That’s my Jesus!

This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. John 21:24,25

Sometimes it is a good idea to let religion go and just meditate on the person of Jesus…….Yeshua. I prefer the Hebrew way of saying Jesus, Yeshua or Y’Shua because it flows. It is soft and yet strong. And when you say it aloud it sounds like a rushing river.

Then there is that wonderful song with words by Bill and Gloria Gaither…..There’s Something About That Name:

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
There’s just something about that name
Master, Savior, Jesus
Like the fragrance after the rain
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
Let all heaven and earth proclaim
Kings and kingdoms shall all pass away
But there’s something about that name.

Has someone you love ever asked you what you love about them? Do you see the sparkle in their eyes when you tell them? How happy it makes them? That look on their face is worth more than any amount of riches.

Yesterday I decided to simply meditate on the things I love about Jesus. So, as I settled into the dim morning light…….and my little heater hissed to life, and with the lights of the little shop Christmas tree sparkling in the corner, and my lantern lit, the words of gratitude flowed. This is my unedited list as I wrote it. #754-775

He loves reconciliation and never likes it when people are at odds with one another
He loves bringing diverse groups of people together
He was never at a loss for words while on this earth
He always said just the right thing
He stumped the best and brightest scholarly minds
He always did the right thing, even if it hurt
He always spoke the truth and never backed down from it
He is the way, the truth and the life, all three!
He has a sense of humor, (illustration about straining out a knat and swallowing a camel)
His great love for people
His great compassion
He never turns anyone away with an open heart, not then, not now
He wasn’t afraid to let those close to Him see Him cry, yet…….He survived a beating that would have killed any other man, even before going to the cross
He is filled with passion, never boring
He was and is always in complete control every moment.
He caused a stir wherever He went, He was never afraid to shake up the status quo
He loves animals and nature
He appreciates fine craftsmanship
He wasn’t afraid to step outside the cultural norms of the day, like taking time for women and children and people outside of His own ethnic and religious group
He took time for individuals, even though crowds pressed Him at all sides, He never lost His temper with those seeking help.
He saw the need and value of quiet time by the water, or up on the mountain in prayer, time alone with His Father.
That’s my Jesus.
Thats my Savior!

picture credit: google images

Lost and found peace.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Psalm 8:3,4
that you care for me?

 

Yesterday was a no good, terrible bad day for me. I wanted nothing more than to go back home, tuck myself into a warm corner and pet my cats.
I wasn’t getting any warm fuzzies from my work atmosphere. It was several things.
We found out the day before that someone from my group went out on a medical leave. That means I may have to work Christmas week. The week I planned to take off. The week I sacrificed my Thanksgiving for.
So right now I can’t really plan anything until I find out.
I was irritable all day. I didn’t want to be at work, or really be anywhere but home. Then about midshift as we were recovering from something else, we lost pressure in the factory. When that happens, my hyper-sensitive multimillion dollar tools log themselves down. I saw red on all 3 of my computer screens…….instantaneously.
In our world, as in most of the rest of the world, green is good, red means trouble.
Some days it seems nothing is settled. It is as if everything is suspended…..hanging in the balance. Unsettled.
That is how I felt yesterday, like someone snatched my peace away and I really wanted it back.
Despite how I was feeling…..I had to notice how beautifully the moon was peeking out from the clouds. It was like we were playing hide and seek all the way to my parking lot. It was yellow and full, and as always, it inspired reflection……What is it about the moon that does that for me?
Always awe, with a bit of melancholy thrown in. And always hope.
You can’t stare at the sun for long, but the moon invites us to gaze long.
The sun blares forth it intentions…..to give light, and warmth. While the moon does more….she flirts and makes us fall in love. So quietly she comes out that at times we might even forget she is there, but then how stunningly she makes us remember! 
The moon brought me to work and reminded me that God is still in control even when nothing else is.
And this morning I was reminded again as I crossed the parking lot. As I glanced across the parking lot at the tallest crane in the Western hemisphere, where our new factory is being built, there she was again.
Peeking out through the bend in the crane, high up in the sky.
Reminding me that we can build our buildings and make billions of dollars but we can’t place the moon just so in the sky.
That’s control, that’s God!  

