature at a time. This exercise was a prelude to drawing portraits.
Adolescents are painfully self-concious.
Herod wants to kill him, but Jesus remains undaunted, unafraid of him, because he knows Herod can't kill him. Headed toward death, he will fulfill the pattern of faithfulness. And so we too, it seems to me, can be filled with such courage and hope and move on ahead today, tomorrow, and the next day as soldiers of the cross, as servants of God. Robert Fulghum is somewhat perplexed that his students recoiled so from drawing their navels. And life, we believe comes from God, is God's great gift to us, forming us from the dust of the earth, breathing into us the breath of life.