Redeeming Love

Last night I saw the movie, Redeeming Love. It's based on a book by the same title written by Francine Rivers. I very much enjoyed the movie. I've read the book and liked it too. In fact, the book was better because it went into the story a bit more. Still the movie was worth watching. It's losely based on the story of the prophet Hosea in the Old Testament. Hosea married a prostitute. She was untrue to him after their marriage and still he loved her. In fact, at one point she was being sold as a slave and he bought her back not to be his slave but to be his wife. This story is a depiction of what God did for His wayward people. They / we have not stayed true to Him in our hearts. We have strayed and yet he bought us back with the blood of His Son.

February is right around the corner. It's the month in which we celebrate love. Usually its the love between a man and a woman that we celebrate but the greatest love of all is what God demonstrated for His people when He sent His Son. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Harmattan

This time of year is a special time in Nigeria, the country where I grew up. It is the middle of the dry season right now, a special mini-season called Harmattan. Nigeria is a country on the west coast of Africa just beneath the Sahara Desert. Christmas and New Year in Nigeria fall on the calendar at the same time as Harmattan. The harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind. It blows southwest from the Sahara Desert into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March. Humidity is extremely low and the heavy amount of dust in the air can sometimes severely limit visibility and block the sun for days. It has a similar effect to that of a heavy fog. Against this backdrop, we celebrated Christmas and New Year. My father used to say that he liked the fact that Christmas came in the middle of Harmattan. In America everything would be stark, cold, and dreary this time of year, with the trees bare and the air full of winter’s chill. In the middle of this otherwise dreary time, Christians celebrate the birth of the Savior with ornamented and brightly lit Christmas trees, gifts, good food, and Christmas cheer. Likewise, in Nigeria, when the world is dry and dusty, and all the leaves and grass are a dreary brown, Christians are celebrating the joyous birth of their Savior with songs and good cheer. Growing up, I knew Harmattan to be a season of dry air and extreme dust. When I was just a baby, I had very thin, wispy, blond hair. During the Harmattan season the static electricity from the dry blowing air caused my hair to stand on end most of the time and my family fondly called me “Harriet the Harmattan cat” because my hair looked like the hair on the back of cats when they arch in fear or anger. As I got older, and my hair thickened and lay down as it should, I became accustomed to this time of year when dust accumulated on our furniture overnight and covered the trees in the outside world around me. That was so long ago now. I've put January harmmattan days behind me years ago. Now I'm faced with cold, stark, sometimes icy winter days. But January still makes me loook forard to the moths ahead. As a child I looked forward to the rainy season arriving when my worl would turn luch and green again. Today, much the same--I look forward to spring when the world aroudn me warms and turns lush and green again too. Hurry spring!