The Blood of Twilight

A note to my friends: If you’re a Twilight fan and I haven’t talked to you about the issues with Twilight in person, I apologize. Hopefully you’ll hear my heart as you read.

While there are all kinds of problems with the Twilight series, the one that makes me want to pull out my hair, or at least a sturdy soapbox, is the issue of blood. Twilight's vampire is good, I'm told, because he suppresses his urges and only sucks the blood of animals. “It's like eating tofu,” they say. “You’re never really full.” It’s a catchy comparison, but it doesn’t override a foundational, Biblical truth – the blood belongs to the L-rd.

I realize that blood is practically a non-issue in contemporary faith. Every now and again it shows up in a worship song, perhaps around Easter, but it carries only a vague, esoteric meaning. And we have no idea what we’re missing. To paraphrase Dr. Moseley, what’s missing in the Church today is the stench of blood from the sacrifices required by our sinful lives. But that’s for another discussion.

The blood is foundational because the L-rd set it up that way in Torah. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement." (Lev. 17:11)

The life is in the blood, and all life comes from Him, the Giver of Life. The blood provided the atonement because of its connection to the life. And if the blood is all about atonement, then the real connection between blood and twilight is not vampires.

"You shall keep it [the Passover lamb] until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." (Ex. 12:6-7)

Twilight's glorification of vampiric life is an affront to the holy requirements of G-d and to the sacrifice of His Son, our Passover Lamb. The enemy is trying to claim the blood for himself, for the blood is an instrument of worship. He doesn’t care whether Twilight’s readers realize its powerful significance; their ignorance is his bliss. But ignorance cannot be our excuse. Our very covenant with G-d depends on the blood – Messiah’s blood.

Eliana has a lot of great people in her life to learn from.  For instance, in the midst of trying to find a sippy cup or bottle that Eliana would use without crying, we learned from her Aunt Brandi that it's possible for babies to drink from the bite valve of a Camelbak.

From her cousin Cass, we learned that Camelbak makes special bottles just for kids. Here's Eliana's.  She doesn't know it yet, but someday she'll be so excited that she has a bottle like Cass'.

Cass also taught us about the special button, which helps little fingers pop the straw open.  Eliana isn't there yet, but when she is, Cass will make a great teacher.

Her papa didn't really contribute to her water bottle, but he sure helped with her good looks.  Here's Eric at 9 months.

And the screaming?  Well, we're not sure where she gets the screaming.  It might be an Eliana original.  Here's a very tame version.