His Name is Jesus by Max Lucado

His Name is Jesus The Promise of God's Love Fulfilled arrived in a lush brown box-like packaging with the cover picture on the top. This was such a lovely way to present this book because the packaging emphasized the importance of this treasure.What a great gift for someone's birthday or graduation. Thomas Nelson publishers' religious books have such stunning photographs. Each section begins with an announcement about the following pages: as an example : " His Birth- Jesus ...he could hold the universe in his palm but gave it up to float in the womb of a maiden." This is an opportunity to compare and contrast the biblical Jesus,God's son, with the human person of Jesus of Nazareth living his life with Joseph and Mary. Jesus is presented as another person who was much like you or me. He felt emotions, loved, and knew despair.Imagine what Jesus thought about when he left Nazareth and gave up his life as a wood worker. Max Lucado said in this story that "Jesus entered the Jordan River a carpenter and exited a Messiah." How powerful to think about how he gave up his life so that we had the promise of eternal life! Another wonderful story that should be placed prominently on the coffee table for all to enjoy.

Earth Day

Earth Day is on April 22 and my dear friend is graduating from work to play. How joyful to have more time. Enjoying family, friends, and pets, gardening, creating, writing, and helping others are just some of the blessings of taking off the yoke of daily work and putting on the welcoming cloak of play.Congratulations!

The Great Eight

I just finished reading "The Great Eight" written by Scott Hamilton with Ken Baker. Most people know that Scott won Olympic Gold in 1984 at Sarajevo for his figure skating.His amazing agility and focus captured the hearts of most Americans. Later he skated as an entertainer in the Stars on Ice tour and accumulated wealth and fame. In this story, Scott shared his personal struggles as a young boy sickly and isolated and how skating opened up the door to opportunities most people never experience. Finding happiness was another thing. Scott struggled with prostate and brain cancer, many life disappointments, and the deaths of loved ones. He developed eight secrets to happiness that shaped his life and lead to him becoming a Christian. Scott discovered that fighting against God's plan was useless and that making the decision to change was a challenge. One of Scott's secrets was to "keep the ice clear". This meant keeping the lines of communication open so others were aware of his needs. Always afraid to confront an issue, Scott allowed anger to fester instead of sharing his thoughts with others. Once he broke through this barrier, his relationships became richer. Scott found that being authentic meant any misunderstandings were avoided because of the free flow of information in his interactios with people. This book was a good read and I appreciated Scott's ideas for achieving happiness. His approach was easy to understand and offered insight into the life of a sport's celebrity on a life long faith journey.