How was Mary feeling?

Merry Christmas!

Time flies, because I didn't realize it had been a month since I had last blogged. I thought today seemed like a good day to head online, because unlike most people, I don't have a lot to do today. My husband works a lot of holidays, so they are usually relaxing and rather uneventful. For a homebody introvert like me, that is just fine.

But yesterday we did get to celebrate. We spent some time with friends whose family is like our second family away from home, for which are so thankful. Then I went to the Christmas Eve service at our church, which was so wonderful and refreshing.

I have to admit that this time of year, even as an adult, Christmas begins with thoughts of getting gifts. We were done Christmas shopping really early to get gifts to our families since we weren't going to be them over the holiday, but it still began with "What am I going to get everyone?"

So much of our holiday revolves around what we're getting. The tree doesn't look right until it has gifts underneath it. The kids aren't satisfied unless they get the right toy.

Gift giving is fun, and if we place it in context as a reminder for the greatest gift ever received --- Jesus --- then we're doing alright.

But I had a thought yesterday at church. The pastor was talking about how Jesus was revealed to the wise men, who were from afar, and God wants to draw people even that are far away. He said Jesus was revealed to the shepherds, who were the most lowly in society, because Jesus calls even the most lowly.

Jesus' identity was also revealed to his parents, Mary and Joseph. Think of how society looked on them --- they were an unmarried couple, pregnant, and so looked down upon that no one would even give up their room to a nine-month pregnant woman.

In today's society, the pregnant woman is given a good parking spot, a good seat, and people want to help make her comfortable.

Unless she is a member of the lowest part of society and looked down upon. Then people avert their eyes. And that's what Mary had to deal with.

Can you imagine her embarrassment about how people looked at her for nine months? She knew she didn't do wrong and had an amazing gift, but it still would have been so hard to have people laugh, snicker and shake their heads when they thought she wasn't looking ---- or maybe even to her face.

Then imagine her embarrassment when she couldn't even have her baby in a room. She knew she was carrying God's son, and yet she couldn't even find somewhere to have him. She had to have him in a stable and put him in a feed trough. Manger sounds so sweet today, but it was a feed trough.

If I knew that I had the responsibility of carrying and raising God's son and couldn't put him anywhere but a feed trough, I would be so ashamed. I would be embarrassed. I would probably even be angry that God couldn't give us a better place to be.

It must have been so hard at that moment, but when we look back, we see the nativity as a beautiful story that began that night. It is a story of God's son coming to earth, living a sinless life and then taking on our sin to die for us and rise again to defeat Satan and death for those who accept his gift.

So whatever you're going through right now --- it may seem extremely hard, embarrassing or like God shouldn't be putting you through it. But God works in ways that we can't understand, and it may be thousands of years before his purpose is revealed.

When you look at the nativity, think beyond the pretty star and the sweet baby. There was so much going on. And it was the start of even more.

Merry Christmas all.

And thank you Lord for coming.

Fasting for show

We have been going through the book of Mark in church, and today we are at chapter 2 verses 18-22.

John's disciples and the Pharisees are fasting while Jesus was feasting. There was really only one day that Jews were required to fast --- the Day of Atonement. Other fasts were voluntary to ask for help or forgiveness. However, fasts were added twice a week for some people to show how religious they were. It was not mandated anywhere in the Scripture.

They used these extra religious showings to show off, basically. It was for man, not for God. In Matthew, it was written to not look gloomy while fasting like the people who used it to show off rather than to worship.

Instead, fasting is supposed to be for God. A passage in Isaiah says that God loves people who are giving and who look out for the less fortunate rather than those who put up a show of fasting. Fasting itself does not even appear that important to God. Instead, he wants his people to be working in the world for the good of others, not to show off how righteous they were for themselves, for their gain.

Jesus gives two examples --- you can't sew a piece of unshrunk cloth on shrunk cloth, because the patch will shrink and separate, and you can't put wine in old wineskins or they will expand more and burst. He meant that the new gospel doesn't pair with old Jewish tradition. Jesus was bringing something new. He was bringing salvation through faith in him. The tradition of fasting was not going to save these men. They couldn't hang on to the old. They had to accept the new, accept Jesus.

Jesus is exclusive. Faith in him is the only way to be forgiven and saved.

A God that associates with sinners

This morning, our pastor talked about how Jesus was classified by his association with sinners. People looked down on the fact that he hung out with tax collectors, drunkards and people with ill reputations, but his response was that healthy people don't need a doctor, people who are sick do.

I am extremely thankful that Jesus loves and associates with sinners.

Unfortunately, this world is pretty messed up. Even the best of us fall down. We hurt people without realizing it, or intentionally when we feel like it. We lie. We swear. We are mean. We are crabby. We are sinful.

If Jesus didn't associate with sinners, this world would be a lost cause. We would have no hope. We would live the best we could and that would be it.

But Jesus does love sinners.

He loves us so much that he came into the world to reach us. He became a man, died on the cross and took on all the punishment for our sins and he rose from the dead to conquer Satan and death. If we just accept his gracious gift, we can overcome our sin and live an eternal, perfect life in heaven.

