Good Friday, Bread and Saying Goodbye to Friends

Yesterday was Good Friday. At least for some of us. The pastor speaking last night wondered if the residents of heaven, especially Jesus, would consider it to be a good day. It was a day Jesus had to "...endure the cross, scorning its shame..." (Hebrews 12:2a). Chances are, he would only think it good because meant that his work of justifying an undeserving people was finished and because, in the perspective of eternity, it was over in the blink of an eye.

Speaking of Jesus, I made an experiment this week with our bread machine that will ensure home baked quick breads throughout the summer. For those of you who are confused, Jesus claimed to be the Bread of Life, meaning that only He can satisfy our deepest needs. I know, the link is tenuous. Please give me some grace. Because our Breadman Ultimate Plus is of this world, it has a weakness in making quick breads. It doesn't mix the ingredients well. Many times, I have tried making banana bread, even stopping the cycle to mix the ingredients myself during the mixing cycle only to see white chunks of flour in the finished product. This week, I took my parent's zucchini bread recipe, mixed it in my Kitchen Aid, and poured half the recipe into the breadmachine to bake at the specified temperature and cooking time. It turned out great. The other half I baked in my mini-loaf pan. I like using the bread machine because, being a MUCH smaller oven, it doesn't heat up the house as much. I made carrot raisin bread last night, right before going to bed so that we would have portable, relatively nutritious breakfast ready in time to go to Kyle's 8 a.m. baseball game.

My father-in-law and his wife suffered a huge loss on Thursday when his friend, Don passed away. The picture to the right is of Don sitting next to my sister-in-law, Michelle during one of the many bonfire parties. Don was a frequent Boundary Waters canoeing partner of my FIL and the two couples often got together for food and games. My memory of him was being very gentle, very funny, very quick to smile and loving the outdoors. My heart goes out to his wife, Dorothy, daughter Beth and all the other kids and grandkids who will miss him, as well as my in-laws. And so, for yet another reason, I have a reason to rejoice that Jesus is "the Resurrection and the Life" and remember that just as he raised Lazarus from the dead and just as he was raised from the dead, so too, we will one day be resurrected and join Don in bodies that are unencumbered by age and free of any kind of disease. He is probably eating bread that tastes even better than the carrot-raisin bread that my bread machine baked because all food will taste heavenly in heaven.

Another comment that my pastor made last night was how inadequate, how understated, how lukewarm the word "good" is to describe this particular Friday. A song describes it as a "beautiful, scandalous night." I would describe it as horrifically wonderful day. But then again, maybe words cannot describe a day when God stooped to humble himself so much as to willingly accepted the punishment that we earned, so that we can receive the gift we can never repay.

Happy Easter!