A blessing on your head, Mazel Tove, Mazel Tove! Just thinking ahead to Passover beginning and Good Friday, Easter… the time to celebrate what the Lord has done for Jews, Christians and the Messianic. Mazel Tove is a blessing upon your head, which I pray for all my readers as Psalm 139:5 says.
I am thinking about how God set the times and seasons at the beginning of this world He made for us. Also, about boarding my flight from JFK to California, where I came upon a young Jewish boy with his black yarmulka on his head. I greeted him with “Shalom dear brother” while wearing my t-shirt that says,” Jesus is my happy place”. I proceeded to tell him I had a Jewish grandmother. Needless to say, I was not well received, although he didn’t say anything to me.
God established the rituals of Passover as a reminder of how He brought them out of Egypt-the term Seder actually means order-it revealed to me how much symbolism is part of the order of things. This meal was to remind the children of what a great and mighty God we have, telling and showing how the first Passover was celebrated. Children, even adults, need to have things acted out in a way they can remember, and this celebration is one of several in the Jewish calendar that do that.
In Christian society, we celebrate the Last Supper, remembering how Jesus Christ suffered and died as the perfect Passover Lamb. His agony and triumph mean we no longer have to pay for our own sins as long as we accept what He did as payment for all. When we celebrate communion, Jesus said it’s to remember what He did until He comes back. At this time in this universe, I believe the “fullness of the Amorites” sins are coming to a close, being exposed and dealt with, to make room for God’s glory to come down. Remember, God does not share His glory with anyone else, so hold on tight and stand in faith!
Which leads me back to my word for the year, forgiveness. I have not taken the time to research the word yet, so I will begin here with the dictionary definition.
forgiveness (noun)
- the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven: “she is quick to ask forgiveness when she has overstepped the line:
- synonyms: pardon · absolution · exoneration · remission · dispensation · indulgence · understanding · tolerance · purgation · clemency · mercy · pity · lenience · leniency · quarter · reprieve · discharge · amnesty · delivery · acquittal · clearing · pardoning · condoning · condonation · vindication · exculpation · shrift · shriving
- antonyms: mercilessness · punishment
Jesus, the spotless, sinless Lamb of God, tells us to forgive others, or He cannot forgive us. Many people have been healed physically, emotionally and spiritually by the act of forgiving those who wronged them. Unforgiveness is like a cancer that grows over time and corrupts your body, soul, and mind. Unforgiveness breaks apart relationships and damages many things. I have heard it likened to eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die!
Matthew 6:14-15
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (NIV)
“
from Forgive and Forget by Louis SmedesWhen you release the wrongdoer from the wrong, you cut a malignant tumor out of your inner life. You set a prisoner free, but you discover that the real prisoner was yourself.”
Ephesians 1:7–8
He [God] is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. (NLT)
People ask how they are to deal with the person they have forgiven. Some people are so toxic that you cannot totally reconcile, cannot take them back into close fellowship. If you are being abused, get out and deal with things as the Lord gives you grace.
I watched a documentary called The Conductor on the plane. Marin Alsop was a pioneer in women conducting symphony orchestras. She shares how lonely it was growing up as an only child with two professional musicians as parents. Marin has accrued many hurts and disappointments over her life, but the last scene shows her putting flowers on her parents’ grave. She has finally forgiven and is thankful for the things they sowed into her life. She realizes the great love they had, dying close together, from a broken heart. I pray that you can forgive those who the Lord brings to mind, releasing them from the cage you’ve held them in. Shalom dear readers!
We are sleeping in our elder grandson’s bedroom, which makes his distance learning have to adjust. Mom had to move into Dad’s office, which has a door, since the work in the basement is too distracting for her teaching kindergarteners on zoom. They noticed the background behind her wasn’t the usual! The grandsons saw the orthodontist the day we were traveling, so the elder is dealing with a new set of rubber bands and some pain. The younger is not so bad; he’s got spacers, which is less disruptive to normal life. 
What does a day with a young family look like during lockdown? Boys in separate rooms with their own tablets connect with school sometime around 8:30. Mom starts with the kindergarteners about the same time in her office. Dad usually starts earlier, in his office. The younger boy eats lunch just at 11 and is back in his room by the time his elder brother and parents have lunch. The boys finish between 3-3:30, Mom at 4, Dad at 4:30. Throw in Dad taking off time for orthodontist appointments and figuring out who can take which boy to hockey around their schedules, and the family may be back together for dinner by 6:30-7 if the hockey travelers don’t eat on the way home because they’re at a late practice or game.
It challenges the mom dealing with 200 kindergarten students and their parents. Soon, she will do individual assessments and doesn’t know how that will work out. The dad is not quite as challenged, since his home is his workstation for his FAA job, but everything has to shift when the kids are home full time. This is nothing new to me. I was a homeschool mom when my kids were young and it’s a change for any household, even if you have already been teaching them things as preschoolers. It’s always a change developing a teaching plan, schedule, and learning how you and each individual child learn and understand. You not only need to keep them on task, but have to keep yourself on task to keep the household running. My daughter in California and her husband both work from home and have hired a nanny to work with their two children and keep them on task while they work.
For my part of this trip, I am finding it a challenge to do my morning devotionals, the active things assigned in Exploring the Prophetic, exercise, and doing my computer work. It is nice relaxing with the family in the livingroom in the evening. We got to see several episodes of The Voice auditions my son has saved. We had seen none of them at home. We’re also watching a lot of hockey, of course; Go Penns! I enjoy swinging in the yard with the grandsons. One of them had a long lunch break, and we had a good chat outside.
On another front, Passover begins Sunday, March 28, as Christians celebrate Palm Sunday. Mitch Glaser from Chosen People Ministries suggest we take communion each day of Passover, which is seven days, sundown to sundown. Alternately, you can find on-line Passover meals you can attend. For more information, check out this link:
Musings along life's journey 