2009 is over

My yoke has been easy and my burden has been light.

I’ve been reading blogs today and over and over I’ve seen statements to the effect “Thank the Lord this year is over” “Thank the Lord for bringing me through this year.” Some of them were even gloomier than that. “This has been a terrible year. I’m glad it’s over.” “I’m looking forward to the New Year because maybe I can forget all the bad things that happened.”

I have to say that I’ve never had any of these feelings with the coming new year. I’ve had some times in my life when people told me in retrospect, “How did you ever stand that! How did you get through that!” Or they've said, "Oh you poor thing!" But I suppose I’m pretty dense because I never realized that I was having a hard time!

When my dad died, I inherited a piece of property that the state took as part of the new freeway. They offered me a token amount of money for the ‘right-of-way.” The portion they took was only about a half an acre and I suppose the small amount they offered was fair for the amount of land; however the piece of land they appropriated was the only access to the remaining acreage. I was left with a piece of land I could not use. I refused their offer and we went to court.

In his concluding remarks my attorney told the judge (and I’ll condense it. He did a much more heart rending presentation) He said, “Here is this widow. She lost her husband and was left with two young children. A month later she lost her mother. Because of her financial circumstances she was forced to live with her father who in the course of time also passed away. She has raised her two children without any aide from the state. She has never applied for food stamps. She has never asked for ADC. She has never asked for medical assistance. She has worked and supported both herself and the children and is now struggling alone. And she is still not asking for help. All she is asking is a fair reimbursement for the land that the state of Ohio has made useless to her.”

I sat there at the plaintiff’s table and thought “Oh my goodness, that poor woman!" And then I thought “Gracious! He’s talking about ME”

What he was saying was the absolute truth, but I had never realized my situation. I believed and still believe implicitly in the scripture, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Because God has proven Himself to me over and over. He has given me rest to my soul. He has carried my burdens. He has lifted worry from my mind. He has supplied all my needs at the exact moment when I needed them. In every trial He has made a way of escape.

When I hear about some events in my life from someone else’s point of view I’m sometimes surprised to realize that they are talking about me. So many things have happened that others have sympathized over and I’ve felt a little bit like I’m accepting their compassion under false pretenses. Those events have indeed been occasions in my life, but I’ve never felt the weight of them. I’ve never had reason to sit and bemoan my fate in life. I’ve never worried at my lack of medical insurance for either myself or my children. I’ve had to explain my circumstances a lot of times, but I’ve never felt that there was any reason to moan about them. I’ve never had reason to feel sorry for myself because through my entire life the Lord has carried the weight. All the high places have been brought low and the low places raised and He has made my path smooth before me. He is a fantastic Lord.

I don’t understand those folks who are always crying about how hard they have it or how difficult their circumstances are, because my Lord has never left me alone or helpless in a hard place. He has never left me feeling bereft. Maybe part of the reason is that I’ve never asked for more than I needed and He has always supplied my needs every day. Sometimes I didn’t get a prayer answered immediately but the need was always supplied. He has never left me ‘in the lurch’

There have been times when people have disappointed me. There have been times when ‘good Christians” have let me down. There have been times when even preachers have shocked me with their lack of compassion. But God has never failed me.

I’ve never had occasion to say, “Whew! Thank goodness this awful year is over” He has carried the burden and lifted me up at the same time. He did it so faithfully and lovingly that I never realized the hard places. “I found it so! I found it so!’ Only in looking back when someone pointed it out to me did I realize that maybe those times were hard, but they were blessed by His protecting Hand.

So as the year ends, I want to praise the Lord because He is my Lord. He is my helper, my conforter. He guides me and keeps me. He is always there picking up the greater part of the burden and smoothing the hard places. I praise him because I need not look back on this year with regret or sorrow. I praise Him because there is nothing behind me to be sorry for and there is nothing ahead to fear. How wonderful! Thank you, Lord!

