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The artifact referenced is the Garima Gospels, preserved at the remote Abba Garima Monastery in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. ​Key Facts About the Manuscripts ​Age & Creation: Radiocarbon testing by Oxford University dates the parchment pages between 330 AD and 650 AD. This confirms them as the world's oldest surviving complete illuminated (illustrated) Christian manuscript, predating earlier-known illustrated Bibles like the Syrian Rabbula Gospels. ​Material: The text is hand-written on durable goatskin parchment (vellum) and bound in two separate volumes (Garima 1 and Garima 2). ​Language & Script: It is written in Ge'ez (Ethiopic), an ancient South Semitic language that served as the official written language of the Aksumite Empire and remains the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. ​Illustrations: The volumes feature vibrant illuminations, including portraits of the Four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), canon tables, and intricate architectural motifs executed in early Byzantine and Coptic styles. ​Monastic Legend: Local tradition holds that the gospels were transcribed in a single day by Abba Garima, one of the Nine Saints who brought Christianity to Ethiopia in the late 5th century. Legend says God held the sun in the sky until the saint finished his work. ​The manuscripts have survived intact for over 1,500 years in the same high-altitude monastic location, protected from invasion, fire, and climate degradation.

Lost kitten near 1078 east 79th street. The mother disowned the kitten so it’s trying to hide it and let it die

Elizabeth 1 was born on this day, September 7, 1533 in Greenwich, England. Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history and she was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor until her death in 1603 at the age of 69. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history and culture, gave name to the Elizabethan era. A fierce feminist icon bore the striking statement "I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married." Her reign coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English culture, including William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis and John Dowland. Elizabeth herself was highly educated and had considerable ability in languages, music, dancing and poetry. She reportedly spoke several languages and was an accomplished musician and dancer. Her musical education included lessons from leading Royal musicians of the period, and Elizabeth I was particularly accomplished on the virginals, a small keyboard instrument related to the harpsichord.

I’ve been feeling completely unworthy and fake lately, but Isaiah 6 completely broke me today 😭

I was asked to lead a prayer group at church, and honestly, I wanted to say no. I feel like such a hypocrite. I know my own thoughts, my own sins, my own mess. I am completely unqualified to do anything holy. I was reading Isaiah 6, and the prophet Isaiah felt the EXACT same way. He got a vision of God’s throne room, and instead of being happy, he was terrified. He screamed, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips!" God didn't tell him to stop complaining. God sent an angel with a pair of tongs, took a literal burning, boiling coal off the heavenly altar, and pressed it directly against Isaiah's mouth. It was painful, but it purified him instantly. God knows we are dirty. He doesn't ask us to clean ourselves up; He brings the fire to cleanse us so we can serve Him. #ImposterSyndrome #Isaiah6 #HolyFire #GraceAndTruth

Looking at the news today reminds me of how much ruin is in the world, but Ezekiel 37 gives me chills. 🕊️

Today is always a heavy day in America. It’s hard to look at the memories of absolute ruin and ashes without feeling a deep ache in your soul. Even in my own personal life, there are things that feel completely dead and impossible to fix. But I read Ezekiel 37 this morning. God takes the prophet to a valley filled entirely with dry, bleached, dead human bones. It is a picture of absolute, irreversible devastation. God asks, "Can these bones live?" And then God literally breathes His Spirit into the graves. The bones start violently rattling, snapping together, growing muscle and skin, and a massive, living army stands up from the ashes. We serve a God who specializes in ruins. No matter how dead your situation looks today, His breath can reconstruct what was completely destroyed. #Ezekiel37 #ValleyOfDryBones #HopeInTheAshes #GodRestores

We treat God like our casual buddy on Sunday mornings, and 2 Samuel 6 proves how dangerous that is 🛑

I am so tired of churches treating worship like a casual hangout. People walking in late with coffee, chatting through the music, treating the Creator of the universe like He’s just our friendly buddy in the sky. Read 2 Samuel 6. They are moving the Ark of the Covenant on a wooden cart (which God explicitly forbade). The oxen stumble, and the Ark is about to fall into the mud. A guy named Uzzah reaches out his hand just to steady it. He had good intentions! But God struck him dead on the spot. Why? Because Uzzah thought his dirty human hands were cleaner than the mud. He treated the absolute, terrifying holiness of God as something casual. God is not our "buddy." He is a consuming fire. We desperately need to bring reverence back into our Sunday mornings. #2Samuel #Holiness #Reverence #FearOfTheLord #ChurchTruth

