They Call Me Blondie

The Birth of Jesus Foretold  26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. Have you ever stopped to think about the birth of Jesus predicted?  I mean, how troubling that must have been for a teenage girl to hear from a so called "angel" that she was going to have a baby and he would save the world just because she had favor with God?  I'm pretty sure I would have been unsettled for days wondering if I was seeing things, hearing voices, or straight up crazy.  It says Mary was greatly troubled, so I wonder what thought...

Were Harry and Sally wrong?  If you're over the age of 26 most of you have probably seen "When Harry Met Sally", a popular 80s movie about friends becoming lovers, then back to friends, then ultimately ending up together.  The funny part about the movie is the commentators and camera "confessionals" where Harry and Sally talk about how they can, or CANT, have friends of the opposite sex because sex always gets in the way. Well, in some subcultures, esp once married, its almost as if having opposite-sex friendships is taboo. This makes me sad.  Thankfully I have friends ok with going against the religious cultural 'norm', but then again, I have always been a rebel.  I'd like to think Jesus was a rebel too. Afterall, didn't he hang out with prostitutes? And his guy friends weren't exactly class president.  So while I may appear a bit "rebel-ish" I don't want you to mistake this for being ok with going against values and standa...