I’ve found my Lord and He is mine,
He won me by His love;
I’ll serve Him all my years of time,
And dwell with Him above.
Refrain:
His yoke is easy, His burden is light,
I’ve found it so, I’ve found it so;
His service is my sweetest delight,
His blessings ever flow.

No other Lord but Christ I know,
I walk with Him alone;
His streams of love forever flow,
Within my heart His throne.

He’s dearer to my heart than life,
He found me lost in sin;
He calmed the sea of inward strife,
And bade me come to Him.

My flesh recoiled before the cross,
And Satan whispered there,
“Thy gain will not repay the loss,
His yoke is hard to bear.”

I’ve tried the road of sin and found,
Its prospects all deceive;
I’ve proved the Lord, and joys abound,
More than I could believe

little dogs

I’ve talked about Gabriel when he took his little jaunt around the neighborhood and got returned by the Westerville police. I think I’ve mentioned Sebastian, his littermate. Over the holidays I got them little jackets. Toy fox terriers are tough little dogs. In fact they think they are tougher than they really are. But the winter weather cuts into them quickly. Their hair is short and those little legs are more slender than many people’s fingers. So they do get cold.

Sebastian has keyed in on the idea that if we think he is cold we let him back in quicker so he learned to pretend he is cold, even in 80 degree weather. If he wants in and we happen to look at him he puts his ears back low and hunkers down shivering…. lol Gable doesn’t say he is cold until he really is and if he is acting cold I know it is freezing out.

They still love to go outside and tear around, but I can always tell when it is too chilly for them. On those days they zip out and take care of their business and come right back. The other morning I put them out without realizing how cold it was and they did just that. I felt guilty. A couple hours later when it was time to go out again I put their coats on them. NOW they were set. They whipped out there and told the neighborhood where to get off! No running right back then. They had their coats on and were tougher than the weather!

At any rate, I wanted everyone who is interested to see their macho-jackets.

navajo tacos

A long time ago we began a tradition in our house. Instead of the traditional turkey, ham or goose (we had that when I was a child) for Christmas dinner, we began to have Mexican food-- tacos, enchiladas, tamale pie, sopapillas, tortilla soup not to mention a pile of tortillas. We made it all from scratch except the corn tortillas. I never learned to make those so we resort to the plastic bag packages.

I remember one of my son's friends and his girlfriend joined us one year. The girl stood watching me as I made tortillas. She asked in amazement, “Can you make those? I thought you had to buy them.” And the enchiladas were even more amazing. “Don’t you ever get them in a can?”

Yesterday, Rachael and I made a modified version of our old meal. We had Navajo tacos, enchiladas and roasted green chilis. The enchiladas were simple enough and anyone who has ever had Mexican food knows what they are. The Navajo tacos were a major production but soooo worth it .

The first time I ever ate Navajo tacos they were made by a navajo cook in a little restaurant over toward Fort Defiance. A Navajo taco is built on a piece of Navajo fry bread instead of the usual tortilla. And you don’t wrap the innards in the bread the way taco bell does. You lay the big slice of frybread flat on the plate and heap everything else on top. The very first one set the standard for Navajo tacos as far as I was concerned. It used slivered mutton and pinto beans fried together with onions, and chopped green chilis with a light tomato sauce. A generous couple spoonfuls of this was heaped on a plate sized piece of frybread. On top of that was a layer of shredded cheese and then lettuce and then chopped tomatoes! A big dollop of sour cream finished it off with salsa around the center. Navajo tacos arent really as manageable as a plain old taco. You eat them with a knife and fork if you don't want a mess. Mmmm.

In consideration of anglo tastes, most Navajo tacos you get around dineh country have switched to hamburger. And our Navajo tacos, because we can’t get decent mutton in Ohio, have beef too. We use a nice roast sliced into thin strips.

