Jesus… Light of the World

What did I say last week about the Christmas tree?
I called it!

Yesterday, while everyone was out of the house, Liz pulled down the lights & ornaments so that, this morning, there is a tall, dark, conical shadow staring me down in silhouette. This shall be my task following coffee and this post… putting the tree back in its box.

But there’s a light that doesn’t get taken down seasonally or ever go out, and even largely secular France is celebrating it today… whether they know it or not…

Le Chandeleur

February 2nd is le Chandeleur, and has come to be associated with the consumption – beyond what is probably reasonable – of crêpes filled with nutella (or whatever else strikes your fancy).

You know crêpes… they’re the really thin pancakes that are filled with all manner of goodness, then either rolled or folded, ready to serve and maybe topped off with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

(I’ll add a recipe below, as well as Timo pouring & flipping them.)

From the word… “chandeleur”, there are two easily recognizable parts… “chandelle” which is the French word for “candle”, and the suffix “-eur” which is most often associated with the person who practises a certain occupation (eg. agriculteur = someone who works with agriculture – “farmer”). So a “chandeleur” is a very old word for someone who makes candles or who “brings light to the world”.

So going back to the 4th century or so, Catholic tradition holds that February 2nd would have been ’round about the time that Jesus would’ve been presented at the temple – 40 days after his birth.

Where crêpes came into the picture is anyone’s guess, but that’s become the present-day focus of le chandeleur.

Baptism Last Sunday

Lst Sunday was a great service. There were 23 people in attendance, including six from Stephanie’s family. She read several verses before being baptized – as a testimony and as an explanation to some in her family who really don’t “get” her fairly new-found faith. I essentially did a Bible Study on why we baptize by immersion, in Jesus’ name and why baptism is so important.

Late in the week they’d asked if we could play the video of a certain song immediately following the baptism. We were able to go one step better… On Saturday, we found chord charts and the kids learned the song, so we could all sing it together. This blew them away!

Kudos Dominic, Sophie & Timo!

Also in attendance was a family that had been with us just before Christmas. They joined us for dinner afterward and we had a nice afternoon together.

We give God thanks and glory for such a great Sunday!

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