She Laughs at the Days

Sometimes you are the reason your child is crying herself to sleep with loud and desperate sobbing. Sometimes instead of being the one to comfort and sooth her you give her 5 minutes to wail before ordering her to be quiet now so her siblings can fall asleep. Then you hear the quieter muffled sounds of the sister sharing her bed crying too. You sit in the other room, listening to every sound of grief, and woe, and you do not take it lightly, but you won't go in again. Instead you find a tangled string from a kite lying about and you start in the middle, trying to work your way out, to make sense of the knots and put it right again. So tired of coming into sing at bedtime, only to find the room torn apart and clothes still on the floor you told them, tonight after dinner, "If I come in to sing and your room isn't ready for sleeping, with everything put away and the floor picked up, we'll spend the singing time cleaning up instead and then you will go to bed without

We went to a Passover style Seder, a Catholic Easter Vigil Saturday night, and our own church's raucous mix of rock'n'roll and gospel choir celebration Sunday morning. All were beautiful, meaningful, and full of the creative energy that people devote to worshiping and honoring the God they all believe in. In moments like these I am always taken with fits of love for everyone, for all the different ways God made us and all the colorful and beautiful ways we find to express our love for him. It's confusing to me how many of these people can be so quick to violent disagreements with each other. We are the squabbling children of the same father. He loves us all. He seems willing to love us and give us his spirit on whatever antenna we put up. This is a good thing for all of us. I like it so much better when my children can work and play together without fighting and bickering. I suspect that our Father in heaven prefers the same. Maybe I think this because Jesus prayed,

Here are all of the Lent posts in one place. Introduction - On Lent Day 1 - Promise Day 2 - Baby in the River Day 3 - Holy Ground Day 4 - The God who IS Day 5 - "You've got the Wrong Guy" Day 6 - Who is Really in Charge? Day 7 - Passover Day 8 - A New Beginning Day 9 - Fear Day 10 - Don't Send us without Your Spirit Day 11 - Sacrifice Day 12 - Day of Atonement Day 13 - Festival of Trumpets Day 14 - Judges Day 15 - Kings Day 16 - Exile Day 17 - Hearts of Flesh Day 18 - God's Servant Day 19 - Return From Exile Day 20 - Trying So Hard Day 21 - The Maccabees Day 22 - The Silence is Broken Day 23 - God with Us Day 24 - Jesus is the New Exodus Day 25 - The First Temptation Day 26 - The Kingdom is Here Day 27 - Power Over Sin Day 28 - Power Over Sickness and Death Day 29 - More Harvesters Day 30 - Politics Day 31 - The Coming King Day 32 - Passover Revisited Day 33 - They Don't Want the Truth Day 34 - The Lamb of God Day 35 - The

Acts 1 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenl

When you are birthing babies some of the books tell you to think of all the other women in the world who are also in labor and to think of yourself as connected to them and working with them as you do the work of circling this baby down and moving him through the deep center of your body and out into the light. The think of yourself as part of this mighty chain of women, all grunting and groaning and straining with the work of life and it's euphoric. And you are not alone. You can trust that you will be able to do this because so many women before and now are doing it with you. I'm standing in my kitchen mixing flour and sugar and raisins. I tell the Boy that my whole life my mom made hot cross buns, and my grandma. There were always buns on Easter. I am making them at the last minute of course, because we are out of cereal and, oh right, it's Good Friday. That's when hot cross buns are eaten. Suddenly, as I am telling him of my mother, and my father's mother,

New meme, it's perfect for me. Easy to post, and communicates the week better than I could otherwise I think. Here you go. Pretty I sent gifts to the women in the villages and who staff the Charis Home with Aaron in March. Umbrellas wrapped in cloth handkerchiefs and hair elastics. Happy   I found this on my camera. Probably taken by a child. He loves his bouncer. Funny Surprise. It's the baby again. His sisters did his hair in the bath. Real This is a Christmas wreath, on my office closet door, because I haven't put it away yet. Yesterday is when I actually got the nativity and light put away and up on the closet shelf. Also, the picture is sideways. I was going to fix it but then thought, nah, real.

John 21 Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish 1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus ), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered. 6 He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then

John 20 Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").

  18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. 20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.' " 22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest truly meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pu

While mommy and daddy are on a conference call... There was a time when I was certain that if I could only get to where I am today I would be done with the struggle, and it would be easy. There is that place that we all want to get to, and in our fantasies that place is where life becomes easy. We don't have to struggle any more to figure things out. We are doing what we love so we don't have to search for motivation, and self discipline comes so easily because it lines up with our passion. It won't feel like work when it's something we love. The truth is a whole lot more messy and complicated than that, of course. Life constantly throws new challenges at us. We work and claw and scrape to get to the top of the hill, only to find that it's just a foothill, the first step in a mountain range and we have to scale that too. All that to say, life is hard. Anything worth doing is hard work. As Thomas Edison said, "Most people miss opportunities because they

Hebrews 6 13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. 16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner,

Luke 24 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8 Then they remembered his words. 9 When they came back from the tomb, they told a

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ""Eli, Eli," "lema" "sabachthani?"" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ). 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him." 50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy

I know I'm not the only woman who tries to keep to many plates spinning every single day. But lately there's always at least one falling. The answer, I would think, is to simplify, to eliminate at least a few of the plates. But I can't really find anything extraneous to cut. There are the kids, the baby who is about to crawl, just started eating solid food and peeing on his potty on occasion. I can't cut him. I don't want to either. He's the best part of the day, most days. There's the nine year old Boy with so much intelligence and talent and I'm his teacher. It's a good thing he likes to read because most days I just hand him a book and let him learn on his own. And he teaches himself his math lesson now and does his work. His voice and ear are excellent. I should be giving him voice lessons and vocal exercises. I should spend more time policing the piano practice. He'll thank me later, I know he will. The Girl is reading, right on the cusp

Jesus Before Pilate 27:11-26pp -- Mk 15:2-15; Lk 23:2,3,18-25; Jn 18:29-19:16 11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "You have said so," Jesus replied. 12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?" 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge--to the great amazement of the governor. 15 Now it was the governor's custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?" 1