Yesterday when Rachael went to get the roast from the freezer to begin slicing it, there was NO beef! Either it had not ever come home from the grocery store or she just plain hadn’t gotten it. The essence of Navajo cooking is practicality. Navajo women have fed their families from what ever was available for hundreds of years. We had a nice pork roast so our Navojo tacos were made of pork and pinto beans, two steps removed from the good old mutton. Pretty good, but I still like mutton better.

I saved my carbs again. So I was able to eat the taco and the enchiladas. My glucose reading this morning was only 108. Yay!

(Good grief! Looks like this has become a food blog! Well, at least it isn't boring food.)

Mmmmm.. chicken and dumplings

Somewhere Michael got the idea he wanted chicken and dumplings. I have no idea where he even heard of it. He asked Rachael if she knew how to make them and she humphed. Rachael doesn’t believe in anything that takes more than twenty minutes to prepare. She especially doesn’t like two or three stage recipes. She does menu items that require quick easy steps. One, two, three, done - with each step requiring a corresponding number of minutes. I don’t blame her. She works all day and then comes home and fixes dinner. Nobody feels like working another hour and a half to get dinner. The good thing is that she doesn’t have hungry kids fussing to eat. Michael and I don’t care too much when we get around to eating. Often we don’t have supper until seven or after.

Hence. When Michael asked for chicken and dumplings it didn’t meet with a lot of enthusiasm on her part. The immediate response was, “Mom knows how to make them." So a little while ago I cleaned and cut up a chicken to put on for stewing. It is sending good smells all over the house right now and it still has to cook a while. I’m gonna be the World’s Number One Mother-in-law when Michael comes in the door and smells that!

I learned to make dumplings when I was really young. Dumplings are a good source of energy for poor hard working people. My grandma raised 13 kids on a poor farm in southern Ohio on the river. There were ten boys and grandpa believed in making them work. Grandma had to supply the energy for that. Dumplings are loaded with carbohydrates - a great source of energy. She could take stewed fruit or vegetables or meat and drop dumplings in to stretch them and add needed calories. She could stew one old hen that had quit laying and use the broth and shredded meat to feed the whole crew. It might not be good dietary consideration today, but in the early 1900’s it was a god-send for mothers of hungry, growing kids.

When I was little we were definitely better off financially that Grandma and Grandpa, but the thrifty measures learned in childhood stood my mother in good stead. Her favorite recipes were chicken and dumplings or peas and dumplings. And before you turn your nose up at peas and dumplings let me say you are missing a good meal. Take a couple cans of peas, juice and all. Heat them up in a good sized kettle, add a little chicken broth or milk or even water in a pinch with some additional salt and a good dollop of butter. Then when it boils carefully drop dumplings, either by teaspoonfuls or cut into squares, into the boiling liquid. Good stuff.

Okay, gotta go check my chicken.

Chicken and dumplings is at best a two phase dish and if you want to get fussy it’s a three step. First you clean and stew your chicken. If it is an old hen it has to stew on low heat for at least an hour and a half, maybe more. You also need to chop celery and onions in the stew water to add flavor and vitamins, but if you leave the skin and fat attached to the chicken you don’t need to add anything else for flavor. Many recipes today call for added butter. That is only because the recipe also calls for canned broth and the butter is needed for flavor. ( I get really disgusted with ‘chicken broth’ in a can. It has NO flavor because people are so stupidly worried about fat. Okay, don’t eat tons. But fat is very necessary for good flavor) Make your own with a fat old chicken!

When you have stewed the chicken for about 90 minutes or more the meat should be removed and placed in a separate covered dish. While it is cooling, take the big chunks of celery and onions out of the broth. You can strain it if you want. I just use a slotted spoon and scoop out most of it. Or you can leave them in. I happen to think they are unattractive after they have stewed for an hour and a half - kind of like greenish and gray rags.

