What a difference a year makes . . . and a Lenten Devotion

"T" in March of 2013

"T" in March of 2014

Wow!  What a difference 1 year can make.  The first picture was from the very first set of pictures we received of "T".  I will never forget that Easter last year.  Coming out of worship that morning and opening up the email we'd been waiting over a year to see.  Surreal.  Pictures of our youngest daughter!  The second picture is a recent pic of our sweet, sassy, beautiful, funny, loving and kind little girl.  It's hard to believe that she's been home with us exactly 5 months today.  How the time flies. We are so happy and blessed to be her family!

***

And now . . . a Lenten Devotion (from Ray Pritchard's Who Is That Man?  Daily Lenten Devotional)

"Who Gave You This Authority?" (Matthew 21:23)

This is a hard question to write about today.  Jesus was asked by the religious leaders of his day, Who gave you this authority?"  The leaders were running out of things to attack about Jesus so they finally resorted to attacking his authority.  Who gave Jesus the authority to teach, to forgive, to heal, to perform miracles for the glory of God.  All that comes from God because Jesus is God.  Fully God and fully human.  A perplexing situation to many, fully explainable by none.  It just is.  Jesus is the embodiment of God in human flesh on this earth.  God humbled himself to walk among us.  He humbled himself to live among us, to teach us, and be in relationship with humanity.  God humbled himself in order that he might die for us.  Our broken world sought to kill him, yet he lives.  Yet in all of this his we still question his authority.  His authority was questioned as he walked the earth and we question his authority today.  Does God really mean the things that are in the Bible?  . . . Did Jesus really walk on this earth?  . . . Does God really love us?  . . . . 

Whose authority do we recognize in our lives?