Since it’s really cold in the morning these past few weeks, my wife and I decided to do our regular exercise in the afternoon. We normally brisk walk from our home to a nearby memorial park. It’s about 1.5 kilometers all in all from home to the park and back. And as usual, I also bring along my camera. I was able to take a good shot of the sunset at the memorial park. It looked like a huge fireball about to hit the earth from right to left because of the cloud formation. What a fantastic sunset view!
This is an arch at the Sanctuario de San Fernando, a memorial park near our home.
I also was able to take a good shot of an arch at the park. Natural lighting was perfect for photography during that afternoon.
Although there was no typhoon, the heavy rains which poured in Mindanao these past few days caused some flooding in some parts of Mindanao. It also caused many flight cancellations. My mom was one of those affected. Last Saturday morning her flight from Butuan to Manila was cancelled. She came back the following day, Sunday, only to be told the flight was cancelled again. Thankfully on the third day, Monday, after all the stress that she went through, she was relieved to be able to fly from Butuan to Manila. She would have missed her international flight which was scheduled on a Tuesday, early morning.
My mom and my mother-in-law having dinner together.
In the photo above is my mom greatly relieved to see me at the airport. She was finally able to take her international flight the following day. In the other photo, my two mothers — that is, my mother-in-law and my own mom spend some time together after not having seen each other for a good number of years. They had a great time and were glad to see each other again.
This is the Santo Rosario Church in Angeles, Pampanga. (Click to zoom.)
Old church buildings fascinate me as well. It’s amazing that buildings last for centuries and these old churches built during the Spanish times somehow interest me. I used to live in Ilocandia for 5 years and there are a lot of old churches in each town but I never really did have a chance to take good photos of those. I only had an instamatic camera during those days. I’d like to go there and take photos of those old churches if I have the chance again. If I’m not mistaken, some of those churches were built way back during the 17th century.
This is a photo of the Santo Rosario Church (or, Holy Rosary Church) in Angeles City. It was built in 1877 to 1896 using forced labor. It must be tough being a Filipino under the Spanish colonizers during those times. From what I have learned, the backyard of this church was used by the Spanish colonizers to execute Filipino rebels.
The building on the left by the way is the old city hall building which has been turned into a museum. Every day, I pass by this place to send my daughter to school which is just across the street from this church building.
The late Thomas F. Torrance has really inspired me and led me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I now understand better that Jesus is Immanuel! Here are some excerpts from his book, Preaching Christ Today: The Gospel and Scientific Thinking on page 13:
“What bowls me over every time I read about Jesus in the Gospels is not the wonderful things he did, not the so-called nature miracles in which the wind and the sea obeyed him, or even his making the dead alive again, for if Jesus is really God, as John Polkinghorne the Cambridge mathematical physicist has said, one would expect that, for he was the Creator personally present in the midst of his creation. If you really believe that Jesus is God become incarnate you will have no trouble with the miracles. No! What overwhelms me is the sheer humanness of Jesus, Jesus as the baby at Bethlehem, Jesus sitting tired and thirsty at the well outside Samaria, Jesus exhausted by the crowds, Jesus recuperating his strength through sleep at the back of a ship on the sea of Galilee, Jesus hungry for figs on the way up to Jerusalem, Jesus weeping at the grave of Lazarus, Jesus thirsting for water on the Cross—for that precisely is God with us and one of us… Far from overwhelming us, God with us and one of us does the very opposite, for in sharing with us all that we are in our littleness and weakness he does not override our humanity but completes, perfects, and establishes it.
“What I find always most breathtaking, however, is that in Jesus the Lord God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible, stoops down to be so fully one with us… In Jesus, the Word by whom all things in heaven and earth were created became human and communicates with us and addresses us in the frail creaturely form.”
Jesus is Immanuel — the Christmas Message
This is good news — the gospel! This is the Christmas message! Jesus (the God who saves) is Immanuel (God with us)! Yes, Jesus is Immanuel! In Jesus, God who is our Savior is with us and fully one of us! In Jesus we have already been reconciled and included in God’s life and love! Nothing whatsoever can separate us from God’s love.
What great good news! Believe it and enjoy life and love in Jesus Christ!
The other day, I took several shots of my wife while we were brisk walking in the park early in the morning. This evening, she surprised me by showing me her work of merging two images of herself in one photograph. She definitely has gone a long way in manipulating photos using Photoshop! It used to be that she did not even know how to start a computer haha! I now have a family of Photoshop artists!
My two daughters learned Photoshop way, way ahead of me many years ago. When I first began to learn Photoshop—and I’m continuing to learn more—I normally would ask my two daughters how to do it. And now my wife is beginning to learn it quite well too. Hmm…
