A Day Just for Family

Some days are just meant to be spent with your grandchildren having fun and today was just such a day.  

Happy Easter everyone!

 How did you spent today?

 Grandma Snyder

 ©twosnydergirls

John 14:15-31 Good Friday

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

John 14:15-31

Good News Translation (GNT)

 15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him, because it cannot see him or know him. But you know him, because he remains with you and is[a] in you.

  18 “When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you. 19 In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live. 20 When that day comes, you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me, just as I am in you.

21 “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. My Father will love those who love me; I too will love them and reveal myself to them.”

22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “Lord, how can it be that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them. 24 Those who do not love me do not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me.

25 “I have told you this while I am still with you. 26 The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.

 27 “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father; for he is greater than I. 29 I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. 30 I cannot talk with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, 31 but the world must know that I love the Father; that is why I do everything as he commands me.

“Come, let us go from this place.

Grandma Snyder

©twosnydergirls

Roasted Root Vegetables on Kale

I will admit that one of the unintended consequences of my going on a liver cleanse diet in January 2013 was that I have fallen in love with roasted root vegetables.  I eat them hot as a main dish and cold on Kale or with other hearty greens.

So today’s recipe contribution is yet another Roasted root vegetable salad.  This one I prepared for a Church Pot Luck thinking that I would bring home most of the salad and have it for lunches the next week.  Why did I think this you ask?  Well I really don’t know, somehow I thought this healthy salad would be passed over for the more traditional potatoe and macaroni salads.

Well my horror when the dish was found all but empty when I want to retrieve it from the kitchen.  Lesson for the day – Don’t under estimate your root vegetables!

Ingredients:

6 large beets, par boiled, skinned and sliced about a ¼ of an inch thick

7 medium parsnips peeled and coarsely chopped

10 to 12 large Brussels sprouts cut in half (I know not a root vegetable but so good!)

12 red radishes cut in half

12 large carrots coarsely chopped

12 to 15 mushrooms cut in half (I know not a root vegetable but they are so good!)

1 large bundle of Kale, cleaned, stems cut out and kneaded to a rich dark green colour

Directions:

1) Prepare your vegetables and place them in a large bowl

2) melt 1/3 cup coconut oil and add to this 3 Tablespoons of Balsamic vinaigrette

3) Pour this over the vegetables and stir until all are coated

4) Place the vegetables on a lined baking sheet (parchment paper or non-stick reusable mat)

5) Roast at 350 F. for approx. 35 minutes.

6) Cool in the refrigerator over night

7) Just prior to serving prepare the Kale

8) Create a bed of kale in the bottom a large serving dish

9) Mound your roast vegetables onto the bed of kale and serve.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Wordless Wednesday

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2014 twosnydergirls

Palm Sunday a Story of Compassion

 

Palm Sunday and Communion, a well-loved story and a practiced sacrament came together to bring new spiritual awareness and a deepening of my Christian compassion.

Our Palm Sunday service started with the children circling the sanctuary waving brightly coloured scarves.  They were emotionally preparing us to worship with expectation the triumphant entrance of Jesus’ into Jerusalem.

I could imagine the people of Jerusalem acting very much as our children were, hesitant at first to express their full measure of joy and with each passing moment being more embolden until their joy could not be contained.  Our children all but ran through the aisle at this point waving their scarves with youthful abandon.

Pastor Juanita Laverty then starts to take us through the familiar stories of Palm Sunday and Christ’s Last Supper.  This time however I heard the stories differently and I learned of Christ’s compassion anew.

Juanita “bookended” (her words) Christ’s compassion for all human beings in the Last Supper between his foreshadowing of two betrayals.  

The first found in Luke 22:21 “But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me. For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him.”  All Christians can identify that Jesus is referring to the dastardly Judas Iscariot. 

The second is found in Luke 22:34 “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” 

And between foreshadowing these two betrayals by his closest friends and companions Jesus offers up Luke 22:28-30 “You have stayed with me in my time of trial. And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” 

Jesus has offered equal portions of his compassion to Judas and to Peter, both take part in this the first Communion and it is only after this that Jesus calls out the men that will betray him.

As a Christian I have always placed Judas outside of redemption and as such I have never identified with Judas betrayal, yet at the same time I have taken comfort in the knowledge that Peter’s betray was forgiven and as such I am forgiven when my faith is not strong enough to stand up against fearful odds.

How different really are these two betrayals?  Both men acted out of fear, frustration and grief as they came to realize that Jesus would not be the earthly King, the Jewish saviour they were waiting for.  In their betrayal of Jesus they were acting out their humanity/ acting out of self-preservation.

Today I came into a deeper understanding of God’s compassion as experienced through the love and preemptive forgiveness Jesus offered both Judas and Peter, knowing of their betrayals he loved them all the same.

I am both Judas and Peter – I deny God’s plan for me when my wants, expectations, fear, anger … my humanity gets in the way - I am loved by my Redeemer as the  child of God that I am.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls