"God is Good" Wrap - adapted from Life Alive

For the greens, I used Asiatic dayflower. I weeded them up from the garden last week but this week there were new young ones. Truly, they are tenacious!

It felt good to eat the new ones rather than just putting them directly in the compost!*

You can just see a couple peeking out on the left and right.

I added tamari almonds and avocado. Used both tofu and sprouted mung beans (short sprouts). The rice is short grain GABA.  Not sure if tahini is in the recipe, but I used it.

A Tiny Butternut Harvest

These nuts are a cross between butternuts (white walnuts) and Japanese walnuts. It's hard to find the purebred ones. I checked it out online because a number of the seedlings were planted by squirrels in the lawn, and I wanted to help restore the species.  They still taste great!

Pure butternut shells are spikier, and do not clearly show the central ridge where the halves meet.

This first nut opened beautifully, I must have hammered it just right. The other two came out somewhat mangled!  Thinking about getting a good hardshell nutcracker.

Previous research said to let the nuts dry in their green hulls, just keep them exposed to dry air, such as by hanging in onion bags, until the hulls dry on their own. Well that didn't work for me, they still molded on the inside. I had too many. You know they're dead when the get very lightweight.

Finally the best advice came this third year of knowing the trees, from Leda Meredith in Northeast Foraging. She said to go ahead and remove the husks with a hammer; they'll be less likely to mold.

Next, when to shell them? Unlike her recommendation for black walnuts - to dry a couple months for the best flavor - she doesn't mention waiting for butternuts. Anyway, maybe I can put some loose in the fridge to dry out more quickly... Perhaps they'll be ready to shell and replace with a new batch before they get piled up... 

Wild Tea

Clockwise from top: black raspberry, mint, ground ivy, purple coneflower (echinacea), goldenrod, mulberry.

Just one leaf of each.

This cup steeped at room temperature for 5 hours; even this dark, it didn't taste tannic. Just green and mildly minty, refreshing. I drank it down fast, and now I have a bright feeling down my throat to my belly.

Also i had one cup steeped in boiling water for a few minutes, it was light in color.  The dark was just more flavorful but not intense. So I recommend a long steep, or else blending the leaves in water and straining. Or just blend whole leaves in a smoothie.

Some Forages

So i'm amazed at everything out there... God's generous bounty, so overlooked, especially in the city!

With foraging eyes open now, two days ago I saw these curious fruits on 7 ornamental trees near work. Not wild, but I know they weren't planted for their fruit, so I took one and looked it up. A Kousa dogwood. The fruit is amazing, like peaches and very ripe guava, the skin thick and a bit bitter with phytonutrients. It is edenic. Some websites are not thrilled with the fruit - all I can think is, this must be a better variety! This should not be missed on earth! So I picked more! One leaf is still attached in the photo.

I pulled out of the strawberry patch this weed that looked familiar from my attempts to absorb "Northeast Foraging" by Leda Meredith. Indeed, there it is - purslane! I've never eaten it but it tastes so familiar, liked cooked celery? No, I cant't place it!

I added to my salad today a bit of peppergrass, (on the right of the photo), young plantain leaf, lamb's quarters, and yellow wood sorrel.

Also today I saw in the garden some kind of thistle that I think is edible, will have to check it out more closely.

The hay covering the strawberries came from a farm and I believe it brought the seeds of the purslane, the thistle, and some fuzzy leaved plant that I hope turns out to be a squash! Or, that must have come from my kitchen compost.

Down by the river, a big patch of mint, lady's thumb, jewelweed, sumac - not in flower, need to confirm it's not poison - with groundnut vines twined through it. And of course, red mulberries - I got about a quart, and some leaves fell, which make a very healthy tea.

Nearby the house too is echinacea, clover flowers, Asiatic dayflower, wild carrot, dandilion, goldenrod, and black nightshade, and of course, maple trees....

