Grace-period

Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). John 20:16 I have been meditating today on what difference the world would feel if Jesus hadn't died, if he was just a man. In a matter of hours I heard several people comment that there would be no hope with Easter. The Jewish people still hope tho. That can't be it, really. What I came up with is that without Jesus, our idea of God would be incomplete. We would not know how passionately God loves and pursues us. Jesus' first appearance after his death and resurrection was to Mary Magdalene. Having traveled with him, listened to him teach, the followers of Jesus still did not know who he was really. They weren't expecting him to rise from the dead. The empty tomb meant that someone had stolen the body. In her grief, Mary lingered there, a place of connection to her master. A barren, lifeless connection...that would be life withou...

After Jesus was killed, can you imagine how his friends felt? This man that they travelled with, who taught them, who knew them, who they loved...this man who worked miracles when he healed sick bodies and freed possessed minds and fed starved spirits...this man, their leader, was dead...vulnerable and frail in his humanity as even they are. Who was he really? Peter once said Jesus was the Christ, the one they had been waiting for who would free the people. But who did he free? They had watched from a safe distance as the authority beat him and then nailed his body to a cross where he slowly suffocated to death. They looked on his bruised and bloodied face. They felt the mocking taunts of the crowd toward Jesus shame them, also. Maybe they even heard a voice in their head mocking them, "You were so conned, you idiot! Better go hide before you are next!" And they took off, abandoning their friend, to save themselves by hiding from the authority and the crowd, lest they...

You know, it is Holy Thursday, and in this week I have been meditating on this cost of sin, my sin. It is sneaky and insidious. Long since laid aside, a temptation can be lurking in a glance, a smell, a whisper, a suspicion. I do not have to play with temptation. I can drive the other way, flee. I can seek help, but with "help," it is important to know that there is Truth in that help. I was flipping thru the channels tonight looking for background noise to fall asleep by when I paused on this show, not for how interesting or pretty, but because it was weird. These women are attracted to, describe themselves as being in love with, structures of wood, steel, glass...like buildings. Sure, there is the phallic connection which makes some sense, but the one woman who was practically licking the Empire State Building was just "out there," vacant, lost. Then it occurs to me: just because people share my perversions, be they sexual or simply idolatrous heart affai...

I am in love with this child. She is so adorable, a ball of goodness. So, the past week has been crazy. I have worked all 3 shifts in a 7 day period and now my sleep is all goofy. I stay up half the night and 5am comes too soon. I trudge thru the day, waiting to get home...only to become wide awake at 8pm and not tired until midnight. I have always valued my ability to be flexible, but this is quite enough. But this time of being off my routine, being off the routine of the world, has actually been somewhat restful to my spirit, even if it is draining to my body. I have spent quite a bit of time reading, and some has been catching up on my "daily" Bible reading. I am quite determined to finish this one year chronological Bible in one year. To help me delve a bit deeper, my dear hubby let me get a couple commentaries, on sale, to add to my collection of references. I am such a nerd! (I can admit it tho the original accusation came from a friend at work when I told her gleeful...

Just check out Jon's post .