seder plate

Once my former employer took the girls from the office to Color Me Mine , which is a paint-your-own ceramic place, for our Christmas fun night and I happened to find this plate! I got excited and chose to paint this one. I was not very creative, and I wanted to stick with the plain dark blue color so it turned out to be like this. I like it a lot.






A few years ago before Passover I went back there by myself (because no one was available to go with me) and painted two more. I gave them to two of my friends who went to the Messianic church. It took me over two hours to finish! It was fun. Painting the plates and thinking about Jesus, the Bible, the Jewish people, and the Christian lives was a very happy time.

My favorite sky pictures

I love looking up the sky. These were all taken with my cell phone and my husband's camera.


I could climb out to the roof from the window of my room when I was growing up, and I used to go out there with a blanket in the winter time and stayed there for a long time, looking at the stars. Winter time is the best for looking at the stars because the sky is clearer. After I found God (or should I say after God found me, like Paul said in Galatians), I think of God and God-related things (like Abraham) when I look up at the sky - day or night. I am sure a lot of people think like me, too, that our God is a very creative artist.

Hanukkah candy dish

I love this dish. The color and design and everything is perfect. It is a candy dish for Hanukkah.

I remember you, Devorah. If you ever see this blog, leave a comment!! Years ago when I first started to be attracted by the Jewish culture and the Old Testament, I was listening to a message on a tape. She challenged the audience to love a Jewish person. I prayed that God will send me a Jewish person that I can love because I didn't know anyone. Then, out of nowhere I met a Messianic Jewish lady, Devorah. I gave her one of my favorite CDs, Old and New, for a Christmas present that year and she gave this dish to me. We didn't know we had gifts for each other. After awhile she moved away and we didn't continue contacting each other. I hope she is doing well.

I haven't looked into the Jewish festivals all these years because I am trying to understand how they started first. Then, of course it will take a long time... But when God wants to show it to me more in detail, I think the right timing will come. In the meantime, I keep studying the scriptures.

This year my daughter saw a Hanukkah cat bed at Target and we bought it because our cat doesn't have a bed. I will have to post a picture sometime.

Tzitzit

This cord is a tzitzit. Tzitzit is a Hebrew word for a fringe. God told the Israelites to tie them on the corners of prayer shawls. Here is one of the verses from the OT.

In the NT, on the way to someone's home to heal his daughter, Jesus met a woman who was suffering for 12 years of bleeding who touched the fringe of Jesus' robe. Here is one of the translations. According to the Blue Letter Bible, the fringe in the NT for Hebrew translation is tzitzit. The woman did not touch just an edge of Jesus' clothes. It was a tzitzit she touched. A tzitzit spells out the sacred name of God. The cords wrapping around are counted to spell out this name because each Hebrew alphabet has an assigned number. (like a=1, b=2, etc)

Just like the menorah I bought, I wanted to see what a tzitzit looked like so after some prayers, I decided to buy a prayer shawl - just to see what the fringe was like. Then I happened to find a book on Judaism that looked simple enough and very interesting at Barns and Noble. This book has an instruction to make a tzitzit. So I bought some linen yarn and made some. I like it very much. I have seen little cross at a Christian bookstore to put in a pocket to remind us of Jesus. I am saved because of Jesus and I thought it would be wonderful to have a fringe with me all the time to remind me of our great God who loved us so much that he sent his only son to us... I think of God my Father who sent Jesus when I see my tzitzit.

*see wikipedia

(edited from 8/22/2008)