paravanes:meditations

Image is from lightascension.com, October 2010 *** *** *** *** *** Last Sunday was Ascension Sunday. I was raised in a Christian tradition that did not celebrate the Ascension or Pentecost. Easter was the major ---actually, only-- day of celebration on our religious calendar. Of course, we celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day during May and June, but celebrations for  Ascension Sunday and Pentecost were missing. Why? I wonder if these days seemed too "magical" or "supernatural" to highlight and celebrate as fact. Did we have a hard time imagining ourselves with Jesus' mother and the apostles as they watched Jesus elevated from their vision into a heaven they could not see? Did we dislike--or even despise-- the idea of loosing and losing control of ourselves in  a Pentecost-like appearance of the Holy Spirit? We were ashamed to admit to seekers or non-believers that we believed these were true events because they are recorded in Scripture? Did w...

A number of the blogs and feeds I follow have carried intense ( and intensely emotional ) discussions in the last month or two about obesity and black women. A series of recent articles, including one in the New York Times  , have questioned why so many black women are obese, perhaps even morbidly obese. Objections to the tones of  these articles have arisen around the apparent lack of solutions, empathy, or concern for the health of the women whose "issues" are being dissected and discussed. I don't know if more black women are obese, compared to other women. If that is true, then what does it mean, and is there a spiritual component? I have been a variety of sizes as an adult, and those changes have often reflected what was happening in my life at the time. I have jokingly said it took ten years to lose the "baby fat", but it is all gone now. What happened, and why? As an American woman of African descent, here is my take on this subject. I am no...

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new Earth, for the first heaven and the first Earth had passed away..." Revelation 21:2 Throughout the gospels, Jesus tells his listeners and followers the Kingdom of Heaven is within them; He tells them how worthy they are of God's love---describing it in this way: 4] "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? [5] And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders [6] and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' [7] I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. [8] "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she fi...

Matthew 5:41-46 – “Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take Me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of Me’… Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Watch what it means here . I blogged from this scripture recently , and it's a text that makes many people uncomfortable. Years ago, I blogged about what it might feel like to be truly starving, very hungry, and not knowing how or where to get food. That post is here . How many Christians feel more comfortable---and "righteous" condemning those who are "wi...