i am blessed

So, after the posts yesterday, you would not believe the day i had today. God is so good and gracious. I calmed down a bit and, thanks to God's word, put things back into perspective.

Then tonight (or this afternoon for spain time, 8-10pm) a friend stopped by, a friend more of my roommate chery than of me, but still a good friend. He practically forced me to go out with them for tapas and drinks. I had planned to finished studying for my seminary class that I have to finish before the end of the year and which i've spent all day working on (basically non-stop), and planned on continuing. Well, she gave him his christmas present and then he convinced me to come with them just for a bit (which in my american mind was an hour, but in my spanish mind i knew it would at least be two and was). We walked a ways (which i love) to a fun little café with vermoth and then went to a place closeby with wine and tapas. We laughed a ton and juan, the friend's name, is just a great, comforable fully platonic person who warms your heart to be with. It is so refreshing and around these days it's nice to both be reminded of God's abundant and gracious care, as well as, being around friends who really care about you.

Beyond that my day has been full of studying and much more, but I've acomplished a great deal and am over halfway done with what i need to do. praise the Lord! As I was walking home with chery and juan, I thought, it is YOU, Lord, who has used this day to remind me of your intimate care for me. That while I don't have a husband or a man to care for me right now, the Lord is the best husband, the best lover I could ever have (not to say that takes away the desire to marry, have kids, etc.,) but it does put things back into perspective and remind me that, yes, I am abundantly blessed. T am the child of a king, a king who loves me as his precious child, a king who makes the impossible happen, a king and Lord I can trust. :-) merry almost christmas!!!

Oh, and here is a little excerpt from my studying. I'm taking a theology class on Christ, man, sin, and salvation. One of the things I most recently read about was what is meant in Genesis 1:26-27 when God says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,... So he made man in his image, male and female he created them." (paraphrased) Anyway, there is a quote by C.S. Lewis that I love from his book, "The Weight of Glory." So, here you go:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations --these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of the kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinners--no mere tolerance, or indulgence, which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat, the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."

Blessings & a Very Merry Christmas to you and yours!