When my brother passed away, I was sent a text message to go home not to stay the night. I didn’t read the message until the next morning. No one else was staying the night, it would not have mattered  if I had read the message earlier, I see today was my brother .but as I think back to the moment, I know how Mary felt ,she stayed .for me it caused hurt feelings, anger, family issues with that part of my family, and it was during the loss of the last of all my family yeah everyone grieves differently I could not have left him by his self. I stayed and played music. That means something to for him, I have to sand all night leave my head on in his bed to close my eyes , whispered I love you and say goodbye ,ignoring his wife and his daughter wishes as I was told for him to get his rest for his eternal rest, but I didn’t read the text message that night. I read it the next morning and I would have stayed regardless. I would not leave my brother on his last night of living alone. and I think back about Mary and how she must have received the same response to her , but she stayed and I stayed , it was what my heart told me to do and I’m sure it’s what her heart told her to do.

If you feel too "used up" or dirty for God to love you, please read the Book of Hosea. 😭

I have a really messy past. I’ve made choices I am deeply ashamed of, and sometimes I feel so ruined that I can't even look at myself in the mirror. Why would a holy God want someone so damaged? Then I found the story of Hosea. He was a holy prophet. God literally commanded him to go and marry a woman named Gomer, who was a working prostitute. She continually cheated on him, left him, and eventually sold herself into slavery. And what did God tell Hosea to do? "Go, show your love to your wife again." Hosea went and physically bought her back off the slave block. God used this agonizing, messy marriage to show exactly how He loves us. We are Gomer. We cheat, we run, we ruin our lives. But God just keeps pursuing us, buying us back, and calling us His bride. His grace is scandalous. #Hosea #ScandalousGrace #ChristianTestimony #HeRedeems

Today is a beautiful gift, a gift of life ,to share love and compassion with one another as we reflect on how far God has brought us from the abyss, for there was a time when I was rebellious against God, indulging in the pleasures of the flesh not caring about the sacrifice on the cross, too consumed. with the world and the pleasures of a corrupt and immoral rebellious soul. walking a path of death and destruction, taking the moment to feed my depravity. for I had no real root, of love, I was just an empty shell of a man with no sustainable direction of life just a vagabond wandering in the desert looking for a place to lose himself while ,seeking darkness to conceal my sinful nature not knowing or caring about anything , a man seeking his own destruction by destroying God's holy temple from within, growing farther and farther away from God's holy embrace. feeling like a soul that has hit rock bottom, with no escape, as I pondered this about my life I asked,why did it have to end like this, within a split second I could see my death outside on a bus bench on a dark ,lonely night wondering where did I go wrong, I had all these hopes and dreams snatched away from me by my own disobedience towards God, I had pulled away from my creator thinking I could do what I wanted when I wanted, but that was not the case, even though I had pulled away from God's loving embrace, he never left me, for he was always watching and protecting me from me, and as I sat at that bus bench I. realized, I was ,truly a broken man ,broken in spirit , it was at that moment I realized I wasn't alone, with tears streaming down my face I SURRENDERED AS THE TEARS STEADILY CONTINUED TO FALL LIKE A BROKEN DAM , IN A SHAKEN VOICE, I BEGAN TO CALL ON THE LORD TO TAKE AWAY MY PAIN, CLEANSE MY SOUL AND TRANSFORM MY HEART AND HE DID, I HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED WASHED CLEAN. AND HAVE RECEIVED GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT REMEMBER MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHAT HE DID FOR ME HE HE CAN DO 4 YOU

In 1907, an American woman could be born in the United States, live there her entire life, and lose her citizenship for one reason: she married the wrong man. The Expatriation Act of 1907 declared that an American woman who married a foreigner would take her husband's nationality. Her own birthplace, family history and attachment to the United States did not protect her. Marriage could legally transform an American-born woman into an alien. The rule did not apply equally to men. An American man's citizenship was not automatically surrendered because he married a foreign woman. The consequences could be severe. Some women discovered that regaining the citizenship they had possessed since birth meant going through naturalization procedures much like immigrants arriving in the country for the first time. The situation was particularly damaging for women who married men who were themselves legally barred from naturalization under America's racial restrictions. Congress finally began dismantling the system with the Cable Act of 1922. After its passage, most American women no longer automatically lost citizenship by marrying foreign men, although important discriminatory exceptions remained. Women who had already lost their citizenship were not simply given it back. In 1936, Congress created a simpler path for some women whose marriages had ended through death or divorce. It was not until 1940 that all women who had lost citizenship through marriage under the earlier law were permitted to seek repatriation regardless of whether they were still married. The history is an extraordinary reminder of how recently American law treated a married woman's national identity as something that could follow her husband's. She could be born American. Marriage could make her legally foreign.