Pumpkins.

"Only the knife knows what goes on in the heart of a pumpkin." Simone Schwarz~Bart

We are harvesting pumpkins.

Lots & lots of pumpkins. Yum.

What I learnt...

A Passover service is called a Seder, which means a *set order*. Within that order there is room for much variety. The Haggadah gives directions for the Seder & Seders vary from family to family. ~ from my Haggadah Easter Monday. All my girls were home again. Liddy was pretty tired but enjoyed her Easterfest. We had one or two phone calls while she was gone: to whinge about how cold Toowoomba is [& aren't you so glad I told you to pack warm?!!]; so Ditz could listen to Superchick live [how peculiar's that?]; to let us know she'd arrived safe & to let us know she was on her way home.

Danielle was here to meet her & share, finally, our Seder.

We dragged a table in off the verandah because Dearest nabbed the dining room table years ago & we haven't seen it since. Eating on the verandah might have been nice but it is getting cool & all the rain has the mozzies out in absolute hordes.

I learnt doing a small Seder sort of defeats the purpose. It is meant to be a big celebration of family & friends ~ but we worked with what we had & next time I will plan differently. As I'll know what I'm doing we'll do more of a celebratory meal but this time I kept it really, really simple. I learnt I have no idea how to roast an egg in the oven. You wouldn't believe what I did or what happened to the egg! I learnt my hands on kinesthetic learner got so much out of all the symbols ~ the white candles for Elijah & Moses; the bitter herbs, the harosh, the afikomen. Ditz was rolling her eyes a bit but she's a very different sort of a learner & I'm sure absorbs that sort of thing through the pores of her skin, rather like I do.

I wish Dearest was well & could lead. It would be nice not to have to do it for a change, but Dearest relies on me to get these things together. Next time I will break it differently; plan some games or quizzes in between things ~ work on getting Dearest to do at least some of the leading. Having done it once Dearest had some input on how to make it flow better ~ & jolly good advice too. I work totally from my head space & that's not always terribly practical. He's a hands on man.

I learnt no matter your learning style the Seder is designed so that you remember the story. I learnt I was right about at least one thing: it wasn't perfect, & a bit of a mish~mash in places because I had no idea what I was doing really, but it hasn't mattered. My mind keeps returning to the symbols used & I find myself meditating on how amazing our God is because Easter is a completely seamless fit into Passover. I am reminded that we, the Gentiles, are grafted into the root & branch of Judaism, not Judaism into Christianity. Passover flows into the festival of the first fruits [more symbolism; Liddy was charmed] & we move inexorably towards Shavuot [Pentecost]. Interesting.

After all the seriousness the girls needed to let of steam. There's nothing wrong with them really...

The traditional ending for the Seder is, "This year here, Next year in Jerusalem." I find that interesting too. The fourth cup, the cup of the kingdom, is the one Jesus deferred. He will not drink it until we join Him in the new Jerusalem in the Kingdom of God. Indeed, Next year in Jerusalem!

Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause most inconvenience. Pam Brown.After our weekend I'm pretty sure Dearest is considering bottling the kittens.
Remember all those boxes that arrived? The kittens found a use for them. Not all of them were quite empty...

& the kittens were absolutely determined to be really helpful & not miss one ounce of the fun as we desperately emptied, sorted & repacked.

Now you know how we spent our Easter. Don't you wish it was this much fun at your house too?!

Yeshua HaNazari VeMeleh HaYudahim.

YHVH

[the sacred name of God]

Translated as Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.

Christ has died. Christ has risen

Christ will come again.

The more one looks, the more one sees.

"Now my heart is troubled, & what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name." John 12: 27 & 28
How does one keep the festivals vibrant & alive in one's life?


I was raised in a liturgical Church. The celebrations came round with regular monotony but they meant very little: a long boring hour in church where the same words were repeated in a mindless drone; the same prayers; the same scripture readings. I was grown up before it actually occurred to me we were celebrating something that actually happened. Now I believed what I was taught was *real* but somehow its immediacy was lost on me. Ever since I have been working my way backwards to the place from which I should have started.


And where should I have started? I should have started with the simple fact that Jesus was an orthodox, practising Jew. This is important because so much of what happens in the new testament is a direct result of Jesus Jewishness. Take Easter. What was Jesus doing in Jerusalem? He was going into town to celebrate the very Jewish festival of Passover as commanded by God. Even today Jews remember how God brought them out of the bondage of Egypt into the Promised Land. On the night of their final release they painted the lintels of their doors & windows with the blood of a sacrificed lamb & the angel of death passed over them & God did not destroy the firstborn of the Jews as he did the unbelieving Egyptians.


Passover has been celebrated continuously for 3 500 years, old even in Jesus' day. It falls in the first month of the sacred calender year & is foundational to all the other festivals. Thus it is foundational to our beliefs too. Look at the symbolism & how the old testament reflects into the new!


