Merry Christmas

It's been a delightful Christmas season for me.

Not because I've done a lot of shopping or decked the halls or attended a gajillion Christmas parties. I've done little or none of these.

The delight has really come from the simplicity I've been intentionally seeking after this season. Trying to free myself from coveting gifts I don't need and just focusing my gaze on Christ and the fact that God of God came to dwell among us. And not as an end in itself, like one of our elders posted here, but to live a perfect life and die in my place - to a absorb the righteous punishment from God for me. To bring peace between me and God and to make Him my greatest joy. As John Piper says, Christmas is really the beginning of the end. The end of the great redemption story. Thinking on this has been the source of a wonderful Christmas season.

And lest you think my heart never grows dull. It does. Unmoved at times by the familiarity of the story. Yet my feelings don't change the weight of this marvelous truth. I keep looking to Christ, asking for grace. Grace to understand more fully and feel the full weight of all the implications of the incarnation.

May you know and treasure this good news of great joy. Merry Christmas!

Baby Recipe Share: Tomato-Onion Lentils

My little girl is fully into solids. She loves food and feeding herself, but I've noticed she doesn't really like bland food. Baby's bodies can't handle much salt yet, so I'm left to try to be creative in how to make her healthy, flavourful food. I'd like to share these ideas with you. My goal is to make the recipies delicious enough to eat myself.

Tomato-Onion Lentils

Ingredients:

• 2 tomatoes
• 1/4 onion
• 1 C of lentils
• olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat 1 T olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat
2. Saute lentils in 1 T of olive oil for 5 or so minutes
3. Blend tomatoes (cut them up for easier blending), onion and 1 C of water
4. Pour blend over lentils and simmer until lentils are tender

You can spread the lentils on some bread or rice cakes to make it easier for baby's to self-feed themselves. You can also stuff them in a pita. I like to do that for me and add some feta cheese.