Walnuts and other stuff

I have a thing for walnuts. I can hardly walk by the walnut bin at the grocery store without digging in with both hands. I love how they sound and the texture. I know I would love how they smell too, but due to a genetic weakness inherited from my Grandfather, I have never been able to smell. That’s just one more thing in a long list that will get fixed in Heaven.
I had a walnut adventure yesterday, well the cats and I did.
It all started with a package of store-bought cookies. They were mexican wedding cookies, the ones that I decided I wasn’t going to make this year. They were okay. In fact, I am ashamed to say, I ate every single one of them. But they were nothing like mine. Now I had an unrequitted craving that wasn’t about to go away. I had no choice but to make them.  
I had pecans but I really wanted walnuts. My funny friend knows about my walnut fetish so last Christmas she gave me a sack in the shell, and they were still there in the cupboard. I dug out my nutcracker from wayyyy under the cabinet, since now I mostly buy nuts that Costco has already cracked and packaged very nicely.  It was too cold to go outside so I spread a sheet in my room and let the shells fly!
The cats thought it was a great adventure. They interrupted their morning naps and sprang off the bed like kittens: “What have we here? We don’t recognize this thing you are doing on our floor.” Somehow a rogue pecan had made its way into the bag so I rolled it their way. They batted it back and forth, but then Sydney smelled food like substance coming from the cracked nuts, so he stayed close by. His begging could put any dog to shame.
It was great fun. It only took me about 20 minutes and I had a nice little pile. I was surprised how I remembered some things. My Mom and I cracking walnuts on the cold garage floor on fall days. And going out to my Aunt’s little country house and picking them off her trees. I closed my eyes and heard the sounds, the voices…..it seemed so far away.
I heard the squawking of the blue jays, and the flutter of their wings as they swooped down. I remembered the brick wall in her kitchen and how she had See’s candy in the fridge. And how her sunny yellow bathroom curtains had fuzzy balls on the ends that I liked to touch.
And I remember all those years of Christmas baking and all the smiles of joy as they got their basket of homemade goodies. All of the trips to the store for a forgotten ingredient. And it surprised me how memories of those walnuts hurt. Hurt for those years gone and that they went so fast.
But there is more to be thankful for…….I still have my Mom, and I still have my Aunt. Though many years have passed, there is hope in every moment we all have right now, together.
This morning I broke the rules. I didn’t eat a sensible breakfast, I had two Mexican Wedding cookies with my coffee at 4:30 AM, and they were just as good as I thought they would be.
I have not one regret.

We are all invited

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Micah 5:2

For four hundred years, the voice of God was silent……The Holy Spirit stirred no prophet. No one came forth. Israel waited. They waited for redemption, for hope. Rescue. But they didn’t expect it the way it came, the way He came.

The light of the world

They knew the prophecies concerning the One who would come…..they studied Isaiah, Micah and all the rest even from birth, and yet when He came, exactly as it was prophesied, many missed him.

Jesus, our hope……the hope of the Gentiles and the Jews, the hope of the whole world.

His heart breaks even now, when He remembers how many missed Him then, and how many will continue to miss him now. For He is not willing that any should perish.

The fact that I have not missed Him is proof of His great mercy. I ask myself why? But then I remember that His mercy extents to everyone. He holds this invitation out to the whole world…….still.

This alone is reason enough reason to live thankfulness in my heart every moment. One lifetime does not hold enough time for the amount of gratitude He deserves, so I am glad He has given me all eternity to thank Him….

Along with the angels.

For now, I will continue my list of small miracles in the every day: #754-764

For the joy that still flows as I decorate this year, even through the difficulties and challenges. The Spirit still flows and circumstances can’t stop it…..Halleluiah.

The silly moments of laughter with a best friend who is silly along with me, as we join in spontaneous song driving down the road.

The evening fires, and being to eat outside once again….

The incredible sunrise this morning.

The glided pages of my favorite old Bible, “big red” I call it. I had thought the gold had all worn off the pages, but as the light hit it this morning, it caught the edge of the pages and I discovered it was still there.

Small escapes, little vacations in the midst of chaos that bring back a bit of sanity.

And a big surprise last night. Elaine’s Mom joining me in decorating the Christmas tree, the first normal thing she has done in a very long time, and the first time she has decorated a tree in about 20 years…..

Cloud covered Superstitions……(see photo blog today, here)

Birdsong cutting through the chill of the morning.

Cold weather in Arizona……that makes it feel more like Christmas!

photo credit: google images

When all other lights go out

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4, 5

There is no darkness so deep that the light of Christ cannot penetrate it. He is the light, in fact. Light originated with Him. There is nothing in our lives that is so dark, so powerful, so strong, that it is beyond His reach. There is nothing in me that He can’t fix!

At times I tend to forget my greatest resource, especially when the darkness closes in around me. In times past my first instinct was to panic or try to figure a way out. Sometimes it still is. I am a bit quicker now to pray first, but many times I still get the order mixed up, panic, escape, with prayer coming last.