Here are the mulberries drying; with some sweet orange cherry tomatoes from a plant given me by my father's wife. The sweetest tomatoes ever, they fulfill their identity (bright, tangy) fruits.

Purple Pear Smoothie

Purple Pear Smoothie

1 scoop (18 g) Optimal Plant Proteins (or Raw Protein powder + healthy sweetener)

1 bosc pear, seeded

Blueberries

Black nightshade berries (safe to eat when they are fully ripe - shiny black)

Water or soy milk

Well I only had 1T of berries so this isn't quite purple! But it could be!

Note: enchanter's nightshade or deadly nightshade (sometimes called black nightshade) are a dangerously toxic similar looking plant. Note The edible black nightshade berries in the center if the garnish - they are grouped together, not growing separately. Also the green sepals behind the berries are small and barely extend beyond the base of the berries. Also the flowers on this plant are white, and the leaves are usually dotted with insect holes.

The Symmetric Property

Scriptures related to the poem posted a couple days ago, "Father of Lights":

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.  (James 1:17-18)

   Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him."
    Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
   Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, 'Show us the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake. 
    Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. 

    If you love me, keep my commandments.   

   I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— the Spirit of truth, whom the world can't receive; for it doesn't see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.

    I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.   Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
   One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him." (John 14:6-18)

"[...] Giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1:12-15).

His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance. (Hebrews 1:3a)

GK Chesterton wrote in St Francis of Assisi,

"It may give a much milder shock if I say here, what most of us have forgotten, that if St. Francis was like Christ, Christ was to that extent like St. Francis. And my present point is that it is really very enlightening to realise that Christ was like St. Francis. What I mean is this; that if men find certain riddles and hard sayings in the story of Galilee, and if they find the answers to those riddles in the story of Assisi, it really does show that a secret has been handed down [...]"

Christ was like St. Francis and we can know Christ better, because we know something of St. Francis.  We accept and can recognize as truly historical - as something that really happened, based in some true source, the flavor of St. Francis' joyful dependency on God.  The haze lifts when we understand that these truths really were embodied and lived.

Christ is the very image of the substance of the Father and we can know the Father better, because we know something of Christ.  Who is this Father, this invisible God, to whom our religion calls for such devoted affection?  He seems so out of reach.  We must believe Christ's word on this.

"If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him."   

We must grapple with this co-identification of qualities until we believe it. We must remind ourselves daily until the recognition becomes habitual. Based on the symmetric property,

if a=b, then b=a (where "=" refers to spiritual characteristics), 

we can and should, without hesitation or fear of approach, apprehend the Father, who otherwise seems so hazy and hidden, as being so full of comfort and grace and human sympathy as Christ.

Source: mreiafrica, http://www.slideshare.net/mreiafrica/math-6-project-alice-in-wonderland-ch46

And so, in every humble thing that St. Francis loved, in the daily elements of our life where ever mercy and humility is found, there is Christ and there is the Father.  Father, we want to know you more. Let us open our hearts to the real You. 

That is enough to rest upon and absorb for our whole lives. But Christ goes on, audaciously, to say that the same symmetric property can be applied backward to us, we who are abiding in Him... and the love, intimacy, fellowship, and submission flash like light through a circle of symmetry, between us and Christ and the Father and to us...

Chocolate Cherry Milkshake - Vegan

What a huge milkshake! Or, what a tiny cat!

My cat waited patiently for attention while I took this shot.

Chocolate Cherry Milkshake - Vegan

Recipe from http://nutritionfacts.org/video/healthy-chocolate-milkshakes/

(For 1 serving: These are the approx. amounts I used; adjust to taste.

To make it creamier and even richer, could add cashews. But it was delicious as-is!)

Frozen unsweetened cherries (11)

Dutch cocoa powder (2 t)

Date puree or date sugar (2 1/2 T)

Unsweetened soy milk (1 1/2 - 2 c)

(1 T raw cashews)

Blend.

