Shana Tova - here's to a blessed new year.

It's Rosh HaShanah.... did you know? I thought I knew a fair bit about the holiday, but today as I was teaching about it in School one of my students asked me answered a question I should have asked :D

Rosh Ha Shanah, the new year, starts with the sound of the shofar - someone blows a ram's horn at sundown and the people are instructed to listen and then come together to pray. The holiday is supposed to remind us of creation when God called the world into existance. It's a time for celebration and reflection... time to repent and determine to live differently... better. I was thinking how similar it is to our own New Years Celebration. We often have a big party and blow noise makers and make noise to welcome in the new year... in my family we also took communion together, which also reminded me of their welcoming the Jewish New Year with prayer and repentance.

Rosh Ha Shana is also a time to look at God and worship Him as King.... now here's what I learned today as I was talking to my students about Rosh ha Shana. I asked, why do you think they blow the ram's horn, it was my youngest student that was eager to answer and explained. Well it's to remind us that Jesus is coming again!

I don't know why I never made this connection before. Of course, the Jewish holidays are ripe with Messianic prophecy, but I'd never thought about this as pointing to Christ's return. BUT the Creator of the world will return as King, He will come in glory and to the sound of trumpets.... ushering in a whole new age.

Kinda of a cool connection don't you think? I love when I learn something new about God and in an area I thought I was familiar with.

Shana Tova!! I pray God abundantly blesses you and keeps you from evil in this New Year!

The Garment of Praise for a Spirit of Heaviness

It's been a tough week - a very tough week emotionally, and as one that doesn't "do" emotional I am always surprised to find how physically draining it is. Anyway, this week it seemed like one thing after another was bombarding me (not just me of course but also those around me); sorrow over the loss of old friends which then also reminds me of past losses and past grief, job stress, illness, more job stress, someone trying to charge something to my credit card I had never authorized - also known as money worries... etc..etc.. all of it combined has kept me on the verge of tears... and yet, God gently bekons me to the crook of his arm, to be protected from this latest storm and to know comfort. This morning in church they sang "blessed your name", just as they did at the funeral on Wednesday. It reminded me of the horrible time when Faye passed away and I was sitting in airports trying to get home... and God kept asking me to praise Him and "Blesses Be Your Name" became my anthem. As I praised my understanding of His love for me grew. As I chose to offer a sacrifice of praise... the heaviness eased. I am constantly surprised that no matter what state my emotions are in, when I choose to praise God and focus on His attributes, there develops a deep and abiding peace. I don't know why I'm surprised, it's exactly what He says will happen, but it still surprises me. To steal from C.S. Lewis, I guess you could say, I'm "surprised by joy". How, when grief and hurt are still strong; can peace and contentment, love and hope also be dwelling in my heart? Tonight, my younger sister sent my mum to talk to me... it was nice. I am so used to just taking everything to God, and trying to shelter those I love from my own pain, that I can forget that they want to be a help and comfort. My mum, who has not had they easiest of weeks either, shared what God had given her at the beginning of all the trouble. So much like myself she quoted the verses, that I always remember from the old song....

He gives us beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

It's so true. I know it may sound strange... but I find there can be a certain poetic(?) beauty in grieving the loss of a friend, and I have experienced joy in the midst of mourning, and I can testify that Praise releases me from feelings of heaviness.

And so once again...

Blessed be His name when I'm found in the desert place, though I walk through the wilderness... blessed be His name.

And blessed be His name, when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's all that it should be, blessed be His name.

Life Cycle

I wrote a blog a couple years ago... I could probably write the same one word for word today... "Life Hidden in a Tent"... the particulars match almost exactly. A friend of the family for many Years (in fact since I was a baby), Bud Elford passed away a couple of days ago... the next day (yesterday) a friend gave birth to her first daughter, today another friend of the family, Lorraine Scott passed away...

it reminded me so much of 2 years ago that I thought I would post an excerpt from that blog as kind of a reminder of what God was teaching me then...

"A couple of days ago a friend from church had this lovely little baby girl, early... she'd come for a visit and we'd been talking to her ealier in the day, and that evening she delivered their daughter. What just amazes me every time is how the space of a day changes your life so drastically. Just that day, a man we have known since I was a baby passed away, his funeral was today. His life will never be the same. In a good way :D

One life, I have just met, she was hidden from view; although no less alive the day before birth than the day after. The other one has since left the tent/body he was dwelling in and is now more alive than he had been while here, although I can no longer see him he is in fact more alive today than he was the day before.Fascinating don't you think.At the funeral today, the pastor was talking about our body being a tent, it is imperfect, and it is only temporary. That instilled in me so much hope. I started thinking about all this mess with whatever is causing me pain - that obviously isn't my appendix! And I thought about all those little aches and pains you can feel (...after bowling, which we did last night) - and then about how quickly a body heals and how much it can stand up against. I got really excited (in this funeral, hahaha) to think that if this is the temporary body, the shelter not built to last. That although knit together by God in the womb, is not anything close to what he has been preparing for me in heaven. Well that's just incredible don't you think. Also, just as I was thinking about writing this blog, that verse came to mind (that I haven't looked up, and don't know off the top of my head where it is). Our life is hidden with Christ in God!! It reminded me how this baby was hidden. Her life was there but hidden... and the real living begins outside the womb. Right now my life is hidden with Christ in God. I am living, definitely - but this life compared to the one lived in heaven when I shed this "tent" (maybe almost like a womb)is not really living..."

That is what I need to remember today, as we say goodbye to these friends (for a time)... Their real living has just begun! What a comfort when the pain of missing loved ones threatens to close in. Someday we'll be reunited with those that went before us and enjoy a life more abundant that one could ever dream.

On a day like today...

Today

I remembered..

God is Good.. and He loves me very much.

I'm his little girl :D

*sigh*

I needed that

Just For Laughs - Demetri Martin

one for the ladies... Ladies.

The King of Voice Over

so long Don LaFontaine... "I'll miss your face."