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Polliwog Lessons

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"What's it All About?"

A is for ACHOOO!

a2z: Take 2. Patty Wysong Helping bloggers blog.

My good friend Patty is at it again!

We're off on another series of blogs through the alphabet.

I like these because, although we are limited by a letter,

I can be funny, serious, or informative... Today, I'm sick.

I've been sneezing and coughing for the last couple days. Sneezes are funny. Just ask any baby. They're funny in any language or any age, but especially from animals or children... and even old folks, too. I usually don't like to sneeze because sometimes one sneeze triggers another, and I can't stop. That can be embarrassing sometimes.

A...A...ACHOO!

(baby elephant sneeze video)

Did I hear a "God bless you" ?

Thank you!

Do you know where that phrase came from?

Mostly, the response to the sneeze came from the superstition that a sneeze causes the soul to escape the body through the nose. Saying "bless you" (or something similar) would stop the devil from claiming the person's freed soul. Others believed the opposite: that evil spirits use the sneeze as an opportunity to enter a person's body. Some believed that the heart momentarily stops during a sneeze (it doesn't), and that saying "bless you" was a way of welcoming the person back to life.

I'm not superstitious at all, but I do want God to bless me and those around me with good health... so I will say -

(a double sneeze video)

Gesundheit! (Germany)

Salute! (Italy)

A te sante! (France)

Salud! (Spain)

Dia linn! (Ireland)

"May you live 100 years!" (China)

"May your dreams come true!" (Australia)

(the panda sneeze, by request)

For more A2Z, go to Ordinary Lives.

Monday Manna - Justice and Mercy

What is God like?

"...Let thine eyes observe My ways."

(Proverbs 23:26)

Is He a stern ruler that requires man to measure up to His high standards? Are His ways so high that we cannot attain them? Does He punish those who go their own way?

God is holy. He is pure. His laws are right. He is the Creator and Designer of all things. He also has the power to destroy.

"Be not wise in thine own eyes;

fear the Lord, and depart from evil."

(Proverbs 3:7)

Yet...

there is another side of our God.

Like a light and shelter in the midst of an angry storm, we find that God is also gracious and merciful, and full of compassion. So sweet is that mercy in the midst of our sin and God's justice!

Jonah said,

"...for I knew that Thou art a gracious God,

and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness..."

A holy and righteous God cannot allow sin to go unpunished, so how can He also be merciful and gracious? It was at the cross that His justice met His mercy. Jesus, the sinless man, took the punishment for sin to satisfy the requirement of God's justice. Those who accept this wondrous gesture of love receive the gift of God's mercy.