(Garnish with a cherry and a compostable paper straw.)

Dr. Greger also offers some other uses for these ingredients:

"The Vision of a Natural World Made New"

it is not true to represent St. Francis as a mere
romantic forerunner of the Renaissance and a revival of natural
pleasures for their own sake. The whole point of him was that the secret
of recovering the natural pleasures lay in regarding them in the light
of a supernatural pleasure. In other words, he repeated in his own
person that historic process noted in the introductory chapter; the
vigil of asceticism which ends in the vision of a natural world made
new. 

G K Chesterton, from St. Francis of Assisi

(Restroom) Losses, Redeemed

I am so excited about humanure composting! Discovering www.humanurehandbook.com was transformative! There was always something so literally wasteful about modern toilets but I didn't know there was an alternative. How awesome to start shaking off compromises, and be able to daily practice more respect for God's creation. This is how they do it in Vietnam and this can transform public health in disadvantaged parts of the world...

I just made and framed this sign.

"Redee Your Losses" - Yes I am making a pun
Which just begins to hint at a larger truth.
Redemption is more than just keeping something from being thrown out.
It's transformation of our failures & losses, irritants, to a pearls that honor God
More, it's transformation of our fallen humanity into
children of God
It's the overflowing generosity of the poor
who know they have nothing of their own
It's the turning upside-down of what's valued
it's forgiven sinners
it's those who are not, becoming those who are
His power being perfected in our weakness
it's our destiny, and it's coming
because
The meek shall inherit the earth
and a little child shall lead them

A convent of Little Sisters of Humility started doing humanure composting. (Humanure Handbook, 3rd Edition, Joseph Jenkins, p. 69-70)

Father of Lights

Father of Lights

Ancient One, 

whose memories reach

so deep through time they touch

the utter present

Who could have guessed how very young you are my Father?

no one can get younger than these photons leaping at me,

how kindergarten the rainbow!

how playful are all ears!

see, each white snowflake falls so open-hearted, open-palmed;

touch, only ‘babysoft’ describes the gosling downbelly.

how plucking-puckering new is this lime-bright gooseberry!
how snappy, zippy are the ultraviolet orchid and horseradish!

a ripe peach requires indecorum.
Highly lacking in gravity are the hummingbird's green?-buzz-purple? feathers!

it's childishly rash of you to strew so many fisheggs and stars;

"innocence" echoes "comfort" off each purr.

how brashly brazen are you about things Big and Blue!

at summer noon the pond so freshens flesh;

at summer eve the ocean breeze breathes life.
all music bubbles pure from your pure springs;

And who but you the shepherd with the alto voice that sings,

"little antlered one, little belling one, melodious little bleater,

sweet I think the lowing that you make in the glen,"*

so mild are its eyes, offspring of your heart's mildness;

You are the Alpha of all little ones.

i realize now that only children spring forth from your nature:

they, seeing you are like them, call you Father,

hence your name;

the meek, through family likeness, have inheritance.

So original the place of your will

that your first Word is still being heard for the very first time:

Orderer of praise from budding infant lips;
Ordainer of new-born adults who leap for joy

Refractor of orange-pink sunset cloudfire, Chemist of

surprising firefly lights, Inventor of angel and of

pinetree aureoles; Painter of neon deepsea fish

glow, Fount of purple nova-dust light,

Idea before each moonlit lake

wavelight, Genius of

glowing-skin-at-dawn

light; Maker of liquid

earth-heart lava light, and

Smith of smelted-sword light;

you're the Spark of shocking lightening lights,

Infuser of the light in mists; Source of hot white starlight,

Creator of eyelit eye-to-eye lights, Author of that brightest light inside the yellow leaves:

Begetter

of your perfect likeness (light from light)

who at ease was tiny in a maiden's womb;

whose body's first need was his mother's breast;

that boy so simple-minded, to forget to follow home;

that man so puerile, honestly! to strip and don a towel and kneel down - - !