I read a comment on an Instagram post once about how morbid Christians are, that we live for another world that is not this one. That may seem crazy to people. However, when you think about how short this life is and how eternal death is, it makes sense. We live in a hope of a better place, a perfect place, a place that is how earth was designed to be before sin entered it.

I am thankful for hope beyond the grave. I am thankful for a God who so loves us sinners that he would extend the grace that we need to meet him. I am thankful for a God who not only associates with sinners but forgives them.

That's what I'm grateful for today.

How about you?

Kitchen experimentation

I am thankful for new recipes and for being blessed to live in a place where we can experiment with so many dishes in the kitchen.

There are plenty of people in the world who don't have enough money to eat and are thankful for a bowl of rice. There are cultures where people eat similar foods most of the time.

I love that we live in America and have so many cultural influences creating so many different and unique foods, and I also love that in the United States we have so many different climate regions that allow us to sample different foods.

This past week, I have tried a lot of new creations --- homemade croissants, In 'N Out copycat burgers, roasted garlic and caramelized onion bisque, Asian duck tacos, cream puffs and apple cinnamon walnut muffins.

I'll admit that some recipes have turned out better than others, but it is fun being able to try new things. I also have empanadas and papa rellanas on the meal list.

Tonight, I am attempting Parisian gnocchi.

It is actually made from the choux pastry, or pate choux, dough that makes eclairs and cream puffs. I have a traditional potato gnocchi recipe too, but it takes a long time, and I saw a woman make these little dumplings on the Food Network so I'm giving them a shot with some roasted brussel sprouts.

I'll let you know how they turn out!

Yay for long weekends

I am thankful for long weekends.

My husband and I get to spend evenings and weekends together probably less than half of the time. Our work schedules differ, and his constantly rotates, so we often miss out on spending time together. That's why we usually prioritize our time together when we our schedules do align.

This weekend, on a three-day weekend, we had three whole days off together.

I'm not sure the last time that happened. Honestly. It's probably been years other than our scheduled vacations.

And it was wonderful.

We had time to relax; we ran a couple of errands; we ate food; we watched football; we went to church together; we went to the gym.

And we smiled a lot.

Last night, we were going to Wal-Mart because we started wrapping Christmas presents and realized we were out of tape, and we talked about actually having time together.

"Is this how normal people live?" he asked me, smiling.

"I think so! Couples actually see it each!" I answered.

But you know what, a lot of couples don't prioritize their time together, because they are used to being together. One perk of having opposite schedules is that we put our time together above meetings and chores and we instead have fun.

So, I'm thankful for long weekends together, and I'm thankful for a husband I love spending time with.

A church that preaches from the Word

I am thankful for a church that preaches from the Bible.

There are a lot of churches, a lot of pastors, a lot of ways to listen to preaching. You can go to church, you can listen to podcasts, you can watch sermons on TV, you can listen to the radio. With technology, it's unending the ways that you can experience the Word of God in our country.

Yet, I think it is rare to actually hear the Word of God being taught. A message may start with a verse or two, but it often that turns into what we can learn from the verse, how the pastor interprets it, how it can be put into practice, what we're doing wrong.

That's not all bad, but I have seen many messages turn into opinion instead of staying true to what Scripture says.

When we moved here, we had to find a church that we would both like. Coming from a non-denominational background and a Catholic background, we knew it may be hard to find a place that meshed our expectations.

Our church though has drawn us because of its dedication to preaching the Word of God.

The pastor doesn't just pick a random Scripture, we study books of the Bible. We don't study just themes, but we go verse by verse. We don't just look at a verse and interpret in today's language, our pastors go back to the original text to figure out what the verse originally meant. Why did the author write it? What was the original intent?

I have learned so much since we started attending our church, and it has also changed the way that I read the Bible.

There is so much to the Word of God that we miss when we just race through it or glaze over while reading.

I'm thankful for a church that inspires me to learn more and delve deeper.

Weirdly thankful

I am thankful for yeast.

This is a weird one, but I absolutely love to bake, and I love to bake bread. It amazes me every time the way the dough comes together, and the yeast makes it rise. I love the feel of bread as the gluten activates during needing, and the smell of the yeast working.

Last night, I wanted to make cheeseburgers with a copycat In 'n Out burger sauce that I found on Pinterest and I realized that I was out of buns.

I didn't want to go to the store, and I had seen a couple of recipes for homemade hamburger buns, so I looked up "homemade hamburger buns" and found a 40-minute recipe.

In no time flat, I had whipped up the dough, kneaded it and made little balls, letting them rise for 10 minutes before going into the oven.

They turned out glorious.

Seriously, so good. So good in fact that I was going to take a picture of the burger but shoved it in my mouth before I remembered. And then I did that with the leftover burger I ate for lunch.

There is just something about leavened bread that makes you feel warm, cozy and satisfied.

I'm thankful we don't have to go through life with boring bread. I really am thankful for yeast.