GPS

The Star of Bethlehem

/ apronsandappetites.com / 2 Comments

A few Christmases ago, I went with a couple of friends to an Amy Grant  and Vince Gill concert.  On the way home a falling star fell in front of the car I was driving.  It was so bright that it looked like it fell right on the pavement in front of us.  Unbelievably awesome!!  I can’t begin to tell you what an experience that was.  Every Christmas I remember it and am wowed all over again by that powerful sight.

bright star

So as I put up my stable scene of Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, and all the other participants on that amazing night, the star that led the kings from far away to find the Christ Child was on my mind.  This star had to be magnificent, out of the ordinary to the nth degree.  It would have stayed stationary, unlike the stars that come and go as our earth turns.  The group of three would have been able to see that they were getting closer and closer to it until they stood directly underneath it.  I can’t imagine the feeling of finally arriving at the location I had studied from afar and placed its GPS location by a faint but brightly burning star, burning ever brighter the closer I came.

Were these three the only ones who were privy to such a star?

Did they see the star?

Did God hide it from the eyes of the masses?  To those people who qualify all that happens in the world through science and logic, the answer is a scoffing no; those people include the Spirit God among the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.  But for those of us who have experienced the supernatural, who know for a fact that there is an intelligent force much greater than ourselves, someone we call the Father God, we know that anything is possible.

The Bible talks about signs and wonders, and they come in many shapes and forms, human and inanimate, powerful and gentle, roaring and whispering, joyful and heartbreaking, explained and mysterious.

My blindingly bright falling star was a wonder.  A wonder that reminds me every Christmas season of the power of the Son God, the power to give life to the dying, a new birth.

May you experience the supernatural this Christmas, for that is what the Christ Child is:  a spiritual experience outside the boundaries of earth.

starry night full of wonder

So it’s Operator Error

/ apronsandappetites.com / 3 Comments

The little box in the upper left-hand corner had the u-turn sign.  So naturally my sis and I thought that meant to immediately make a u-turn… which meant we all in the SUV following the directions of the GPS were making a u-turn every 1/4 mile.  We circled that little tract of highway about six times before I said, in a very nice voice, not the least bit agitated at the stupid GPS that has, I might add, caused multiple deaths by suggesting routes that led people into hazards such as snow, “I’m just going straight; what is wrong with that stupid thing?”

And, of course, there was nothing wrong with it.  Something was wrong with us, the operators.  Well, actually only one of us, Darla, because she was the main reader of the thing.  I was only glancing down occasionally.  After our 30-minute u-turn trek and my rebellion to a different highway, we went back through a toll and onto a different road that led us straight back to our u-turn road.  So Terah finally sits up and says, “I think that means in about 4 1/2 miles we’ll make a u-turn.”  Thank God for Terah or Darla and I would still be on that little stretch of road making one u-turn after another.

Sure enough!  Once the operator, a/k/a Darla, really looked at it, that’s exactly what it had been showing us.  We had “Sister” turned down, so we couldn’t hear her telling us to go straight, you dummies.  Well, actually, she’s much nicer than that.  She just tells us in her bored, not-these-dummies-again voice to go straight.  We finally reached our destination, the ten-minute trip that took about an hour, and jumped out to shop.  Yippee!  By then I was so tired all I wanted to do was sit on the orphan bench (that little spot where the shopping orphans wait on the spouse/friends to get done) and enjoy the nice breeze on a nice evening.

Until we (Terah was with me at this time) got the “We have found the miracle worker sales clerk” text.  Terah was on that like flies attracted to cat poo and got her second wind to hop up and say “I’d better go down there and see what’s happening.”  I waited another ten minutes or so before I finally couldn’t stand it anymore either, and even though I had these nasty blisters on the balls of my feet from walking on the sand, I hobbled on down to Ann Taylor to meet the “miracle worker.”  I was starved!  I thought all I cared about was eating… but, lo and behold, I could have stayed in Ann Taylor’s another hour or two if Dar hadn’t already been checking out.

We hook up Sister for more u-turn and toll-paying tomorrow.