Carissima Deo

The day I gave birth to MJ was a wonderful day, but I didn’t feel like it. I remember seeing this tiny little person and wanting so badly to feel an overwhelming rush of joy and motherhood. I didn’t. I felt, well, nothing. I knew I loved her, but I didn’t feel that we immediately bonded. Instead I felt stressed out and overwhelmed that this little girl needed me. She needed me to feed her, change her, and hold her. I was no longer just myself, I was a mom. It overwhelmed me. When we took her home, I didn’t have the first clue what to do. I had read numerous books on sleep and feeding schedules. I had hospital packets of information and a journal to chart her feedings, diaper changes, and sleep times. I had a lot of head knowledge. The problem was that when I was confronted with a baby who didn’t conform to the book schedules and who hardly ever slept, I didn’t know where to turn or what to do. Unfortunately, I had a lot of ideas swirling around in my head about how bad it was for a...

Lately I have been repeatedly watching clips of  Disney's Frozen with my daughters. They love the music , the trolls, the princesses. I love the story. I love the character of Elsa. She really speaks to me and I suspect that many people identify with her tragic figure. I have read so many different theories about the themes this movie supports. I really think, like anything else, that the story interacts with its viewers to create different themes for different people. What do I see? I see it pointing us to the gospel. Elsa is the firstborn princess of the king and queen of Arendelle and she is a beloved big sister to the carefree, life loving Anna. But something is different about Elsa. She was born with magical powers, a curse that gives her the ability to create snow and ice. In her childhood she and Anna spend hours playing in the winter wonderland Elsa has created. Then something goes tragically wrong when Elsa accidently strikes Anna’s head with her icy blast. The k...

“Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews-- young, old, women and little children -- on a single day” Esther 3:13 “In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.” Esther 4:3 The day was coming. The fateful day on which all the Jews under King Xerxes’ rule would be murdered. It was genocide and it had behind it only the fury of a selfish madman. A man who was angry because one person out of thousands would not bow to him: Haman. He tricked the king into creating an edict that would allow him to murder every single person of Jewish heritage because Mordecai would not bow to him. The Jews went into deep mourning - fasting, weeping, and wailing. A great cry went out among the Jewish people at their impending doom. There was nothing they could do. There was no hope. The king h...