Jesus is the firstborn of His father. [The latter part of this festival is the festival of the firstfruits so there is further symbolism to come.] For our sakes He becomes the Passover lamb. It is in this context that Jesus begins His journey to the cross.


When Jesus comes into Jerusalem a room has been pre~prepared for him. It would have been swept & scrubbed to within an inch of its life, searched for yeast [symbolic of sin] & left ready for the Seder. Luke tells us that Peter & John, those two great rocks of the faith, were sent to prepare the Seder. Just before sunset 2 white candles would be lit, representing the law & the prophets; Jesus is the fulfillment of both.


During the Seder one cup per person is filled four times with either wine or grape juice: Once because I am the Lord your God, & I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. Once because I will free you from being slaves to them; once because I will redeem you & lastly because I will take you as my own people, & I will be your God. An extra cup is set at the table in the hope that this year Elijah will come because Elijah's coming was to foretell the great & dreadful day of the Lord.


Jerusalem housed the Temple. Jesus was very familiar with the temple, as were His disciples so would have been keenly sensitive to the symbolism within the Seder. There were 15 steps from the temple courtyard to the temple itself, each step designed to bring a worshipper closer to God. Just so there are 15 steps in a Seder. 1. Blessing the service 2. washing the hands 3. Parsley [usually] is dipped in salt water & eaten symbolising the bitterness of slavery4. one of 3 matzohs on the table is broken 5. Telling the passover story 6. Washing the hands 7. Blessing over the grains used in a meal 8. Blessing the unleavened bread 9. bitter herbs are eaten in remembrance of the bitterness of slavery 10. combining the Seder symbols {often as a "sandwich"] 11. serving the meal 12. sharing the afikomen 13. blessing after the meal 14. Praises 15. concluding the service. Throughout the meal a Seder plate would have been prominently displayed with the Passover symbols: shank bone [for the passover lamb], bitter herbs, a green vegetable, haroset, a roasted egg.


This then is how Jesus would have spent his final hours, remembering & celebrating the goodness & faithfulness of God before going out into the spring night to seek sanctuary on the Mount of Olives & pray one last time that if it were at all possible this cup would pass from him. Even so he assented to the Father's will, humbling himself even unto death.


That is the bare bones of the facts. As one unravels layer upon layer of symbolism the depth & breadth of God's love, planned for from the beginning of the world, becomes more & more apparent. The more one looks, the more God reveals of His purpose & plan. The more one looks the more one sees how consistent scripture is from beginning to end. I look forward to the fulfillment of the Passover meal in Heaven when Jesus will celebrate with us. Come, Lord Jesus; come.

What the Garden Gnome said.

Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else? Betsy Canas Garmon

It's like this. The water just keeps coming. Depending where you read, between 65 & 70% of Queensland is now under water. That's a huge amount of land whichever way you try. It has rained on & off for months on end so our newly married friends have been rejoicing as they plant their garden. Silly me looked on their labours, cocked a knowledgeable eye at our overcast skies & promised to go grubbing in our yard for unwanted seedlings that have sprouted in quite formidable amounts. Free plants, dontcha know, & while nothing is exactly exotic it is all beautiful & generally of the smelly variety because I love a scented garden.

There was just one little hitch to all this. I have become unaccountably clumsy & have fallen on the same shoulder 3 times in just 10 days so the thought of wielding a mattock in my garden didn't exactly thrill me. I've been nursing my shoulder like a frail invalid prone to cark it at any moment. I comforted myself with the foreknowledge that it has been raining on & off for weeks on end & that even my soil was going to be beautifully soft & malleable. So thinking I armed myself with the mattock & went to investigate.

I have, in glorious profusion & seeding like weeds, Tropical Frangipanis. I have a wonderful Poinciana with a deep & fiery red flower, nicely shaped for a beautiful spreading canopy. Not a washed out red. Not a redy~orange but a deep, vibrant ,luxurious red. I have Moriah with it's delicious heady scent & year long profusion of white flowers in little thickets all over. Plants to delight any true gardener's very soul.

I hefted my mattock gingerly because the white ants found it & had a good old chomp on the handle so even though I have re secured the handle one never trusts a white ant infestation. I positioned myself so as to cushion my shoulder & took a tentative swing at my soil ~ & the mattock bounced right back at me! I stared at the ground in disbelief. All that rain & our awful combo of ironstone & clay is as rock solid as a cement slab! A 10 minute job quickly turned into a half hour struggle to grub roots free.

Our skies are still overcast but no rain is falling. I want it to. I have things to move before the root system is too big & that means solid drenching rain that will give me some chance against the clay. Meanwhile, while I wait for the skies to open & the rain to fall, our little G.P.O rang. They wanted me to come collect. Thankfully Liddy had the car so they had to deliver but Ditz & I had to lug all this into the house. Dearest is getting serious about his stamps but ladies, commiserate with me. That's my living room he's taken over & I loathe living in a muddle!

