Salty Zebra

  “Because of our God’s tender mercy, the dawn will break upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”   Luke 1:78-79 I love the imagery of God’s tender mercy breaking upon us like the dawn. When Jesus came the first time, He chose a subtle entrance into our world, coming in the form of a baby, born in obscurity in a stable ( Luke 2:7 ). The heavens couldn’t help but announce His coming, but they did it to shepherds in a field nearby ( Luke 2:8-14 ). Jesus’ second coming will be announce with trumpet blast, there will be nothing subtle about it ( 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 , Matthew 24:30-31 , Revelation 1:7 ). I can definitely see the subtleness of Jesus’ coming into my life as well. I didn’t have one of those Saul to Paul conversion stories where there’s a huge flash of light and a voice from heaven sets you straight. A friend of my son’s, Joshua Blahyi , did and it’s a fascinati...

  “John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.”   John 3:27 I have always struggled with an impulse, a desire for people pleasing. I want acceptance, I want to be liked. The things that have kept me up at night the most were when people didn’t like me. My daughter’s sisters’ adoptive parents didn’t like me. They hadn’t even met me, which didn’t comfort me at all. They decided that I was a bad person and their children couldn’t have anything to do with me or my family. For over a decade my daughter was disconnected from her sisters until, finally, they came of age where they could connect apart from their parents. I am so happy to report that today they enjoy an ever deepening relationship and they get to connect in person a couple of times a year, despite living on opposite sides of the country. Unfortunately though, I believe that being raised to believe that I was a bad person has poisoned them against me. I imagined joint s...

  “that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear,”   Luke 1:74 To catch you up in case you haven’t been with me the last couple of days, Zechariah and Elizabeth were a righteous, elderly couple who had been unable to have children. As Zechariah was serving in the temple, he was visited by an angel who prophesied that he and his wife would become pregnant, and their child would proclaim the coming of the Messiah. Zechariah doubted these words, somewhat understandable after a lifetime of disappointment, and in punishment the angel declared that he would lose the ability to speak until the baby was born. For nearly a year Zechariah was unable to speak. The likelihood is high that his wife was unable to read and write, so they would only be able to communicate through signs and gestures. I can only wonder what that must have been like for him. Surely it was very frustrating! To not be able to get your meaning and intention across clearly ...

“For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,”   Luke 1:69 Jesus is the Horn of our Salvation. That’s kind of a funny thing to say, but what does it mean? According to What is the horn of salvation? | GotQuestions.org , referring to Jesus as the horn of salvation paints many pictures. First, the horn is a, “literary symbol representing potency and power.” On bulls and rams, the horns were their protection. They would use them both to defend and attack. They were formidable tools that both animals and people learned to respect. Referring to Jesus as our “horn” describes Him as our protector, our defender, one who will stand up for us against the forces of evil. In Him we are never alone! In Old Testament times, horns were used both as a receptacle for oil and as a trumpet of sorts. Being anointed with oil was a symbol of being chosen or set apart for a purpose. Kings were anointed in this way. I see Jesus as our horn of salvation in th...

  I want to start out this post saying that I am not a complainer, and I went through all the proper channels to have my issue resolved before resorting to this. I am a HUGE NCL fan. I've been on ten cruises with them, and I have four more currently booked. That said, I am VERY disappointed in the experience I had with them this week and felt the need to post this PSA. Yesterday I was attempting to book a cruise that I have been wanting to take for a long time. It's a transatlantic from Miami to South Hampton, England. My husband encouraged me to take the cruise, even though I will be taking it by myself, more on that to follow in future posts. One of the main reasons I was booking it now was a Cruise Next Double Up promotion that was going on. Typically, you can only use one Cruise Next certificate on an inside stateroom, which was the category that I was wanting to book. On the current promotion, however, it allowed you to use two certificates on this type of stateroom. That ...

  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people.”   Luke 1:68 Not many people know this, but for a very long time, over a decade, I longed for another child. It was a deep and intense longing, one that never seemed to leave my mind. I couldn’t even walk past the baby department at Target without crying. I prayed, oh how I prayed! But in those prayers, whether I fully meant it or not, was the phrase, “Your will be done.” It was not God’s will to give me another baby. In the spring of 2016 I had to have a partial hysterectomy that sealed that option for good. Of course God is bigger than all that, but He hasn’t given me any indication that He has growing me a new uterus as part of His plan! I am so beyond blessed by my four children, and now their partners too. I have great relationships with them and enjoy every minute I get to spend with them. I am not lacking at all. In fact, in hindsight, I have no idea how I would hav...

  We just got back from a fabulous five-day trip to New Orleans. It was a bucket-list trip for me as I've always wanted to see the city/area and I wanted to do a special trip with each of my kids. This trip was with my daughter. I started the trip on a high as I'd just spent the previous six days on my first solo trip since my brain surgeries last year, my first solo anything really! I'd rested and relaxed as much as I could so I was able to walk around with my family for the first few days. As I say that, keep in mind that my walking has changed significantly of late. I've learned that, in order to maintain stability in my joints and not have my body go on high alert tensing up all my muscles, I have to walk VERY SLOWLY. Like painfully slowly. Again, it's embarrassing. I guess I must have had a lot of issues with pride because God sure is humbling me! Almost every time I start walking, I forget that I have to walk slowly. So I start off at a normal pace and before ...