B/W, for you To Color---and add a scripture if you`d like!

♡

Shayndel


PS adding a color version with a fitting scripture suggested from the comments!!  Love that scripture, and thank you for making it an interactive post.
Its fun, if anyone else has a scripture, please add it too...!! The birds by the way are supposed to be sparrows!!  So here is a song to go with it, Even the Sparrow Knows.  May it bless you especially those who are worrying about something, let it go and "don't let the trouble win...you're not on your own...If He can hold the world He can hold this moment.  Not a field nor flower escapes His notice....Even the sparrow knows He holds tomorrow....  Carefree in the care of God you'll find that He's enough."  ♬(lyrics by Jason Gray, Sparrows)
Jesus cares so much for each sparrow, so know you how much he cares and loves for YOU!!! ♡

The birds of the sky dwell beside them 
and sing among the foliage.  

Psalm 104:12

♡


Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself
in which to set her young,
near Your altar, O LORD of hosts, 
my king and my God.
Happy are those who dwell in Your house;
they forever praise You.  Selah.

Psalm 84:4~5 




 

The Ume Tree is back! notes

Praise God!
The ume tree is back and planted in nourished soil.
The workers who do the planting take such care of the garden work.
When I told my Japanese teacher about the gardeners, he said there is word to describe that in Japanese, Shokunin Kata-gi. 職人気質。He explained that it means  the spirit of a traditional craftsman.  

That word and the whole work of the gardeners and the blossoms and moving the tree reminds me of the spirit filled craftsmen we are reading about in the Parashat about the Tabernacle.
There are so many times the word "spirit filled craftsmen" is used in these parsha.

You know that everything reminds me of the parsha, when I walk through the days.  I have mentioned before how I also love the description of the blossom crafted menorah.  I am just copying a part of it here, just to copy it and honor the beauty of it and in the season of blossoms and the work of the craftsman, to the glory of God. 

I also think of the scriptures about restoration  and re-building, from Jeremiah.

I am happy that the Ume tree is back.

God brings order to our lives.   He plants and He uproots.
And He rebuilds and restores.

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!

Love,
♡
Shayndel

You are to make a menorah of pure gold, by hammered work.   Its base, stern, cups, bulbs and flowers are to be one piece.  There are to be six branches coming out of the sides, three branches of the menorah out of one side and three branches out of the other.  There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms in one branch, each with a bulb and flower, then three cups made like almond blossoms in the next branch, each with a bulb and flower, and so forth for the six branches coming out of the menorah.  Whithin the menorah will be four cups made like almond blossoms, with bulbs and flowers.  Exodus 25:  31~34

The Moving of the Plum Tree on the New Year for Trees day

Let us go out early to the vineyards,
---let us see if the vine has budded,
if their blossoms have opened,

from Song of Songs 7:13

When I went down to see if the ume (plum) tree had blossomed, there was a construction sign in front of the first blossom.

  I found that the tree was being moved! With the earth beneath it too.

Imagine What a Tu B' Shevat surprise!

Right before my eyes!

The gardeners re-assured me that it was ok.  They were doing something that would be good for the tree.

I have learned to trust the gardeners, as I have mentioned before I do  believe  the gardeners around the castle are working for the King!

So let us enjoy this holiday, plant a tree, and sing!

I will post some views of the  Tu B'Shevat Challot in the next post!

This year the Plum tree where I saw the first blossom, 
is under construction.
Yes, it was a surprise to me too!

Seeing the sweet little blossom with the yellow and black construction sign,
just in the season of the New Year for Trees!

And yet the gardeners re-assured me that she is ok!

They are doing some work in the garden to make improvements,
and as it is in the garden of the Castle I trust that the King has it under control.

No matter what is happening on the ground, her blossoms reach up to the sky and open towards heaven!

          To be continued.....

♡

Momiji and Joseph's coat of many colors

underneath the red canopy, were all the colors of autumn!

