A High Sabbath

Today is Rosh HaShanah. This literally means "Head of The Year." On the Hebrew calendar, or really, God's calendar, it is the 1st day of the Seventh month, the month of Tishrei.  That probably seems strange being the seventh month, but God Himself didn't call it Rosh HaShanah, He simply gave the command that on this day there would be a memorial signified by the blowing of the Shofar, or rams horn, or trumpet.  Yeah, that's what I'm blowing in the picture.

This is one of the high holy days.  Christians who study this stuff and are interested in eschatology probably know this holiday as "Feast of Trumpets."  You can read a little more about it by clicking on this link.  The Scripture reference is this: "In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation." (Leviticus 23:24) Today, beginning at sundown last night, is considered a High Sabbath, even though it falls this year on a Thursday.  Interestingly enough, that's what happened in the year that Messiah was crucified on the preparation day before the first day of Passover, that High Sabbath day fell on Thursday, which is what led to the confusion in the Church with "Good Friday" and the false idea that Yeshua was resurrected on Sunday rather than late on the Sabbath. But that's a complete post that I'm saving for Passover. It will include a lot of in-depth Scripture.

A few things are believed to have happened on this Anniversary date of Rosh HaShanah by the Jewish sages, primarily that on this day the world was created.  It's just a belief, because G-d doesn't specifically state it in the Scriptures.  The blowing of the shofar at this time is also to remind us of a call to repentance, to do T'shuvah.  Turn back to Torah and prepare for what comes ten days later, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.  I'm going to post on that when the day comes.  Five days after that comes the joyous celebration of Sukkot, otherwise known as the Feast of Tabernacles.

This is harvest time. This is the time when we are wrapping up our canning and storage and thinking about the approach of winter.  Another way of thinking about harvest is an ingathering. We live in a generation that has seen a lot of the ingathering of Israel. Israel has bloomed like a rose in the middle of a desert. That tiny little country has a Gross Domestic Product that exceeds $166 billion.  That's more than all of it's surrounding Arab neighbors combined. It's existence and prosperity are a sure sign that we are approaching the end of the age, the 'Olam Hazeh.

In obedience, I will not be doing any laborious work today, so maybe later I will post photos of the new dehydrator/incubator that I made yesterday.  Thanks for visiting, and please leave a comment.

Shanah Tovah!   (Happy New Year)

Just Ducky Shabbat

Juvenile Mallard Ducks

We love Shabbat. Today was so nice.  This is a short post because sometimes pictures really are worth a thousand words.  It was gorgeous. Barely some cirrus clouds way out on the horizon.  Warm water, cool breeze, but not too much wind.

The bluegill and shad were waiting for us to show up. Nearly a hundred.  Then after a while the ducks spotted us and quickly made their way to us.  There is a mother and her five young'uns.  You can spot mamma duck because her bill is darker and shows more wear and she's a lot more cautious and seems to be constantly warning the kids about things.

I also managed to shoot a little bit of video of Twyla feeding them. You can even see some of the fish swimming around below.

A little bit after this was taken, quite a few people started showing up. Little kids just rush ahead and start chasing the ducks and fish and so we just put the goodies away and wait for things to calm down.  Once the kids get bored from realizing they're not going to catch a duck or a fish, they move on to their other games and then the fish and ducks move back in and surround us.

Twyla got on her raft to get some sun on her back. and when my raft had leaked too much air, I went back to my chair and started feeding the fish again.
Then it didn't take long for the ducks to notice that I was putting stuff in the water again and so they worked their way back over to me.  Since this was about the 5th or 6th time we've done this, the ducks have gotten comfortable with us, so when I couldn't get the Ritz crackers out of the sleeve fast enough, one of the ducks climbed into my lap so it could get the advantage over its siblings. What a surprise. And because Twyla was on her raft, we have no pictures of that.

Twyla paddled back over to the chairs close enough to enjoy watching a couple of them chasing each other out of my lap. But their little webbed feet have little scratchy nails so I decided to direct their attention elsewhere. I started putting pieces of cracker on Twyla's arm so the ducks would come up and nibble them off.  Then I put a piece of cracker in Twyla's mouth to see if they would take it.  No problem.  Time to get the camera.  So now you understand the next two shots.

What is amazing is that it only took about 4 crackers and 8 attempts to get that last shot.

Twyla's cousin said that we have a very interesting life up here in the North Georgia mountains.  We do indeed.

I am so grateful that we have been given the Fourth Commandment to remember and keep the Sabbath holy.  Taking that commandment seriously is what provides for moments like this.  Because had I done things my way, I would have been home "taking advantage" of perfect weather to weed an area and plant more seedlings and put up some more wood for winter or a dozen other things that were "productive."  Our Abba gives us this loving commandment to just cease from the business, the "busyness" of life and just enjoy His creation for the purpose of focusing on Him and worshiping Him.  He is faithful to reward our obedience.