My Father,

i assumed you dim & distant in your age

and me likewise decrepit in my fear, weakness, & harms.

let's both scorn it together!

oh, how bright is the love in your old old old arms

*12th Century Celtic, trans. Jackson

Echinacea (Purple Coneflower Leaf) Lemonaid

You might say it's glowing artificially!

You're right, I have a flashlight rigged behind it.

But in a truer sense, 

this drink is at its most natural when glowing.

It was created by light, and with light, and through light.

I think chlorophyll is the physical identity of photons

Submitting to bonds, 

Incarnating

Just long enough for us to injest them.

Because we were also made not only 

to be touched by light 

Upon our senses,

But to be filled

    With light!

So may we both understand,

 and know

The Love of God, the Father of Lights.

Echinacea (Purple Coneflower Leaf) Lemonaid 

This is sugar-free because graulated sugar 1) is often made using bone char as a filter; 2) it can cause swings in blood sugar and depletes the body's nutrients in order to be assimilated, perhaps more than other sweeteners. Maple or birch or linden tree or brown rice syrup, concentrated fruit syrup, dried fruit, molasses, or agave, can be substituted for the stevia and/or xylotol.

For a smoothie, peel rather than juice the lemon, and add ice instead of water.

Servings: 4

Juice of 1 lemon

5 or 6 drops liquid stevia extract

1/4 - 1/3 cup xylotol

Water to taste

20-26 purple coneflower leaves 

Blend in high-powered blender about 10 seconds or until erythritol and leaves are fully broken down.

Tamarind Lentils with GABA Rice and Asiatic Dayflower Pods

I just received for my birthday the gift of Veganomicon from my mother and Northeast Foraging by Leda Meredith from my father.  Mom and I made these Tamarind Lentils together. I am thrilled to report that the first recipe from Veganomicon is fantastic! Perfectly blended tanginess and sweetness with some traditional Indian spices.

I just foraged some Asiatic Dayflowers out of my side garden where they grew as weeds. Turning the spathes back made hearts, and revealed pods at various stages of ripeness.

I feel close to nature, and both my parents, and God. I am blessed.

And my taste buds are happy!

The Self

Tomorrow I will be giving a message at a small Christian church of mostly young adults from a Therevada Buddhist background.  Although somewhat nominal in terms of understanding and mostly cultural in terms of practice, its teachings influence their spiritual perspective.  My prayer is that this sermon will help set them free from a key hindrance - feeling like there's always a moral imperative they can't attain.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Do you ever ask yourself, "Who am I, really?" What is this being called "me"? You want things, you feel things, but where is that coming from? What is this "Self"? It's one of those weird things, the more you try to figure it out, the less you know.

Some people answer the question by saying, YOLO, you only live once, You gotta enjoy life, and they live to serve them selves. Everything they do really just has a goal of satisfying their wants, and desires.

There is actually a religion that teaches this:  The Self is our guide. The right thing to do is whatever you want to do. There is no such thing as right and wrong. The only thing that is wrong is something that you do not feel like doing. You are the Lord of yourself.  Your will, coming up out of yourself, is everything that matters. You take what you want... but you are never deeply satisfied... so you try taking more. 

• This actually is a lie from hell. Even though we feel temporary pleasure, we are destroying our real selves, and other people too.  
• So this idea, live to serve yourself, is Satan talking.  It's a lie and it brings people to hell.

I went the opposite direction with this question about who I was, what to do with my self.
I remember as a young teenager, before I knew Christ, I tried to figure it out. I stared into the mirror, looking deeply into my own eyes, trying to find the answer -  Where was I? What was this "self"? It actually got kind of creepy because I felt like there was nothing to actually point to. The devil whispered in my ear, "that's because you are nothing." I actually felt like I was kind of disappearing. I remember feeling, and living, like I should not ask very much for myself.  I should put my self to the side.

