When the shopping is over And gifts stashed away When the food has been eaten And the children off to play,May one thing remain In your heart and your home May the Christ in Christmas Stay all year long Author Unknown … [Read more...]
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Hymn Story – The Voice of God
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day, Their old familiar carols play...” The words linger and the melody sticks in your mind. I sang these words this morning celebrating Christmas with my family. I woke up with Christmas joy, thanking God for sending us His son. This song has been loitering in my spirit for several weeks. I know of others who woke up this morning, not to joy, but deep sorrow. Christmas can be a cruel stabbing season following the loss of a loved one, a life threatening illness or the wrong choices made by others. I hummed this tune of" I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" a few weeks ago grieving with the rest of the nation for innocent lost lives. I remembered one melancholy verse: And in despair I bowed my head 'There is no peace on earth,' I said, 'For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men.' Sounds like this song could have been written during this frightening time of terrorism, but Henry … [Read more...]
I Wonder as I Wander
Wonder and wander are two of my favorite words. Wonder - to marvel, astonishment, awe, to ponder with curiosity To live each day with a vision of wonder opens up grand possibilities. Wander - to meander, stroll, to take one direction without intention or control I wandered the world, paying attention to the beauty God alone created. I have wondered and wandered through Advent this year. Wondered at its varied dimensions, like studying the facets of a priceless diamond. Wandered open to the lessons God chose for me or invited me to explore. No wonder I wandered into remembering the Christmas song, I Wonder as I Wander. I wondered about its story. (Ok I over did it with that sentence but it was just too tempting....sorry) I wonder as I wander out under the sky, How Jesus the Savior did come for to die. For poor on'ry people like you and like I... I wonder as I wander out under the sky. When Mary birthed … [Read more...]
Advent: Wait, Watch, Hope – Lessons from the Meteors
Advent: Wait, Watch, Hope. Stargazer. Star-crossed. Star-strucked. Call me what you want to: I love the shimmering twilights in the nighttime sky. If the evening news tells us there will be an eclipse - I am there. If they predict meteors - even better. I am obsessed when the moon performs wonders and shooting stars dance. I used to drag our kids out in the middle of night to join in my fun. Well, fun for me; I am not sure for them. One time I woke them up at 3 AM, dressed them warmly and drove to an airport where telescopes were set up to watch the once in a lifetime view of Haley’s Comet - once in a lifetime for me, but a possible twice in a lifetime event for my kids. Priceless! Last Tuesday the Geminids’s meteor shower presented a marvelous showing in the clear dark skies. The kids are grown now and safely away from their obsessive mother. But being the diligent mother I am, I texted them that heaven planned to show off that night and reminded them to look … [Read more...]
Advent – Do “Ewe” Know Who Watched the Sheep?
“Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” I love the enthusiastic response of these ordinary shepherds to God’s announcement of the birth of the Messiah. These passages are one of my favorites for this time of year telling us about the Christmas shepherds. But last night I wondered, “Who watched their sheep?” Did they all take off deserting the poor creatures? Did one abandoned shepherd draw the short straw and got left behind doing the work of many and missing the birth of the King? Did the angels come back and hover over them with divine protection? Phillip Keller wrote the classic book, A Shepherd Looks aPsalm 23 and described the not so complimentary nature of sheep. Sheep are timid, feeble creatures vulnerable to missteps and attacks. They are easily panicked by loud noises and flashing lights. Duh, a whole host of angels descending suddenly on this midnight pasture with joyous singing and beaming … [Read more...]
Advent Discernment – You said what, Lord?
I had one of those moments on Sunday.I participated in our annual Taize Service. My job was to read from Matthew 1: 18-25:This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).When … [Read more...]
Advent: the Gift of Time in Present Tense
The gift of time. December blew in with a chilly and crystal clear star- shimmering night this week in Ohio. I gazed out my back window into the darkness. The light from the brilliant half moon and the twinkling of a million heavenly lights captivated my being. I paused and embraced that one moment. How are You preparing my heart for Christmas, Lord? How will I be transformed by Your coming? Advent is an in-between time. A time of waiting. A time of reading the old stories. A time of anticipating what will come. Time of preparing my heart to receive the good news. Advent - the interval between stuffed grateful Thanksgiving and joyous, noisy, family filled Christmas. We wait impatiently for family to arrive. We live in expectation of the future. We ignore the present. Somehow I don’t think God wants our Advent time to be this … [Read more...]
Advent – The Gift of Waiting
Advent is the four weeks preceding Christmas and is a time of waiting and preparation for the arrival of the Christ Child. More and more church traditions are celebrating this special time of year. The next four Thursdays I will be writing about Advent, a time of wait and anticipation. Waiting is difficult. Most of us are terrible waiters. Waiting is a time of powerlessness where the imagination runs wild with the what if’s and when will this be over. Our inability to control the unknown generates fear and anxiety when we wait. You have heard the statistics. In an average lifetime, we spend five years waiting in lines and six months waiting at traffic lights. We are now waiting for the Christ Child. At least for this time of wait we do know the end date and what will be happening. Yet like kids knowing Christmas gifts are coming, we fidget and fret as time moseys through December. We are impatient people. We fill this time with parties, to do lists, wrapping, … [Read more...]