..The taste of death...

Yes, it is something for the mind to truly chew on. (Note: this really isn't a dark post.)

Since June, I've experience great loss: my generous Grandma Booth, my sweet Great Aunt Doris (both of whom had personal relationships with God) and my favorite childhood dog, Rocky; all passed away. Each of them left a great impression on my life ...and I won't go on to comment about animals after death... but I do want to talk about death.

Tonight, I was reading in Hebrews 2, and verse 9 caught my attention:

"...But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone."

Death really isn't something everyone experiences. Death is eternal separation from God - which yes, happens when someone passes away, but only for those who never chose that personal relationship with God. Unfortunately, our world has perfected its art of distraction when it comes to keeping people away from a relationship with God.

Death was the agony Jesus truly felt when His physical body was dying on the cross - not really the physical pain. Because, out of this crazy love for us, He took on all sins of all man of all time as He hung on the cross, separation from the Father was a must. God could not and will not be connected to sin. And because of that, with all foreknowledge for both of Them, Jesus had to be separated from the Father.  

Death.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel! Which is the whole purpose of Jesus' life - which we are about to celebrate His birthday in a few weeks...

He came to taste DEATH so we didn't have to, and so we could truly live! And that is what one thing I want to keep in the foreground of my perspective this Christmas season.

Tea with "Grandma"

Thank you everyone for praying! Tea with "Grandma" went well. She is a sweet old lady who was very happy to get together with us!

She arrived bringing a gift of a special kind of French candies-- Calissons.

To be quite, honest, I didn't really like them -- I am a choco-holic. But I was very appreciative of her gift!

Anyways, as we drank our tea, Madame Peigne also brought with her pictures of her family, a map of France and Europe and a pad of paper to "play" pictionary as needed [which is a great form of communication!]. As she told us about her family, we learned she is a great-grandma to Lucy, a cute little 1 year old. Unfortunately, both her son and daughter and grandchildren live far away in the south of France as well as in Germany. When she told us her husband passed away, it almost looked like she was going to cry. She called him "the love of her life."

Beth, Chelsea and I all want to have her over more often to show her some love. Then, she was interested to see pictures of our families, which we shared with her as well. It was great because we just happened to learn 'family' vocabulary in French class recently!

Once we had exhausted the topic of family members, I pulled out our French books and we went through some exercise together. I think she enjoyed helping us learn her native language, as she was very patient and helped us pronounce words.

Somehow, we transitioned into showing her our Knowing God Personally booklet in French. We had not be able to read through exactly what the French version says, so we asked her to read it through for us. Kinda strategic, eh? :)

As she read to us the gospel presentation, she communicated to us that she was a Christian and asked if we were too. It was really cool to meet a French-believer! Now a days, it is hard to find because the people of my generation don't have an opinion of faith, God or Christianity.

Thank you all again for praying before, during or even now, for Madame Peigne. As our French improves, it would be great to verbally encourage her in her walk with Christ!

Some prayer requests:

- Continued relationship development with Madame Peigne

- That God would use our time tonight to deepen His relationship with Madame Peigne

- For our French learning capabilities: that it would improve tremendously so we can have deeper conversations with Madame Peigne and other French people we meet

Love,

Hanah