"

Thunks...what happens when thinks hit a brick wall.

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking. Goethe.

I am thinking about Easter, from Eostre, European Goddess of fertility, hence those very fertile bunny rabbits. I'm not sure how we will celebrate this year. I would like to do a Seder as we will have no worship service unless I hoy it down to the Catholic service on Saturday ~ only I really dislike the Catholic obsession with Christ's death & suffering &, for little protestant me, lack of emphasis on His resurrection. Issues; I have issues.

However it will just be Dearest, Ditz & I. Liddy is heading west to Easterfest. It would probably be best to wait & celebrate all together as a family on Monday. Dare I skip the eggs? No~one here likes milk chocolate & getting dark eggs is nearly always impossible. I loathe & abhor the commercialism ~ oh, & the fact yet another pagan festival got tacked onto a basically Jewish festival which was absconded with by Christians who had no understanding of the Jewish festival of Passover & failed to see the significance of so much that took place..

Worse, when one really starts looking there is so much to this celebration that is almost always overlooked & which, for me, is absolutely fascinating. Worth a post of its own. At some point, do you think, I might manage all my thinks into an intergrated whole that makes sense to someone besides me? For starters this marks the beginning of the Jewish sacred calendar. Something to think on, yes? Interesting choice. Meanwhile Ditz's new maths has arrived...gotta go check my armour's in place.

Can you explain this?

'Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.' Proverbs 16: 24

I initially put up my blog, Out of the Silence, for a friend who was interested in what I had to say. I left it up because it gets an incredible amount of hits ~ far more than here gets, so I figure people are reading there BUT, no~one ever comments [bar 2 & you know who you are]. Why? Am I so off the planet? Is it an issue with women speaking on spiritual matters? Do people just not know what to say? I adore civil discussion about the things I love or extra information on a subject so I would love the feedback. Instead I get this deafening silence. Guess the bog is well named indeed.

Lessons from my cats.

Security is not the absence of danger, but the presence of God, no matter what the danger.

It's true; we spoil our cats. Since the kittens arrived we have contrived it so as they have never been left alone in the house. There has always been someone here to pet & cuddle them, to assure them food will arrive when they are hungry, that the litter trays will be cleaned, the water bowls filled on schedule. We understand their biggest need has not been for food or water or clean litter; it is for security.

This is a busy household with lots of coming & going & different people in & out nearly all the time. For the smallest ones in the house it is bewildering. Does this person belong? What does it mean for me? Can I trust them? Will they love me? Will they get angry if I steal that choice bit of unguarded chicken off their plate? If I'm naughty will I be sent away? Is this my forever home?

We have worked really hard to keep things on a regular schedule & an even keel because although we were pleasantly surprised at how quickly they adjusted to our home & its people we sensed a deep~seated insecurity in them. The least upset & they would scuttle into a dim, dark corner that required much coaxing & special tid~bits to lure them from. Their need for comfort & assurance was deep & constant. Not that anyone here minds cuddling a purring kitten but we wanted them to be happy & an state of constant anxiety is not conducive to a tranquil soul.

Then on Sunday it happened. Sunday we were fellowshipping at a friend's house. The kittens were given the run of the house but they were left to fend for themselves. I gave them a big feed thinking they'd sleep for the hours we were gone ~ & they did ~ but when we got home Marlow was miffed & wouldn't talk to anyone; Kirby lapped the room from person to person requiring from each much cuddling & reassurance.

Watching the kittens learn to trust: that if we go we will come back; that no matter who comes & who goes food & water are doled out to them; that this is their home & their place in it is secure but it got me thinking how like the kittens we are in our relationship with God, constantly needing assurance that we are loved, our needs will be taken care of, that we are important enough to somebody we can risk our love. Now if I, who am frail & humanly weak & really dislike cleaning litter trays, can set aside my own desires long enough to nourish a small kitten's needs, how much more is my Heavenly Father willing to nourish me? I do not need to be constantly mewling about His feet, tripping Him up, thwarting His work, demanding His attention to satisfy my need for assurance. Nope. I can curl up at his feet in peace & purr contentedly because no matter what storms buffet about me God is my rock & my fortress & I have all the security I need.

One pie to go.

" You name the pie & we do it. They are all made from scratch." Randy Ferreira

Home Ec ~ puts inches on the waist~line. I wanted Ditz to try her hand at pastry ~ not bad but a little too thick. Need to remind her to roll it thinner next time. Caramel filling ~ not from a tin. First time dealing with a makeshift double~boiler! Meringue ~ she makes a great pav so that bit was easy. End result: I'm not as young as I was & this was far too rich for far too late at night ~ even brought Ditz to a screaming halt. Pity we don't do mains as well as we do desserts ~ or that we couldn't live on dessert! Very yum though. Even the cat liked it. No, we don't feed leftover dessert to the cats but Kirby feels free to help himself to anything left unguarded on a plate...& that's one cat that definitely doesn't need a sugar hit!