The colors made me think of this week's Torah reading about Joseph and his coat of many colors

Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he made him a coat of many colors.
--Genesis 37:3 

That morning I had shared about Joseph in an English class, and used the lyrics to this song

The very same tree, here orange (above, view under the canopy), here red (below, view from the path), and in between, all the colors of autumn

How sweet is the light, 

what a delight for the eyes to behold the sun!

Ecclesiastes 11:7

Today when I saw this Momiji tree (Japanese maple)  I went up closer to it so I could see
its beautiful red coat.    Under its canopy there were every color of the autumn leaves, red and yellows and orange and greens.  The most beautiful momiji
I'd ever seen. I sat down underneath its leaves, looking up and marveling at the colors,

its exquisite sublimity.

Just this morning I had Joseph's song
on my heart so all the colors gave me a start to think of how
Joseph didn't try to hide the colors that he had inside.

 The afternoon light came in through the leaves.
I made this little quick sketch and share it for you if you would like to
 color Joseph's coat in the color of the leaves!! Enjoy!

As the upcoming season approaches and the celebration of the miracle of light at Hannukah brings increasing light into the darkening days,  shine your light in all you do!!

Here is a prayer if you would like to,  pray it for  loved ones! (Put the name of the one you are praying for)

May............let his/her light shine before men so they may see his/her good works and glorify your Father in heaven.     ---Matthew 5:16

Blessings and Shalom! 

Love,

Shayndel

♡

PS after posting this I showed the photos to someone, my Japanese teacher, and he told me that the momoji leaves change color in stages, and eventually all the leaves will turn the same red as the outer canopy of red, and then they fall off the tree.  This shows what a city girl I am, I hadn't realized that they will all change to red.   I'm a little embarrassed, but at the same time  the moment had a certain excitement in the not knowing...

 It seemed a miracle that there were all those colors on one tree with an outside canopy color, and then a whole world of colors unseen inside the canopy!!  As I experienced it (in my innocence or naivety about how things in nature work!!) it was  like God gave me the chance to witness that miracle and His hand on the whole thing!!  Which is what it is to see the changing colors, isn't it!!!  More than a PS, rather a Pretty Sensational!!! He is amazing!!  Give thanks to the Creator of Heaven and Earth!  Enjoy the colors of where you are.♡

Biblical Fruits Challah for the Shabbat of Song and Tu B`shevat!

Figs, raisins, dates, pomegranate, olive oil, honey, barley, and one special addition, the grapefruit from Israel!

As The Shabbat of Song (see post below!) was just a few days before Tu B'shevat, I made a Biblical Fruits Challah for this Shabbat!!

This was a very exciting Challah to make! The ingredients themselves are a song.  They are expressing the 7 biblical species, which are foods mentioned in the Torah and eaten in Biblical times as well as used or represented for various significance such as in the Temple.  I took the challenge of seeing if I could find them here in Oita, Japan.  

 

Tu B'shevat is a holiday celebrated in Israel as the New Year for Fruit trees.  The name  means the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, which is tomorrow on our calendar, from the evening of January 30 to January 31.  I first learned about it last year, and this discovery of a New Year, or Birthday for Fruit trees excited me.  It became a great delight-filled time in noticing the first blossoms on the fruit trees and gave me a new awareness of this season when the sap from underground begins to enter into the trees, renewing them, a time we don't "see"  much, but a time when much is happening to prepare for the first blossoms.

Blossoms appear in the land, the time for singing has come,

The song of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

The green figs form on the fig tree,

The vines in blossom give off fragrance.

Arise my darling, 

My fair one, come away!

--Song of Songs 2:12~13

 Once I decided to make the Biblical Fruits Challah, I went Friday morning to gather the ingredients. I already had the Israeli grapefruit (famous post about the first Israeli Grapefruit HERE, and using it in the Challah HERE) And a pomegranate!!