Love is patient.

One of the most memorable scenes for me in the  Lord of the Rings  was when Frodo was in that terrible dark cave with that awful giant spider. Let me tell you, as someone with a lifelong fear of spiders there could be no worse scenario for me.

I tried to force myself to watch it on the big screen. Oh, those awful eyes and creepy legs and then coming after him with that awful stinger! My favorite part was when good old faithful Sam came to the rescue with the light of Galadriel, which they had all along. I loved her line:

“May it be a light for you when all other lights go out.”

Jesus is that light for us. He is the light of the whole world. In Him is no darkness. When Christ came, His light threw the shadows back on this old world forever. That is the hope of Christmas.

I think of this as I look at my lights out front, on the tree.

All of them symbols of the One and only true light.

And even though Jesus’ cousin John was chronologically born first, John knew that Jesus existed long before he did. Was there, in fact at the very beginning of all things.

John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” John 1:15

“I thank you Lord, for being my One true light. You are my sanity, my healing, my joy, my everything. With You I have everything I need, without You I have nothing. Because of You my future is full of hope, never dread. And thank you for reminding me that nothing bad lasts forever, but only for a season, and even that, you are working out for my good.”

Love with a Capital "L"

“Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.” Isaiah 8:12,13

In other words, don’t fear what the world fears, make sure you are right with God instead. It is good for us to pause and remember, when the world seems full of unrest and chaos…..when has it not been after all?……who is really in control, that what we see on the news doesn’t have to fill us with dread.

Isaiah goes on to say that consulting with people who we feel have an inside track on future events is like asking a blind person for a way out of a dark tunnel. Only God holds the future in His hands.

“When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.” Isaiah 8:19, 20

If we were standing before the Lord himself, the events of this world would dissolve into nothingness. We would be blinded by the splendor of His majesty, struck as Isaiah was by everything he saw and felt. No doubt we would be speechless, as he was. God knew that He must do something to tear down that wall of separation so that we could approach Him without fear…….So at this time of year, we peer into that manger, that lowly straw-filled cradle that held God. We know that it was for our benefit, not His.

After all, Who would fear a baby in a manger?

Imagine a God who wanted so badly to reconcile with His children that He would appear in a lowly stable……it’s the old, old story that never gets old.

That’s what I call love with a Capital “L”

I pray for you quiet moments this Christmas, to reflect on just how much He loves us. In the midst of the rushing around this month, pull up a chair and grab a hot drink and watch the crowds rush by.

Smile at the peace that reigns in your heart……..smile at the fact that you carry His peace wherever you go, always.

photo credit: google images

Beating back the dark

This morning, I huddled in the crisp, cool darkness of the morning. I spilled out my worries. The same ones He always hears. I drew names out of my heart……

I whispered them and as I prayed I imagined them floating up…..up…..up toward that Throne.

The only One who matters, heard them.

Received them.

Then, after the spilling out of my cares was done. I figured I needed the serious praying posture. The head down and knees bent variety…..and no words except praise for Him who is worthy. Filling the silence I thought of the verses in the Bible that describe Isaiah’s vision:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
There in the silence, I could almost hear it.
I discovered once again, that the best way to beat back the darkness is with praise.
It’s the one thing I have found that never fails.


Joy in the morning

As dawn colored the sky this morning, I couldn’t help but think that God knew that we would need such a greeting to start the day, and close it too.
Through all the worrying that goes on after dark,
all the tossing and turning.
The mulling over of everything we should have done….
or have left to do.
This I pray for all of us today.
That in all the rushing around of this season,
that we treasure each other and the time we have together.
Help us to have open and honest conversations….
not rushed.
Conversations that bring light and healing to hearts and ears.
Help us bring relief in our actions and a presence of calm.
Help us to be eager to bring relief to anxious and weary eyes.
Help us Lord, to enjoy each other’s company, knowing that though the river
of time never stops…..
That rather than just swimming furiously
or allowing it to carry us swiftly downstream,
we can stop and sit on the shore
for awhile.
Shoulder to shoulder,
quietly watching the beauty of it
flow by.
Thank you Lord for the joy that came yesterday as we decorated the house.
It shimmers with You!
Amen

