This is one of those random, scattered, deep-but-not-complete thoughts entries.

I had a great workout today, which was so nice after yesterday's humiliation. And on top of the great workout, we had ANOTHER gorgeous day today! I cannot get enough of that glorious sunshine. I'm soooooo much happier when I'm just doused in light. :)

(Next subject!) These verses stuck out to me from my Bible study today: "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:10-13

It would break my heart if I came to my own family and they rejected me.

Yesterday for the Bible study I studied Mary's life. The whole study is about obedience ("Compelled by Love to Obey"), but there is so much more that hit me from reading and thinking about Mary.

From my journalings yesterday:

I wonder what Mary felt or thought when Jesus rose. I wonder if she understood the meaning of the Cross before he died on it.

Jesus was not her only son, although he was her firstborn. I can't imagine what it must have been like to play "mother" to God Himself. (I say playing, because if I were in her place, it would strike me as purely ridiculous sometimes that I would be called to "mother" a boy who possesses the knowledge of God Himself.)

We often talk about how Jesus was perfect, meaning He never sinned--as if that is the most amazing thing about Him! He was GOD in flesh. He knew things none of us know. He knew God's eternal plan (one has to wonder from what age He knew...from ever?).

And Mary as His mother...I'm just an ordinary woman, and I will just have ordinary children, but there will probably come a day when I realize a son of mine has advanced in his faith in an area further than I have. And that will be incredibly humbling for me. So I can't imagine how Mary must've felt sometimes, having Jesus as a son. What strikes me most now is that His faith in God had not a shred of instability. Not a shred. It was just always there.

In other scattered musings, I just saw a picture on Facebook today that really struck me, in a good way.

Apparently today is International Women's Day, which is supposed to celebrate women's "economic, political, and social achievements of the past, present, and future." But one picture I saw interpreted it differently: It showed the lifespan of a woman in silhouettes--from a baby grabbing her toes, to a little girl, to a teenager or young woman, to an expectant mother, to a mother holding a child, to a middle-aged woman, to an older woman getting slightly hunched.

I want my life to look like those silhouettes.

The one that struck me the most was the mom with a baby (she looked so happy), and the middle-aged woman. The middle-aged woman reminded me of my mother-in-law. She's who I want to become when I'm her age.

Anyway, it's time for me to go volunteer at the library.

-Stephanie

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