Time

I have had this African violet for 3 or 4 years now.  It sat on my desk at the apartment, stretching its little leaves to gobble up the sunshine coming in from the windows on either side.  Then it made the move with us to the MBlakes, where it sits on a fabulously sunny ledge.  But it never blossomed.  Not even once.

Until a couple of months ago, when this little guy popped out.  And it's been blooming ever since.  I have three blossoms on it right now.  The weird thing is that nothing changed.  I'm not watering it any more or any less.  It's getting the same amount of sunlight that has for the past 9 months.  But here they are, nonetheless.

I feel like it's supposed to teach me something, my perseverant little African violent.  It reminds me of Arthur Burk's story about Psalm 1.  The psalm talks about a man who delights himself in the law of the L-rd, that "he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season."  The L-rd asked Arthur what the fruit-bearing season of a tree was.  It's a bit of a trick question, you see, because it depends entirely on what type of tree it is.  I think about this question.  I wonder what my fruit-bearing season will be.

It certainly isn't a fruit-bearing season right now.  It's the type of season that will be noticeable when the tree is cut and the rings are examined.  They'll recognize it by the signs of forest fires and lightning strikes.  Hard, trying times.  I know, I know.  These are the times that drive the roots deep.  Try telling that to the tree after the fire rages, when its bark is burnt and there are trees missing in its forest.

But still, my African violet blossoms are an arrow of hope.  When it seems that there is nothing, sometimes there is a miracle of life just beneath the surface.  And in His timing, Life can spring forth.  Come quickly, L-rd Yeshua.

Love to Eat

I love to feed people, and I love to eat. Maybe it runs in the family. Here is Eliana and her 18-month-old cousin, Cailin.

We had a really great time with the Blake side of the family, too.  (My excuse for posting so many pictures is that I have lots of old posts without any pictures.  I'm trying to balance it all out.)

Here are a couple of pictures of Eliana with her Cass.

We were reading a book together.  She loves reading.  Or at least the camera.

Some cuddle time on the porch with Grandma and Cass.

This was her first time in pigtails.  Now that I write it, that seems . . .unclean.  But how could something that cute be unclean?

And our trip down to the river.  She loves the cold water. 
She would have gone all the way in if I had let her.

On our first trip to the river, Eliana was at home taking a nap.
Check out that view.

The view at the river was amazing, but the path down to it was another story.  Steep, muddy, overgrown.
I did it the first day in flip flops.  Not too pretty.

On the second day I wore my Aqua Socks (I'm assuming that's a proper name).  Impressive, I know.  You thought Aqua Socks were a thing of the past.  They solved the mud issue, but they didn't keep me from falling into the river.  There's a video of my mishap, but it doesn't seem to do it justice.  I didn't get washed downstream, exactly, but I got plenty wet.  The rescue involved a large tree limb and Big Cass' leg.
This picture, which you might recognize from Leah's blog, was taken just moments after my river escapade.

A few more pictures from our time with Eric's family

(Create your own caption here.) 

Sportin' the shades on Pikes Peak 

Each family took an evening and provided dinner.  I planned to grill Greek burgers and asparagus, but it was Eric and Brigitte who braved the rain.

Watching the hummingbirds with Opa

A friendly little game of Catan.

Eliana loves the water. Even icy cold water.

 Eric and Brigitte

I have to post, because the pictures are piling up. I'm sure there will be more to come.

Our trip out West started with a stop in Hays to see our friends Daron and Heather.  The hospitality was amazing, and the fellowship was even better.  We always love spending time with them.  Our journeys are very parallel, even though the details are different. I forgot to take a picture of Eliana with their three little ones, but hopefully we'll get a picture when they come our direction in October.

On our way down from one of the Green Mountain Falls

After Hays, we headed to Green Mountain Falls, just outside of Colorado Springs.  We had a great time with Eric's family, including his great aunt, Brigitte.  We did the big attractions, like Cave of the Winds and Pikes Peak.  We also hiked to three waterfalls, two of which you can walk to from Ruble and Brandi's house.  The best times were just hanging out, cooking dinner for each other and asking Brigitte questions about her life in Germany growing up.

Adams Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park
She's so happy to be visiting her first national park

On top of her first 14er

Cuddling on the trail

After GMF (as they affectionately and sometimes confusingly refer to it), the whole family drove up to Granby for the wedding of a longtime family friend.  The groom is Spanish, so we had fun with the cultural and linguistic opportunities.  Eric struck up some conversations about Andres Iniesta and the World Cup, while I was roped into translating for my very ornery father-in-law.

The Simon family
(minus Ruble, who is playing horseshoes, and including the much loved aunt, Brigitte)

Dancing with Uncle Ruble

Sleeping in Nana's arms

The reception

The Blood of Twilight

A note to my friends: If you’re a Twilight fan and I haven’t talked to you about the issues with Twilight in person, I apologize. Hopefully you’ll hear my heart as you read.

While there are all kinds of problems with the Twilight series, the one that makes me want to pull out my hair, or at least a sturdy soapbox, is the issue of blood. Twilight's vampire is good, I'm told, because he suppresses his urges and only sucks the blood of animals. “It's like eating tofu,” they say. “You’re never really full.” It’s a catchy comparison, but it doesn’t override a foundational, Biblical truth – the blood belongs to the L-rd.

I realize that blood is practically a non-issue in contemporary faith. Every now and again it shows up in a worship song, perhaps around Easter, but it carries only a vague, esoteric meaning. And we have no idea what we’re missing. To paraphrase Dr. Moseley, what’s missing in the Church today is the stench of blood from the sacrifices required by our sinful lives. But that’s for another discussion.

The blood is foundational because the L-rd set it up that way in Torah. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement." (Lev. 17:11)

The life is in the blood, and all life comes from Him, the Giver of Life. The blood provided the atonement because of its connection to the life. And if the blood is all about atonement, then the real connection between blood and twilight is not vampires.

"You shall keep it [the Passover lamb] until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." (Ex. 12:6-7)

Twilight's glorification of vampiric life is an affront to the holy requirements of G-d and to the sacrifice of His Son, our Passover Lamb. The enemy is trying to claim the blood for himself, for the blood is an instrument of worship. He doesn’t care whether Twilight’s readers realize its powerful significance; their ignorance is his bliss. But ignorance cannot be our excuse. Our very covenant with G-d depends on the blood – Messiah’s blood.

Eliana has a lot of great people in her life to learn from.  For instance, in the midst of trying to find a sippy cup or bottle that Eliana would use without crying, we learned from her Aunt Brandi that it's possible for babies to drink from the bite valve of a Camelbak.

From her cousin Cass, we learned that Camelbak makes special bottles just for kids. Here's Eliana's.  She doesn't know it yet, but someday she'll be so excited that she has a bottle like Cass'.

Cass also taught us about the special button, which helps little fingers pop the straw open.  Eliana isn't there yet, but when she is, Cass will make a great teacher.

Her papa didn't really contribute to her water bottle, but he sure helped with her good looks.  Here's Eric at 9 months.

And the screaming?  Well, we're not sure where she gets the screaming.  It might be an Eliana original.  Here's a very tame version.