Nail-scarred hands

I was reading a devotional about belief and it mentioned Thomas, for which most of the Western world knows as Doubting Thomas because he did not believe the disciples’ testimony of Jesus’ resurrection. But let’s not be so hard on Thomas; the other eleven disciples didn’t believe Mary Magdalene’s testimony and the two apostles tried to tell the others about the risen Lord, “but they did not believe them either.” (Mark 16:9-13)

Has anyone ever wondered why our Almighty Powerful God raised Jesus from the dead, repaired his pierced heart and decided to leave his skin blemished? It must be spiritual irony for the Son of God to heal leprosy without any sign of the disease, and yet God Incarnate decides to walk around post-resurrection with nail-scarred hands. Knowing his unbelief, Jesus tells Thomas to touch his scars and then declares, “Because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) God knows man struggles with faith and yet this is the very thing He asks of us. In Hebrews 11:1 it states, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT seen.” But God is gracious and knows where to meet us with our level of faith.

Some of us need to see the scars to believe and others are blessed with “blind” faith. Where are you at with your faith? Do you need a sign or are you ready to step out and trust “the substance of things hoped for”? To be continued…

Julie's fresh pesto

Well, I didn't have all the ingredients for traditional pesto, so I made one up myself. Jason said it was the best pesto he's ever had, so I thought I would share it with you. It started out with me just pruning my basil and needing to do something with it, so I only had a handful of leaves. I added to it a sprig of fresh oregano - of course this is minus the stems. Then I added 1/4 c feta because I didn't have any fresh Parmesan. I used 1/2 c walnuts because I didn't have any pine nuts and 3 large cloves of garlic (which was really strong, so next time I'll just use 2 cloves). I put all this with a small squeeze of lemon (to keep it all green) into the food processor. Then I added about a 1/2 c of evoo as it was chopping. All this is to taste. I didn't add any salt because the feta was salty enough. All of these measurements are total estimates because I never actually measure anything.

An apple a day...

Eva tackles a Granny Smith all by herself.

One bite at a time.

Yikes, smaller bites, Eva.

Apples can be juicy...

All done!

Eva Mei goes to the zoo

Eva Mei and her friend Carly went to the John Ball Park Zoo here in Grand Rapids two weeks ago.

A goat in the petting area was sleeping and Eva mkes the sleep sign.

Carly and Eva

Drums in the African exhibit.

Looking at the Baboons.

Another new mom

It appears the birds and the bees and the deer have been busy this Spring. Today at 2:00pm I looked out our back window and saw this mother and her fawn. You can tell she was used to people, Eva and I managed to come out on the deck and take several pictures while her fawn was nursing.