Unwrapping the Truth (and Gifts) and Our Annual Office Party

In one of our Christmas cards, we received there was a small pamphlet titled, Unwrapping the Truth about Christmas. The pamphlet details some interesting facts about the bible and the life of Christ. One item which stood out for me was this...

Jesus: The Focus and Fulfillment of Prophecy

There are at least 456 Old Testament prophetic references that pertain to a future person that all were fulfilled in the life of Jesus.

The most common objection is that the fulfillment of these prophecies was by chance. Science and mathematics professor Peter Stoner estimated a reasonable probability that one man might have fulfilled just 8 of these 456 prophecies at one chance in 10 to the 17th power.

1 chance in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000

Take that amount of silver dollars and cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Mark one and stir the whole mass thoroughly. Blindfold a man and have him pick up only one silver dollar and have it be the right one. what chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man... (Peter W. Stoner, Science Speaks, Moody Press, p. 107).

And these don't even account for the other 448 prophecies also fulfilled in the person of Jesus!

That's a lot of coins. As our senior pastor at church is fond of saying, "just let that thought rest against your mind for a moment".

This Christmas I think Rachel was secretly hoping for a car with a bow around it in the driveway but that wasn't in the budget. She knows that this spring she'll likely have something of her own once she gets her license. She actually had just a very small list of things for us to consider; nothing at all spendy. She was happy with a knockoff pair of Uggs from Maurice's for $25 rather than the real thing for at least $100 more. She had a few CD requests, one of which was Frank Sinatra. She's got a thing for his music which I don't understand but then I wouldn't expect her to understand my fondness for Supertramp.

Probably the biggest request she had was her new cellphone.

I very much respect that she isn't a needy person and is more than happy with all we do for her. If anything, it makes me want to do all that much more for her as I know she's appreciative. I never dreamed that being a stepdad could or would be so rewarding.

Tammy's main gift this year was a Cricut. It's funny—we went to buy it for her the other night and there was another guy mulling them over. He didn't think the person he was buying it for would actually use it but it's what they wanted. Rachel and I were thinking the same thing about Tammy/Mom. We bought it anyway as that's what she wanted and there will no doubt be times when she'll use it. It's not like I'm going to be flying my RC plane on a regular basis either so who am I to criticize?

Speaking of my RC plane...

Last summer I went through a phase where I sort of wanted a remote control airplane. I didn't want it bad enough to go out and buy one but I did my share of window shopping online for one. It wasn't intended to be a hint to Tammy but she took it as one and I'm now the proud owner of a Wingo. It's the perfect plane for a beginner as it's more forgiving than most others.

I'll know soon enough how forgiving it is once the weather warms a bit.

I went online looking at YouTube videos of the Wingo in action and came across an idea for my next project...attaching a video camera to the plane and getting some video of our neighborhood from a few hundred feet up. Check this out. There's a bit of a geek lurking within me and this sort of thing definitely appeals to that part of me.

We had our annual Christmas office party this past Sunday at work. We were a little disappointed with the turnout but for those of us who took the time to put the event together, we all agreed it was all worthwhile. Actually, we pride ourselves on the tackiness of the event so don't go feeling sorry for us. Roll the video.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

David Crowder Concert, NWA188 and Photo Review

Image
I got up from laying down after the all-night shift Thursday morning and figured I'd better get a ride in while I could because the forecast wasn't looking so good. The temp was just above 40 with a northeast wind steady at 15 mph under overcast skies. 40 degrees is very reasonable cycling weather but the key is to be somewhat chilled when you start out. Being warm and toasty at the beginning leads to being sweaty, cold and clammy before the ride is over. While putting air in my tires before leaving I could tell that I needed a lighter top layer. I'm glad I made the switch. I loved the ride  ( Strava link ) and would like to have gone further but David Crowder was playing at our church and I didn't want to be late getting in line for some good seats as it was general admission. I considered a quick detour by Hosanna on the way home to get a pic of their tour bus but I figured I should really act my age. The concert was worth every penny and better than any of the o...
Read more

Riding, Retirement and a Home Revisited

Image
I skipped out of work a couple hours early today to take advantage of some mild weather. I took the pups for a walk then headed west on my bike putting my heart, lungs, and quads through some paces. It felt so nice to be out there. I'd have stayed out longer but I had to be back to take Rachel to dance class for 5:00. It's possible that today will be the last time I'll have to take her to class if she passes her road test this Thursday. I'd like to have taken some time to hose down my bike. It's full of road salt and that can't be a good thing. Every large vehicle that went past me had a cloud of salt dust trailing in its wake and settling on me. I'll spend some time cleaning it tomorrow and have it ready for a ride on Wednesday after work. Speaking of work—I've been kicking around the idea of bidding on a staff job. Believe me, it's not something I want to do. It's about self-preservation. I want to work another five years to get Rachel thr...
Read more

My Bicycle Ride to Babbitt

Image
Wow, what a trip. In planning for this ride, I figured I’d have only two weekends this summer when our schedules could come together to give it a go. The first of those two times came and went two weeks ago when a steady north wind kept me grounded. There’s no way I could have gone the distance into the wind, and what I was really hoping for was a stiff southwesterly breeze, but that wasn’t in the cards either. After looking at the wind forecast on Wednesday, I told Tammy that it looked as though we were looking at another no-go. I’d been watching the forecast the previous 5 days, and they consistently said to expect a light wind from the southeast. It wouldn’t be a headwind but wouldn’t be much help either. I came home from work on Thursday morning and looked at the forecast again, but it hadn’t changed. I got a couple hours of sleep, then woke up to work in the yard. Then, I decided I wouldn’t let the lack of a tailwind keep me from going…just so long as it wasn’t a headwind. I tol...
Read more