When the chicken is cooled it is time to pull it off the bones. (This is the step I skipped. I figure it is easy enough to do that while you’re eating it!) To be fancy though you really need to remove the bones and cartilage and fat from the chicken. Pull it all apart and keep the bones separate from the rest. Dump the fat and skin in the same dish with the limp vegetables you removed from the broth. Stir it all together and moosh it up. When you feed the dogs, there is just enough to put a couple big spoonfuls in each dish. (Well, you gotta have four dogs… but you get the idea) They love it and the vegetables provide fresh vitamins. Set the chicken aside till just before you serve the dumplings. The cats like it, too.

The third stage is the dumpling stage. The nice thing, I think, is that the first step and the last step can be widely separated. Once you have the broth and meat prepared you can stick it in the fridge for hours or even until the next day.

My Mom taught me to make dumplings. I’ve read some other recipes that were chiefly flour and water, but I learned to use eggs and milk, flour and baking powder. Oh yes, a little salt, too. You make a heavy dough, slightly softer than cookie dough. It makes the best dumplings ever and takes about three minutes to stir up.

Bring the broth to a rolling boil-and I do mean rolling. The broth has to be boiling hard enough that you can drop the dumplings in without decreasing the heat. I’ve seen some people who roll out their dumpling dough and cut it into squares. That seems too much like noodles to me. Mom used a teaspoon and scooped a skimpy spoonful, cutting it against the side of the bowl. Wetting the spoon in the hot broth before you start makes the dumplings roll off smoothly when you dunk them in the broth. The dumplings will sink when you put them in, but soon pop to the top. When the dough is all gone, use a big spoon to gently fold them all under the hot broth once or twice, then carefully put the chicken back in the kettle. DON’T STIR. Fold carefully. You don’t want to break up the tender dumplings. It literally takes no more than ten minutes from start to finish when you make dumplings this way.

Mmmmm. I saved my carbs all day for this!! And it was worth it. We had chicken and dumplings, beets, peas and green olives. (Michael and I had the green olives. Rach doesn’t like them.) If you want you can put some vegetables in the broth and cook them just before you put the dumplings in. Peas, carrots, corn and green beans look especially pretty. Or you can serve vegetables on the side like we did.

And I was right. Michael did love them; so did Rach for that matter. She just didn’t want to make them.

(and you think you are having trouble accomplishing everything for YOUR Christmas!)

Two thousand years ago, as we reckon times and celebrations, Mary and Joseph would have been trekking long on the road to Bethlehem now. Sometimes when I begin to fret about times and places and appointments or things that need to happen or not happen in my puny time frame, I think about the vast amount of organization that had to take place for Jesus to be born when and where he was with all the accompanying complications.

First there was finding a virtuous woman, in the place where He needed her to be. Second there was finding an equally virtuous righteous man that He could trust to serve as the earthly father figure for the baby. He had to have both of them in a frame of mind that would allow Him to deal with them. He had to have them both dedicated to the point that they would see His Project through even in the face of public criticism regarding the woman’s pregnancy [Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:26-35;46-55; Matthew 1:18-25]

In conjunction with that, there was the support system that needed to be in place when the young woman discovered she was pregnant by the action of the Holy Spirit. She needed someone influential to ‘be on her side’ for the long months of a socially incorrect pregnancy. The same support system would also create the precursor of the coming of the Messiah. [Luke 1: 5-25; 36-45; 57-80]

Second, He had to get them to Bethlehem. How could He do that with two people who had probably never traveled five miles from the place where they were born. That all involved a ruler who had to be prompted to have the necessary concerns and issue the necessary decrees far enough ahead of time that everything could happen when it was supposed to. [Micah 5:2; Luke 2:1-6]

Then there were those wise men from the east hundreds of miles away. They had to be there at the right time. How to get them there might have been a problem. [Matthew 2:1-12] And the star! That star involved blowing up an entire sun uncountable billions of miles into space!

