Shulchan Orech…. the meal begins. There has been some drama built into the meal to heighten interest for the children and it is the nature of our God, our Lord to tell stories, to engage us.

But now it is time to put down the haggadahs, and begin to enjoy the feast, starting perhaps with matzoh ball soup, a favorite of mine. Light as air, flecked with parsley, there are dumplings made from matzoh, bobbing in rich golden chicken broth.

There is a tradition to eat a hard boiled egg dipped in salt water to once again remember crossing the Red Sea.

The menus will differ from the origins of the family, where they live. I grew up in South Florida so I grew up enjoying largely eastern European Jewish food. And that meant~ brisket served at the meal, with roasted potatoes, and sweet sour red cabbage, perhaps roasted asparagus. The desserts will be made without dairy as this is a meat meal, and we are keeping kosher.

I think now back on those meals at friends’ homes… homes that served bacon to me for breakfast when i spent the night. Why did they keep kosher on this night and not the rest of the year?

Because that night was different, different from all the others… and they knew it. They were driven compelled to remember the night and the difference. Yes, it is better that we remember all the year, but God knows our frame and that we are weak and but dust.

And in the end, perhaps the Lord would prefer hat his children remember the night that redeemed an enslaved people instead of following outdated dietary customs. I dont know…. the question still lingers.

Beth has asked me to write a little something here while she is still in the hospital…just to keep the momentum up on the Matzoh Project.

They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with bitter herbs and unleavened bread they shall eat it. Exodus12:8

I am going to pick up where she left off… at the Korech, which is when they take the matzah and smear the bitter herbs on one side, and charoset (a substitute for lamb) on the other.

I read somewhere that they must eat this sandwich type thing in a certain order…first the bitter side, then the sweet side. They do this to remind themselves that though the period of slavery they endured was bitter, their redemption is sweeter still. Through knowing bitter pain, we can fully appreciate and savour the joy and sweetness of redemption in our Lord. At least, that’s something I’m learning these days.

This was the end of the first portion of the seder.

This is Beth’s daughter, Katherine… Beth-to-you/Mommy-to-me is in the hospital right now due to complications with a PEG tube that was put in her abdomen last week. She has been in the hospital since Sunday (the 14th) but was experiencing severe pain the week before. She asked me to write a little something here just to let you guys know that she has not forgotten about this Project of hers.

She hopes that, because she poured herself completely into this, her mind and soul and body and time, that it means to you something akin to what it means to her. Just a chance to get to know our Jesus a little better.

Hopefully she will be back at it soon – as soon as she possibly can. Please remember to pray for her right now, for the doctors and for our family…if ever we needed you, my Jesus ’tis now!

And now we taste the bitter herbs, most often horseradish. This is to remind of the bitterness of slavery under Pharaoh. One might begin to wonder if this isn’t being overplayed. After all, we have dipped the green vegetables in salt water, to bring about a recollection of the many tears shed and counted by the Lord before the deliverance from slavery and oppression.

In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable of two sinners: the Pharisee and the tax collector. The tax collector is reckoned to be the more forgiven because he is the more grateful. He sees the depth of his need for a Saviour, for a Passover lamb. He is the fortunate one.

Can we be reminded enough of our need for a redeemer? Is it not all too easy to think that the other person really is the one who needs cleansing?

At the emergency room on Friday, I found myself getting impatient as other people were being tended to… surely the staff could see I had priority? I separated myself from suffering people, elevated myself over them. It is the crushing that brings out what is there under the surface. My point is not what lurks in my heart… my point is that it is there… and I desperately need a redeemer. And frankly I cannot afford to forget that fact.

Last night I was in the emergency room until close to 11PM. Tony was with me, and when i came home I lamented, mourned even not being able to post. Tonight, I am not posting tonight either because I enjoyed watching a movie with Tony.

I needed both. I needed the two bags of IV fluids they gave me in the hospital… the waters were sweet. They refreshed me. Tonight, a good old fashioned “rom-com” as Marzee says. Tony and I laughed and laughed. It reminded me of the trip to Silver City when all the girls here saw it together and then the Ryan Reynolds marathon we held afterwards. The laughter with Tony was sweet. The memories of watching it with the girls was sweet.

Shortly after the exodus, the Israelites come to some waters that are bitter, And they needed to be sweetened. They complain bitterly , barely 24 hours past the GREAT DELIVERANCE and they are complaining. A piece of wood is thrown into the bitter waters and the waters become sweet. That wood looks ahead to Calvary and an instrument of death and torture which will make waters sweet for all time. I have had some sweet waters in the past two days. And they have been worked thru different avenues but it is because of a tree, a piece of death and instruction suffered willingly.

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they camped there by the water.

and beyond this patch of waters,  they come to Elim…. Tonight is different from others, I take a break, hopefully we have enough food for thought in all the sections to keep us marching closer to Jesus.