Teacups and Toasters

Smile it’s Tuesday! (We made it through Monday.)

Here it is!!! The post that I’ve been super excited to write all week long!  Today is indeed Easter Sunday. For some that means getting dolled up and heading out to church, and for some it means snuggling up on the couch with a yummy chocolate bunny, and for some it means both!  (I like the both category myself, though I wouldn’t say I get “dolled” up.)

Whichever category you fall under, I hope that you take some time to reflect on why in the world we celebrate this awesome day. Spring is here, but if you’re facing the snow, or tornadoes, or just a fine chill in the air – spring isn’t enough to celebrate. New life is though.  Through the death and resurrection Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made it possible to surpass death and live forever with Him. Imagine how astonishing it must be to dwell in the presence of God!

Jesus was turned over to be crucified by His own people. They thought that He was coming as a warrior and they wanted Him to rebel against Rome and do things their way. He did things His way and we are blessed to this very moment because of that.  Pilate gave way to the demands of the crowds to crucify Jesus foregoing a warning from his wife who had been disturbed in a dream that day. Peer pressure got the best of him even though he found Christ innocent. He had Jesus flogged, which meant that He was whipped with scourges trimmed in sharp bone and glass that literally tore out His flesh. (Rome did things to the extreme.) He was taken to a hill in Golgatha (place of the skull) and nailed to a cross. A nail was placed in each hand and then one nail was placed through both of His feet. It was gruesome and unimaginabley painful. Though He did not step down from that cross, though He could have at any moment, He saved a theif  who was hanging next to Him by promising him that he would be in paradise with Him that very day. Jesus gave up His life and for many that was the end of the story.

It wasn’t the end. Three days later He rose from the dead. Even other saints were raised and speaking His praise in the streets. Jesus appeared to His disciples, to Mary Magdalene, and Mary His mother. He showed doubting Thomas the scars in His hands and then very shortly thereafter comes one of my favorite parts of the story.

Peter, James, John, Thomas, Nathaniel, and some other disciples went out fishing on the Sea of Tiberias. They had been fishing all night and were catching absolutely nothing. As the day was breaking they were about to give up and go home.  Someone on the shore shouts out to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They shouted back to the person on the beach, “No.”   The person then told them to cast their nets off the right hand side of the boat to find a catch. They did and indeed they caught so many that they were not able to haul in the net.

John realized that this person was indeed The Lord. Jesus had presented Himself in such a way that the disciples did not recognize Him. (I don’t know if He appeared differently, or just made their eyes so that they saw Him differently.)

John immeadiately tells Peter, “It is the Lord!” and Peter throws on his outer garment and jumps into the sea and begins to swim to shore. The rest of the disciples bring the boat and the catch to the shore. When they reach the shore they find that there is a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed upon it with bread. Jesus tells them, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.”   Why would He do this if there’s already fish on the fire? Well, when they went to get the fish out of the net they saw that though there were 153 fish (a very large amount for their net) that the net was not torn!

Jesus then says, “Come and have breakfast.” No one questioned Him about who He was. He fed them the fish and the bread.  He had breakfast with them.  The Son of God raised from the dead came to have breakfast with His friends!!! If only, we truly realized that this is the kind of relationship that God wants to have with us. He wants to care for us.  The breakfast was already prepared. He provided and allowed them to see who He really was by the miracle of catching so many fish without a tear in the net.

This story fills me with the kind of excitement that caused Peter to jump over the side of the boat and swim to shore. Breakfast with the Lord. Imagine. Breakfast with the Lord.

Happy Easter and may God bless you. Seek Him. He will prepare fullfilment for you in eternity. He will provide. You can find the scripture about the above in the book of John in the New Testament.

Explaining the Trinity is seriously tough. Very often in my work I am needing to explain this concept to children. It’s hard enough as an adult to wrap your mind around 3 beings in 1. For a child it’s even harder. Fortunately, I had the privilege of knowing someone who explained it to me as an adult in a way that made it a little easier to explain to children. If you have trouble with a 3 in 1 perhaps this will help you as well. Please note, I’m just attempting to explain the concept.

Think of an egg. An egg is one thing, yet it has three separate parts. You have the shell, the white, and the yolk. These three separate parts all work together as an egg, yet each have their own qualities.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, though certainly each have Their own special qualities.

Hope that helps!

We had our church Easter Egg hunt today and usually I just purchase extra treats to eat after the egg hunting is over, but this time I wanted to bring something that  I made myself too. I served the usual extra lot of candy along with peeps and some bagels and cream cheese, but I also made a cake. I made a cake that I had never made before and that was a rather stupid thing to do. (Only because I had one shot at getting it right for it to be ready on time for a crew that I didn’t want to disappoint!)

Fortunately, it turned out well! This one is definitely going into the archives. I have no idea what kind of cake you would technically call it because I’m not a cake connoisseur, but I can tell you that it had lots of butter. So much butter in fact, that I ended up cutting out the middle. The butter made the middle too dense and so even though it was done, it sort of had the texture of not being done (but only in the middle).  So, I cut it out and filled in the middle with sliced strawberries!  The texture is buttery and smooth and yet still light, which is what I was going for. Score!

Here’s the recipe;

You will need:

2 1/2 cups of butter (I used Smart Balance Light, as usual for dairy free results)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

1 cup soymilk (preferably plain, not flavored)

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Approx: 12 strawberries

Here’s What You Do:

Beat together the butter and sugar

Add the egg and mix well

Add the milk and flour and mix well

Add the baking powder and the vanilla and mix well

Pour into a 9 inch round pan that has been greased and floured

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

Let cool in the pan until the edges seperate from the pan. This is a very moist cake and you may see it splitting in the middle. That’s okay because you’re going to remove it anyhow.  When the edges seperate from the pan – very carefully remove the cake from the pan and contiue letting it cool on a wire rack, or perhaps a plate. Since the cake is so moist the wire rack will leave indentions in the bottom of your cake, which really isn’t a big deal. Who looks at the bottom of a cake?  Once cool to the touch you may cut out a circle in the center. Only cut out the dense part.

Slice up the strawberries and fill in the hole in the center of the cake. Stack them up so that they stand above the cake. You could use any kind of fruit if you don’t want strawberries.  (If you use apples, or bananas be sure to squeeze some lemon juice over them so that they don’t turn brown.)

Refrigerate over night and then let thaw for about thirty minutes before serving. The texture has time to evolve this way. It’s worth the wait.

Now, the cake is good without icing, but I tried my hand at making an icing too.

In a sauce pan on medium heat combine 4 tsp of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tsp of cream of tartar.

Let cool.  Add 1/2 cup butter and a pinch of salt. Add desired color of food coloring.  Refrigerate until you take the cake out to thaw before serving. Apply as you wish…drizzle?   Enjoy your finished piece!