Showdown in the Desert

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2

I struggle with this post today. How to get into words what I feel this year? This particular advent? Each year I ask myself the same questions. What did it mean then, and what does it mean today? How can anyone truly understand the wonder of the Living God coming down to earth as a baby? This is why we are celebrating, after all.
Yesterday I saw a sign at a Scottsdale shopping mall describing Santa as “The man of the Season.” Really? I guess for some he is the man of the season, but not for me.
Sometimes…..many times, in our walk of faith we come to a place of decision. That is where I was yesterday. It was difficult to pray. I sat in silence, my heart feeling like a stone. I was struggling. It was a battle I was facing and I had to ask myself a serious question. It was a showdown in the desert. I
Jesus had one too. And He won.
After prayer I came back inside, pacing. Lately I have noticed anger…..resentment bubbling underneath my surface, ready to flare at little meaningless things. I know where it comes from. And I also know that it was a Spiritual battle not a physical one I had to fight.
I know Satan’s tactics. It was between him and me now. I was determined that he would not win. Can I just say to anyone who thinks that Satan isn’t real, that he isn’t absolutely bent on our destruction, just look at our world today. That my friends, is not the work of God.
What He created was and is perfect. Take the human element out of this world and you would be left with the same perfection as in the day of creation. Still and always, good. But thankfully, there is a good human element in play as well. All around us there are those who hold back the tide. And let’s just call it what it is…..evil.
I realized yesterday morning, that if I can’t handle one old, stinky bad tempered woman, yes I did say stinky. We are going on week six of no shower. She gets absolutely hostile and angry when Elaine suggests she take one. So we just keep spraying air freshener and lighting candles throughout the house.
If I can’t handle this situation, then my faith means nothing. I am a fraud as a Christian. I may as not sing one Christmas carol. You see, that was and is the battle. Yours might be different, but we are all in one once we claim the name of Christ. It is not about flesh and blood at all. 
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12 
It is an old battle and nothing new. Yesterday I determined that God and I together would win it. Peace will reign in this home, in my heart. I will lay my struggle down at the feet of Jesus. I will let the Spirit take over instead of trying to fight it on my own.


“Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:12

Once I made up my mind……peace flooded into my heart. That is what advent means to me this year. It means peace, it means victory, it means we may have battles, but Jesus has won the war for us!
I continue my count today with renewed gratitude……..Decorating with joy for the season…….A best friend who understands and shares my burdens in prayer and conversation…..Christmas lights that work…..Snowman doormat….new heater in prayer room…….talks by the firelight……Morning chill……a call from my Aunt last night…..laughter when all else fails……Sleigh with stuffed Christmas babies that always make me smile…..#743-#753

Queen of the Mute

My Mom and I are the reigning queens of the mute button. I must give her top billing since she has actually worn the color off her mute button, and I haven’t even come close….yet.

This mute button issue has made others in the same room with us very annoyed at times. When my brother is over he takes control of the remote so he can have a direct line to any channel that Cops might be on. But sometimes my Mom gets control and when she does, it’s war.

His complaint is that she isn’t quick enough on the draw for when the shows come back on. He hates missing the first few seconds of whatever it is they are watching. If it’s a breaking news story I can understand it, you’d hate to miss the first few seconds of that. But the most you can miss on Cops is, “Put your hands where I can…..”

Anyway I digress. At home I let Elaine keep control over the remote. I don’t want the responsibility of the thing. The cats and I settle onto my chair, (a term I use loosely since they always try to squeeze me out of it), and also, we have much the same taste so I will watch whatever is on until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

We are not really TV people anyway, we could shut it off for days and not really miss it. We have in fact. Elaine’s parents on the other hand, were TV people. Still are. Now that her Mom is living with us it is really interesting. When she gets the remote, you never know what you will hear from the next room. The other day she had the Spanish channel full blast. Also, with Alzheimer’s, she forgets what the remote is for at times.

One time Elaine was in the shower and her Mom handed the remote control through the curtain and said, “The phone is ringing and I don’t know how to answer it.” And she switches the remotes so that none of them will work, and then furiously punches the button and complains that, “I can’t get this thing to work.”

When they lived in their own home and we would go to visit, they would be sitting in the living room like mole people shades tightly drawn and TV hot to the touch from running Judge shows in a continual stream. I had no idea they had that many. It was extremely depressing to say the least.

And of course now that the Christmas ads have started I may have to take the remote until the New Year. Elaine is pretty good about it. All I have to say when they come on is….Mute, mute! And she does it, usually.

And finally the biggest reason this year that I may have to take ownership of the remote, whereby controlling when and how fast I can mute is this woman right here! She wins top billing in my book for most irritating TV ad personality.

The crazy Target lady. (Bless her heart)

She may just be the reason that my mute button is completely worn down by the end of the month.