Another religion, Buddhism, traditionally teaches that we need to escape our self-centered, selfish desires. There is a traditional sermon by Buddha called the Fire Sermon. He said, in essence, that everything is burning. Material objects are burning, our senses, our desires, our will. He was saying that everything that can be seen is going to be destroyed one way or another. We die, our bodies are destroyed. Our passions and desires are even the cause for our destruction. So, we should not put our energy or our focus into our desires, what we want, what we can see. We should put our energy and focus on what cannot be seen. If we let everything else burn up, so we no longer are moved by it, that is when we can be set free from the chains of our passions. Does that sound familiar? 

• Our human self is not real, it's just one appearance. Our goal is to be completely set free from Self - to be at one with the universe.  So our self, the essential being who is "me" really does not matter, in fact, we should get rid of that whole idea. 
• Here again, do you notice the devil whispering?  We have to learn to notice what is a lie and what is the truth. But many things are half truth and half lie. There's enough truth there that we get caught in the lie. The devil says to us that we are really not worth much. We might be reincarnated as an animal or insect. 
• We keep feeling our wants and desires, we keep failing to get past them, we keep being essentially self-centered, so we must be bad, so the best we can do is bring offerings to the holy representatives, the monks, in case that will help offset our selfishness.

Both of these ways of thinking are off-base. On the one hand, "serve yourself because you're all that matters." On the other hand, "deny yourself because your desires and your essential human self, do not matter."

I will show you the way of truth.

It is the way of love.

This whole universe was built on love.  Love is the source of the light, the air. Love holds the planets in their orbits. Love makes the stars shine.  Our creator created us in love, because of love, and for love, to be loved, and to find our completion, that is our true selves, in loving others. Love is the power behind everything.  Love is the answer to this question about our self, and so, it turns out is the answer to every question.

Picture a great big swimming pool of love that is the perfect temperature. The weather is perfect and you jump in.  It feels so wonderful to be swimming in love because that is what we were created for. Without this love are like fish out of water. We don't notice or worry about ourselves any more because we are perfectly at ease and taken care of. But we are not selfish, we are joyful, and we want to everyone else to jump in too. 

I only asked you to picture a swimming pool but it's actually a huge ocean that's bigger than the whole earth.

Now I want you to understand that this water of love is the water of your life. Your own personal life. It is your source, in three ways. 

1. It is what gives you life. 
2. It is also what makes you clean. 
3. And it is what nourishes you so much that you become a blessing to others. 

Jesus said, "I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  John 15:5

"I beat my body and bring it into submission... " 1 Cor. 9:27a"I have been crucified with Christ..." Gal. 2:20a

This sounds like Buddhism, at first. It sounds like we are just supposed to deny ourselves. Like we don't matter.
But this is the rest of the story --

"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me."

It's no longer my will and my desires that are ruling me. It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ who is my Lord, and lives in me.  

But what happened to me? If it's no longer me, does that mean I am gone, that I don't matter? Keep listening:

"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me." Gal. 2:20

 When we say "self" we mean two things - 

1. your wants and desires, your selfishness. This is sometimes called "your flesh".  
2. Self also means "the real you" which is your true spiritual being living in a body, the person who God loves.

Listen to this. 

5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death. 6But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:5-6

It's about you being loved by God, abiding in the vine, in the source of love Himself, it is not about following rules.

Again, being in Christ, plugged into the Vine:

1. is the source of your life, meets my needs, and delights me deep down in my spirit.
2. is what makes you clean (yes you yourself) acceptable to God.
3. is the source of anything good that comes through you.

But we have a problem. How do I know that that love is for me? Yes I can understand that God is loving, but did He really design me and know me and actually die for me? Does he really feel that much emotionally, powerfully committed love for me, personally? "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Where does it say "Jesus loves [name], no matter what, and forever."  That is what we desperately need.  You, and you, and you, and each of us, need to know Jesus loves you personally, unconditionally, and forever. That is how we get set free from needing to be good enough, from feeling like we'll never really make God happy with us.

