A horse

This is a horse. Haha! Oh I know you know that. I liked him because he tried to nibble my bun off of my head. I don't know if he liked my hair, my Ficcare, or my sunglasses. He had some big teeth.

I'm thinking about Mary a lot tonight. Mary, the Mother of God. The Roman Catholics make statues and such and while at the ranch we visited another nearby property and there was a statue. At first they thought it might be Francis but I said no, Francis was a guy. Actually Saint Francis is the only saint I know of - he's the protector of animals and since I love animals I guess that's how I know of him. The statue we saw however, was a woman. The peeps I went with are Catholic while I am Protestant. Anyhoo, I said, it must be Mary. It was just my best guess really. I spose it could have been Martha but my Catholic saint knowledge is severely limited.

The gal with us noticed a serpent at Mary's feet and she said, "I was raised Catholic. What's that? Why is that snake there? That's not right." But the guy, he put his hand on the serpent as if he was trying to explain it, but he just didn't quite have any words that I heard. Neither did I, and so I said that I'm not familiar with Catholic doctrine so I don't know what it means. She said, "Well, Catholics are Christian." I shrugged my shoulders in my mind because I didn't say Catholics weren't Christian, and I said, "Yes, they are, but I'm not familiar with their doctrine." And I wandered away. I had gotten my picture so why stand there. She said something about how I didn't want to walk with them and, sheesh, I just ignored it. The guy is real sweet. So tonight I've been reading about that statue because I knew there had to be some hardcore historical religious significance in there.

That serpent, who do you think it represents? That's what I thought too, Satan, but why's the serpent at Mary's feet? Aha! Because you see, she is victorious over the enemy. Mary, unlike Eve, listened to God. Mary said, "Yes, Lord." Actually, technically, in Luke 1:38 Mary said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." Crazy, huh? Crazy awesome. Her answer set everything in motion. She had free will just like you and me. She could have said, sayonara, I ain't doin' this. As it was, she could have been stoned, right? I'm pretty sure you could get stoned to death in those times for being pregnant when you're about to be married and the guy you're marrying knows he isn't the father.

And what about this... The Immaculate Conception? What do you think that is? Describe it to yourself. If you're like me, you said it has to do with Jesus being born to a virgin, as in she got pregnant without having intercourse. Well you'd be wrong. That's a huge misunderstanding of the phrase. I suppose most, or many, people think that's what the Immaculate Conception is about but it's not. The Immaculate Conception has to do Mary, the Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception is Mary being sinless, completely free of sin, since her conception. What? Who can be sinless but Jesus, I wondered. (Adam and Eve were once and I think, John the Baptist?) I think that Protestants and Roman Catholics believe differently as to whether Mary was without sin. Don't quote me on that, I'm still figuring it out. I found the simplest, easiest explanation about immaculate conception at, of all places, snopes. www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/immaculate.asp

Words to know:
Doctrine = principles
Dogma = established opinion
Mariology = study of Mary

I think the problem between the two schools of thought is that the Protestants think Mary is way up there in honor what with being the mom of Jesus Christ but they take exception with the veneration of Mary which the Catholics believe in. I am sure Protestants agree with the whole virgin birth thing, but not that she is sinless. Fascinating stuff.

My nose is running like a faucet and now it's sore even though I'm using Puffs. My eyes are all small and itchy. I hope tomorrow will be better.