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Pentecost...

...or is it Mother's Day?

What do you think of those phony Hallmark Holidays that we dare not skip completely, Mother's Day and Father's Day, and that, if we are in a romantic relationship of some sort, then we must pay attention to Valentine's Day as well? These are what I think of as "Increasing Florist and Greeting Card Makers Profit Days." They were designed to literally force us to spend money to prove our love and devotion to someone we ought already to love and be devoted to! They are a scam, and yet I, along with nearly everyone else in the country, must obey our corporate masters and send cards and flowers and make phone calls. We should do these things anyway... but we don't do we? Ah, maybe these days are not such a terrible idea after all...

In any case, the real Holy-Day today is Pentecost! This is the day, 50 days after Easter, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. The Holy Spirit is that wonderful person/gift from God whose work enables us to have faith at all. As Luther says in the Small Catechism:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.

We are all moved into our new house in Pleasanton now. Thank the Lord all went without a hitch and we are settling in nicely.

Last night we all went up to the top of Mt. Diablo for the Mount Diablo Astronomical Society Public Astronomy Program. We looked at the moon and Saturn with it's rings and gazed out over the gorgeous valleys, mountains and cities of the San Francisco Bay Area... what a wonderful place God has given us to live in!

Here are a few of the telescopes...



Learning about the phases of the moon


Serenity and her best friend Kailey



Serenity playing the role of Earth in the Habitable Zone explanation...



We all had a great time, Serenity was really excited about stars and looking through the telescopes so we plan to go again next time... More photos are here at Flickr

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