There were dried fruits in the recipe and I also needed pomegranate juice for another recipe so I decided to go to a Department store I hadn't gone to for a while.  When I got to the food floor,  and was looking around at the dry fruits area a song came on the BGM.

Here we are preparing for the Sabbath of Song, I am in the dried fruits area, and a SONG comes to my ears, with words very clear, and in perfect English.

His Grace is enough.

I listened again,

His Grace is enough.

Oh my goodness, I am hearing this!

God I sing,  Your grace is everything!!

I was hearing worship music in our local department store food floor here in southern Japan.  Well, I practically hugged the store man, for playing such great music..

Posting note:   I didn`t realize at the time, but looked it up after from the words I heard, and it must have been the song by Chris Tomlin, Your Grace is Enough.  But how it came to our hometown Department store, ..Well, sometimes we don't need a reason.

God's Grace is Enough for me!!

Sustain me with raisin cakes,

Refresh me with apples,

For I am faint with love.

Song of Songs 2:5

 

He brought me to the banquet table 
and his banner of love was over me.

Song of Songs 2:4

Some notes on the Challah:

The dough was a very easy dough to work with.  Some of the fruity parts are that in the last stages you mix in the dried fruits--raisins and dates.  The recipe includes a fig filling that is rolled into the strands!!  You can find the recipe HERE-- Biblical Challah and Date Butter, and up on the sidebar at right.

For a perfect dish to go with this Challah for a Tu B`Shevat 'banquet`, see this recipe for Pomegranate Salmon

He Straightens the Bent

 The LORD upholds all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down.

---Psalm 145:14

 1.

I planted seeds to grow morning glories on our balcony, and got so excited when some of the little green sprouted up from the soil!  I was so excited to watch them grow.  For a few days or so.

Then to my dismay,  I went out to check them one morning and they all were bent over and fallen down, I didn`t know if there was any chance that they could still have life.  I am not much of a gardener, I am of very little experience .  And almost no know how.



But I thought, as our G-d is a powerful God who straightens the bent, upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down (see scripture above, Psalm 145:14), perhaps I could use this Word and the power of He who lives in me,  and apply it for the morning glories.  I got a new hope! I ran desperately back into the house fueled by a passion to want to straighten them and bring them back to life.  I grabbed some wari-bashi from the cabinet (disposable wood chop sticks) and  nylon string and got to work.  I sat with the wilting stems and lifted them up onto the chopsticks.

The next day, they were still standing, and little by little, with adjustments here and there, they made it to the top of the chopsticks.  They have sprouted the `vine` and today, one of the vines made it to the net and is on its way up the trellis!! Praise God!!

       2.                              Another scene---a few days ago I was having a sandwich and coffee for lunch in a nearby park, but not so nearby.  I hadn`t been there for about a year.   When I looked around, I noticed the beautiful purple hydrangeas.  After eating I took a walk around  looking at the hydrangeas, when an amazing thing caught my eye!! I saw little green plants being held up with chopsticks!! And then I saw a net around the tree, and that these little plants were morning glory, and some were even growing up and around on the net around the tree!! There was one flower!!

can you see the greens around the tree, and growing up the tree and supported by a net, a vine of morning glories!!  There was even one flower that was open

I felt filled with such great hope and confirmation that my morning glories too would make it to flower ! Seeing that I wasn`t the only one who used chopsticks to straighten the bent morning glories,  I felt the great presence of the Almighty God, here in this tiny detail of those greens so close to the ground!!!  As I looked around the garden, it was like a miracle unfolding.  Next I saw there was a great tree in the middle of the garden.  It was a palm tree!  And then I noticed...yes!... a net around the base of the Palm Tree.... for morning glories to grow up around!!  I wondered who made this garden, and at the same  I loved just sensing it was put there  from the G-d of Heaven to reveal something about His love and kindness and mercies that are new every morning for us here on earth!!

At the base of this great, straight, Palm Tree in the ....middle of the Garden!!...someone had planted morning glories!!!