And after all that there was the problem of getting the Christ child out of town before the soldiers could kill him. [Matthew 2: 16-18; Jer31:10-17]

Talk about organization!! And never mind all those angels and heavenly messengers who had to be dispatched at the right time. [Luke 1:26; Luke 2:8-14; Matthew 2:13]

We breeze through the Christmas story without a thought regarding the vast scope of events that the Lord had to put in place far ahead of time for the Christ-child to be born. But for just a moment give some thought to all the things that had to line up precisely for the miracle of Christmas to come about. Of course, this is the same God who created the universe, but that didn’t involve dealing with human beings who always mess things up with their willfulness. Go back and read the references for each happening. Think about trying to organize that all yourself! And yet our Lord brought it all about so smoothly that we accept it without a second thought! Jeremiah observes, 17Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:. . . and God responds, 27Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:17 & 27

How can we worry about His Power to control our own little lives?

mary, did you know, could you ever imagine?

I recently listened again to the song, "Mary, Did You Know?" I think it rates on the same page as “Silent Night” and “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.” As always it struck a chord in my heart. I read an article someplace where the writer said 'I don't care what Mary thought or knew." He wanted to prove a point of some sort. I'm not sure what. But I believe that any woman who has ever held her first born child close in her arms and looked at the wonder of that tiny face and the delicate hands can relate directly to the thoughts that must have been going through Mary's mind as she 'kept all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:18-19)

What overwhelming wonder that God would reveal this Child's birth to shepherds in the fields with a heavenly chorus! What a tremendous awe must have surrounded her to know that she held the Son of God in her arms, smoothed His silken hair and kissed His rose-petal skin! What a sense of humility to feel the responsibility that God had entrusted to her !

How overwhelming! God sent His most precious Son, to bear the sins of the world. But He sent him as a Babe in a manger that He might grow up and live as a Man. So that he might be Our Example, in all points tested as we are yet be without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Take a minute to go watch the video: htp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1oHJR2g7Tw And think about the words: "Mary, Did you know. . . That your baby boy has walked where angels trod? And when you kiss your little boy You've kissed the face of God" It overwhelms me.

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Did you know
That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that youve delivered
Will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Did you know
That your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know
That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little boy
Youve kissed the face of god

Mary, did you know?
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
And the dead will live again
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the lamb

Mary, did you know
That your baby boy is lord of all creation?
Did you know
That your baby boy will one day rules the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy is heavens perfect lamb?
This sleeping child youre holding
Is the great I am
(Reba McEntire)

so how can there be peace?

To follow up on the thought from a couple days ago, about peace on earth. The angel said: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace. . . Luke 2:14 But the one thing we don't see is Peace, not any place on earth. Oh people talk a lot and they really do seem to try. But everyone has their own agenda to pursue.

All over the world there are well-meaning and earnest people who are trying to heal the brokenness of humankind. "Let's reconcile the blacks and the whites, the Jew and the Arab, the men and the women, the young and the old, the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor." The list of battlegrounds seems endless. Is reconciliation possible? Is peace possible?

So far it hasn't been by any human means. Paul lived in this world of conflict, but his vision and spiritual insight gave him the answer. In his letter to the Corinthians, he said: God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.... [He] hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19, 18). In the Ephesian letter he emphasizes the "In Christ" theme. Time after time he sounds this note.

Our harmony with the universe, our harmony with God's plan, and our harmony with the people around us, ALL depend upon our being "in Christ." "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace" (Eph. 2:13-16).

Can different cultures live in harmony? Can families? Can religious groups who worship the same God worship together? Can people who love God actually love each other? It's natural to believe that if everyone were more like us in thought and behavior that we could have peace in the world. Is this possible? Can races live in harmony? Only in Christ! Listen: "For through him [Christ] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Eph. 2:18). What a remarkable concept. Through Christ, the Son, we (now together) all by one Spirit to the Father may come together in harmony.

As Zacharias prophesied in Luke 1, Jesus came to guide our feet into the way of peace. But peace in our socio- political world will never be accomplished until and unless all mankind come to acknowledge the truth that He is our peace!

There is no other way to experience Peace on Earth.