An early New Year's resolution

How different would our interactions with each other be if in looking at each other, our first thought was “Here is the work of God’s hand—someone that God is using to reflect his own likeness.” My husband has been preaching through the book of James, and in last week’s passage we came across this: (James 3: 9, 10) “With [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”

Through a variety of circumstances, it occurred to me that this would have been and is very present in Jesus's interactions with people. After all, can we even imagine that Christ—the living Word himself, through whom the Father made each of us and all things would ever have forgotten that he made us in his likeness?

So here's my goal for the New Year: read through the gospels remembering this. Watch how it shapes Jesus's interactions with people and attempt to look at the world through the same lens.

Thankful meme

The latest meme going around is "Five things I'm thankful for." Unfortunately, this thing kicks off the Christian school trained self-righteous little prig in me . . . there's still a little voice in the back of my brain that says, "Now the right answer is to start off with, 'I'm thankful for Jesus because he died for my sins, and . . .' " It's a true thing that if this were the fourth grade Bible class assignment on why we're to be thankful to God, that answer would have received an "A."

Now, God knows that I'm thankful for my salvation, and a whole host of other spiritual riches, etc., but I'm going to skip quoting the first chapter of each of Paul's epistles (you can go back and reread them yourselves). And my husband Rob has written beautifully about our children (and over-flatteringly about me). I'm also going to skip returning the favor. I'd rather tell him in person how thankful I am for him--it's not generally something I care to share with the rest of you. And finally, I'm going to skip starting my list with coffee. I'm afraid that the title of this blog makes my hopeless addiction all too clear already. So:

1a. The full moon on a clear night at 8500 feet
1b. The alpenglow on the mountains
1c. The sun shining so brightly off the snow that it's blinding.
2a. My daughter's (age 7) questions that continually remind me to keep on noticing the world
2b. My daughter's (age 4) asking "Can I help?"
2c. My daughter's (age 1 1/2) asking "Other one--cookie? Pease?" It's just too cute. I'm a sucker.
3. The NY Times Sunday crossword with my husband
4a. Immersing myself in a book I love to spend time with old friends--the characters
4b.. Immersing myself in a book I love to notice the beautiful way that the author has constructed the story, polished the sentences, included all the best details and left out the uninteresting ones.
4c. Immersing myself in a conversation with someone else who loves books to debate all the merits and non-merits of fine and not-so-fine literature
5a. Doctor Who DVD's with campy special effects, goofy costuming, and great commentary
5b. Looney Toons Golden Collection DVD's. I still love Road Runner and Coyote.

Enough to be going on with.