Before I left the garden I began to notice tucked here in there in between shrubs and in quiet corners, I saw a watering can here, a shovel there, and then a box of garden gloves and other garden tools.  The hand of the gardener was there, and yet so sweetly she/he tried to hide her presence.  Then I saw her there, in a corner, pruning some plants.  She must have been 100 years old, her face full of lines almost hidden by a bonnet, as though she had been there, in that garden, tending it for a lifetime, plus lifetimes, waiting for someone to notice it`s splendour, to  wander through the garden just marvelling at its wonders.

Blessings and Shabbat Shalom!

Much Love,

Shayndel

Because of the mercies of ADONAI we will not be consumed, for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning!

Great is Your faithfulness.

--Lamentations  3:22~23 TLV

The First Cherry Blossoms

My blog is called Challah and Cherry Blossoms.  I`ve posted a lot of challah but not too many cherry blossoms.  And now the time for cherry blossoms is come-ing!  As your Challah and Cherry Blossoms correspondent, I must say this is a very exciting time.

This week a friend invited me to see the earliest blossoming cherry blossoms in Kyushu, the south island of Japan where we live.  Of course I said yes!  Thank you T-san and K-san!!  The skies were cloudy, but it didn`t matter.  We had a beautiful day.  The pink blossoms cheered up the whole landscape and brought new life to everything.  The funny thing is the place where we ended up to see the cherry blossoms was in a parking lot.  An ordinary parking lot becomes extraordinary when lit up by the pink `sakura` blossoms!





Cherry blossoms are like a resurrection, a bringing new life to what was once dead.  After the burst of pink they soon bring forth green leaves and the season of spring.  People flock to see them, and even as we left the parking lot, there were many people with cameras who came for the same reason we  did, to see the cherry blossoms.  We left as people came.  Everyone was taking pictures of the cherry blossoms.

There is still a month before the rest of the cherry blossoms here and in all Japan officially open.  Its a little hard to explain, but this viewing today was like a sneak preview, in the still cold days of February, a reminder of the new life that comes after the sap begins to flow (remember Tu B`Shevat, the New Year for trees. That day a few weeks ago commemorates when the sap begins to flow after the months of winter in the trees.)

At the end of our adventure, she took us to see her new granddaughter.  How precious is new life!
And what a special reminder that we too can be born again!!

Blessings and blossoms!!
Shayndel

 A prayer of thanks for today, Dear Father thank you for this day that You have made.  How glad we are for every moment in it,  we rejoice in your Creation.  Thank you for friends who are so kind and invited me today on the day outing.  We know it is You who provides everything in our lives, and that You bring us together with people for your purposes. Thank you for the beautiful canopy of pink that makes everything new and reminds us of the power of the Resurrection of Yeshua.  
The color pink is like a burst of your Love painted in the landscape, announcing a new season and showing the miracle and wonder of how what was once dead comes to life as You direct all of Creation.  Please reveal more about Yourself to us in this season as we eagerly anticipate the cherry blossoms opening throughout Japan.  May the Messiah`s return come soon and may we prepare for His coming by becoming new in You and seeking your Kingdom and the heavenly on earth.  I pray blessings for the one who is reading this.  That she will be renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and that she will come to know Yeshua as her Saviour.  And to the reader here now who has already received Salvation in Yeshua, may she be constantly renewed by your Great Love and Shalom, and be restored in health and strength and new passion and creativity.  May all we do bring Glory to You.   Hashem Yeshua.  Amen!

 Yeshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life!"

---John 11:25

First Ume!

  

When Shaddai scattered kings there, 
it was snowing on Zalmon.  ---Psalm 68:15 TLV

I looked out my window

it looked like it snowed!

I went down to see
the first snow,
but after all
it wasn`t snow at all...
it was God`s call
that I may see
 the very first
Ume blossom!!!

Ume= plum
Ume blossoms look like cherry blossoms, but they are bloom earlier, usually late January or early Feb. so this was early!!A first sign of spring.