Tidbits

How to stretch your grocery bill, the easy way. Darren reported after his every-two-week grocery trip, "Addie said that I should have taken the van instead of Ferdinand. Then I could have bought four weeks' worth of groceries."

***
Darren asked, "Do you have the key to the church on your ring?"
I replied, "Yes. Jesus gave it to Peter, but he let me borrow it."

***
Darren and I were being mushy. I said, "I'm not sure I love you." I turned to Daphne. "Do I love Daddy?"

The kids aren't old enough to be embarrassed by mushiness and they love getting questions they know the answer to. "Yes you do!" said Daphne.

"Addie, do I love Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Stuart, I don't love Daddy, do I?"

Stuart smiled, "Yes, you do. And Daddy loves me!"

Some things don't change.

***
Thoughts on the passage in Luke about the the woman with the bleeding:

Jesus was moving through the crowd, among which was a woman who had been bleeding for years. She'd tried doctor after doctor, but had found no help. She said to herself, "If only I can touch Him -- just the hem of His garment, I can be healed!" She managed to get close enough to brush her fingers against his clothes, and felt within herself that she was healed.

Immediately Jesus turned around and said something that makes me laugh out loud. "Who touched me?"

His disciples, probably hot and sweaty from pushing through the throng around them, did not laugh out loud. They were a bit snappish. They said, "What do you mean, who touched you? Everybody's touching you!"

Jesus said, "No, I felt power go from me. Who touched me?"

So the woman came forward and confessed. He told her, "Your faith has healed you."

Like the disciples said, everybody was touching Jesus. There wasn't something especially magical about touching Him. The woman touched Him in faith, and she was the only one who felt His power.

I imagined myself in that crowd, jostled and pushed until I got to the front and brushed His arm. I touched Him! But what a disappointment. It was just like touching anybody. Nothing special. How disillusioning.

I often get frustrated that nothing "happens" when I'm around Jesus. Maybe I'm not touching in faith. Maybe I'm just rubbing up against Him hoping for some magic.

-- SJ