Saturday, March 26, 2005

Easter buns!

Ok so today my dad was being really creative and found out a way to make easter buns into bizmarks - you know, those donuts with pudding in the middle. Originally I was going to cut open the easter bun and put lemon pudding in the middle and then put the top half back on (with icing on the top half, of course!) and then my dad comes up with this brillian idea of making a hole in the bun and then putting pudding in that way - oh it was so good! Yup he sure is creative, he used to make us these amazing birthday cakes when we were younger, I remember once my brother got a cake with snowmobiles on it (the snowmobiles were all made out of cake)! And then there was the time when he decided to surprise someone at work - so he made a birthday cake to look like a pool, except that there was actually a water balloon under all that yummy looking icing, and when his co-worker cut into the cake - oh wow, look at the spray of water! I think he was chased around the store with the cake knife after that!

Anyway, good Easter times, yesterday during church I was reminded of the fact that Jesus never asked us to understand all the pain He went through, but to remember His death and all that He has done for us. I had never really thought of that before, usually I would just try to imagine the pain and try to understand it - even though there is no way my human mind could possible understand what He went through when the Father turned his back on him. But to remember, yes Jesus, I will remember you and all that you have done for me. Thank you so much for your gift of life and for freedom, please help me to live in what you have already purchased for me, and to not go back to who I was and how I lived before I met you...

Sunday, March 13, 2005

Haggai

Ok so I really have not written in a very long time...oh well, I guess that's what happens when I have many exams that never seem to end - it's almost summer! That is one exciting thought, but then I was remembering that I still need to see the beauty of today, I still need to live in the present and enjoy today, since that is what I have been given. After all, if I just live dreaming about the future or longing for the past, then I never live in the present, and then I'm not really living. So thank you Jesus so much for this day that I have been given, please help me to make the most of it and enjoy it - yeah to take each day as it comes and not get stressed out about all the exams that are coming up next week...because when my exams are done and I look back on the days that I just lived through, I don't want to think oh wow those were such a waste, but now that my exams are over I can really start living - no I want to really start living now, in the middle of my exams and getting stressed out - learning to go to Jesus and let Him give me rest.

Yeah and I was reading in Genesis 21:19 where it says, "Then God opened Hagar's eyes, and she saw a well." This is at the time in Hagar's life when Abraham had sent her and her son Ishmael into the wilderness. Hagar did not have any water left to give Ishmael, so she had put him under a tree while she walked further away, since she did not want to watch him die of dehydration. And that's when God opened her eyes and she saw a well - I thought that was so crazy! The well could have been there the whole time and she could have just been walking around, oblivious to the very thing that brought renewed life to her and her son. So then I was thinking, what do I not see as I live my life everyday, is there something that I am looking for that is actually right there in front of me and I just don't see it? Jesus would you please open up my eyes to see the world the way you see it - I want to be your hands and feet.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Face to Face

So today as I was walking around the park and just thinking, once again, about Britt...I started wondering what it's like up there in heaven - I bet she's having a blast! And then I started wondering what the point of life here on earth is (a question that I keep coming back to when emotional events like this happen that make me question what my purpose is, events that make me realize what life is all about in the first place). My answer led me back to God, as it always does. For He is the reason I am on this earth right now at this time during history and that reason is to know Him and be in relationship with Him...to learn how to love as He does and to tell others about this awesome love relationship that they can have with Jesus. And He reminded me that right now Britt, Jordan and Jamie do know Him, they know Him so much more intimately now than they ever have before in their lives - they know Him face to face! Wow that's an awesome thought. And one day I too, will know Him face to face...

Oh Jesus I pray that through this many people would come to know you and even if they do already know you, that this situation would cause them to question the frailty of life and to really make you their first love. I pray that you would draw people to yourself through this and that your name would be glorified in everything that happens - may we be able to celebrate their lives and to cherish the lives of those still around us. Jesus would you lead us in the way everlasting.

1 Corinthians 13:12
Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.