He already is your vine.  He already is there for you.  The swimming pool is open, and He is saying to you right now personally, jump in. 

You don't need a lifeguard of your conscience or your guilty feelings, telling you to "hold back, that love is too big deep." Why? Because the life is in the water. Do you feel it in your heart? That is how you know. You need a personal relationship with Him. Christianity is the only religion that really says that. You as a person can know God and it's not because you're good enough, it's because He already came down and poured Himself out for you, just as you are.

This is the secret of Christ. While you were yet a sinner, he loved you, and died for you.

If you don't know His love personally, if you haven't started to commune in Him, to just take his living water up into yourself, this is what you do. Start to speak to him and just thank Him for already being there with you. No matter what. Nothing can separate you from His love, not sin, not demons, not even death.  If you have sins you haven't confessed, confess them now, and you will know they are taken away at the cross.

(Pause for time for confession of sins.)

He forgives you. His living water has already been poured out for you. When he died, and later they pierced him with a spear to make sure he was dead, and water poured out, and blood also poured out.

Everyone who agrees please pray this along with me out loud:
"Dear God, thank you for forgiving my sins.
I have been afraid
That my sins have kept me from you.
I have believed a lie
That I had to be good enough.
Buddhism was trying to teach me to be good, 
But what I learned was that I, myself, could never be acceptable.
God I see that you want to know me personally,
Me myself,
Because you didn't stay in heaven,
But came down to earth.
God I hear your voice asking me to jump into the water of your love.
I thank you that you accept me right now.
Just as I am.
I am embarrassed by my sin
But I see that Jesus took it on the cross.
Help me put my roots down into you.
Help me learn to talk to you and trust you completely,
Because you really really really love me.
Help me be joined to you like a branch on the vine.
Let your water of life, of holiness, and of fruitfulness
Flow through me, so it is no longer I who try to live this life,
But Christ living in me."

Our Hope - Not Materialism, Nor Disembodiment, but the Redemption of Our Bodies

Joni Eareckson Tada's body is damaged and paralyzed. Through grief she learned to not place her hopes and her happiness in her physical being nor its strength nor skill. She learned to find deep joy in the Lord. We might imagine she learned asceticism, to separate herself from things of the world. But no. She longed for their fulfillment which is in Christ alone. And in that longing was her joy.

In her book Heaven - Your Real Home, Joni unfolds her Biblically-founded belief that heaven is going to be here, on this earth. Yes, right here with the Grand Canyon and horses and things.

The difference is, it's all been redeemed. 

This is the middle ground between flesh-centered materialism or hedonism, and matter-denying asceticism. This I believe is the truth.

In the New Earth, all things will be redeemed. Yes, material things. All of creation is groaning and waiting in hope - and we know that hope in Christ does not disappoint. Why should only our human hopes be realized? I believe creation will not be annihilated. No, just like us, everything visible will be shaken and it will pass through the fire. But only death will be destroyed, not life nor its substance.

Eternal spirit became bound up with substance when God decided to create humankind. God likes stuff. He created it.

Substance became bound up in God's redemption when He became incarnate as the man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 

The flesh - that is, our selfish desires and self-centeredness, pride, and fear - was carried away in the body of Christ when he died.

He rose from the grave free from all such hindrances. And he rose in the flesh. Not the old corruptible flesh. The difference is, His body has been redeemed. 

And with Him, our bodies, yes these bodies, will put on incorruptibility. We'll be bareback riding with Joni on steeds as swift as the wind. 

Or perhaps we can do something even greater. Because like the caterpillar can't conceive of the future liberties of its new body, neither can we. "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when He is revealed, we will be like Him; for we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2).

What shall we do as we await so great a hope? 

"Everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, even as He is pure" (I John 3:3).