Soon

step dad

Step dads don't get a lot of great press.  Generally speaking, they weren't chosen by the child.  Frequently, they act in the place of a dearly loved "real" dad, with all the resentment that carries.  They don't have all the clout or authority they would with a biological child.  It's a tough job, but as they say, someone has to do it...

Jesus was raised by a step dad - Joseph.  As if Joseph didn't have it bad enough, Jesus real father actually IS perfect!!  He is quite the investor, too - designing the entire universe along with His son's assistance.  Though apparently, Joe didn't have to discipline the eldest child in the household.  I wonder if he felt like a third wheel at times.

But that step dad stepped up when the going was tough.  He married a disgraced fiancé, and took some of the disgrace upon himself, though it wasn't deserved.  He ended up running for his life to a foreign country with his bride and step son, again, through no fault of his own.  Joe falls off the Biblical pages long before his son was kindergarten age.  Maybe he was around for Jesus' teenage years and young adulthood.  We don't know.  But we know it certainly would have been a very different Christmas story with that man.

 Here's to a step dad worthy to emulate:  loyal, strong, decisive, loving.  God picked a good one!  And maybe Jesus had a hand in the picking, too, before He left His throne in favor of a cattle stall, that is….

 

Joy

I've heard it said, 

"happiness is a temporary condition 

and joy is a choice."

How often do we miss a chance to choose joy?

How easy is it to miss joy

amidst all the crazy that is 

Advent?


I think God gives us experiences and feelings
to help us better understand the
relationship He wants to have with us.
Tangible.
Seeing my baby holding her baby
made my heart explode.

(Mary's Child by Mark Missman)

I love my husband and children beyond measure.

I also think I need to be deliberate in
finding the snips of joy in the mundane.

Sorry, just couldn't make this one B&W


What's bringing you joy?

  

future plans

Certainly, because I am a mom, I am drawn to Mary at Christmas time.  The miracle of birth is overwhelming all by itself.  I remember when each of my sons were born, gazing on their perfectly formed bodies - the impossibly tiny features (which years later twin grandgirlies demonstrated were not that tiny).  The miracle of life!  The wonder of possibility!

 I don't ever remember thinking one of my son could be president or develop a cure for cancer or any other grand and glorious accomplishment.  They totally could - if that was their bent.  But it was enough to behold the miracle of new life and let time and their ambitions take them where they would.  I wasn't in to mapping out their future.

 But Mary, on the other hand, was granted the heavenly view of who her son would be - and that was a heady thing!  President?  Too mundane.  Cure cancer?  Too pedestrian.  How about Savior of the World!!!  How's that for midnight pondering while nursing your baby who is totally dependent on you?  (Side note: what went through her thoughts when child number two was born?  Hmmm)

 Thank you, Mary, for keeping it together through midnight feedings and colicky nights.  Thank you for mending his clothes and kissing scraped knees.  Thank you for obedience and pondering and staying the course. 

 Thank you for bringing us our Savior.

Lent in Advent?

I was talking with a friend today about 

being deliberate about my

Christmas focus this year.

It struck me that I 

actually get more emotionally invested in 

Easter.

Easter is the culmination, proof, if you will,

of what the angels told us on the night Christ was born.

 Christ came to save us.

The baby in the manger is a promise, 

a hope, of things to come.

So, I'm left to ponder that

Christmas is a season of

trust, 

faith, 

hope, 

belief.

Those are a little trickier to nail down than the

sight of the cross.

Star light, Star bright...

What would it have been like that night?  What would have disturbed the shepherds' slumber?  What would have enthralled the wise men to saddled camel and leave home?  What would have frightened Herod to the point of deception and murder?  A star?  A baby?  A new future?  The promise/threat of power realized?

What is it I seek?  The innocence of a child?  The hope for peace?  A place to dry my tears?  The comfort and familiarity of home?  The reason for life?  A new beginning? 

 

Whatever the answers, if indeed answers are possible, the answer must be "yes!"  and "no..."  The realization of dreams is the realization that our dreams are puny.  When God breaks in, it is in ways that defy prediction and imagination, and even possibility.

Christ's birth is what miracles are made of.  And miracles are what God specializes in.  

May our fondest wishes for the miraculous prove inadequate for the reality of God's love.  Merry Christmas miracles to us all. 

Immanuel

God with us.

Lory and I write these independently
and every once in a while we hit on a
similar thought.

I like where Lory went with this Tuesday.
I had been mulling over
God With Us
as well, but I went a little different track.

I do want to spend time at the manger.
It seems this year, though, as I approach
the manger my view gets wider.

Big Mary's breath prayer is
Jesus hold my hand.

God sent Jesus to be with us,
at the manger
and well beyond.

Jewish roots

This Menorah was a wedding gift to my grandparents from my Grandfather's Jewish secretary - just shy of 90 years ago!  I love it that my totally Protestant grandparents kept and displayed it for all those years until the end, when it came to my house.

Being of the totally Protestant persuasion myself, I assumed this Menorah was to be used during Chanukah - so for the first time ever, I bought Chanukah candles intending to light them this year.  I have only a shadow knowledge of Chanukah, so I took to Google for more information. 

My number one question:  why does my Menorah only have 7 candles, not 9?  Here is my Protestant answer to that Jewish question:  my Menorah is a symbol of Jewish faith, not the one used during Chanukah which celebrates the festival of light with its nine candles.  Now what to do with the Chanukah candles I bought before counting the arms...

Regardless, I treasure this artifact from my history, in large part because of my love for my grandparents.  But also because the One whose lent His name to this sacred time of year was/is Jewish.  Let's get real.  That Baby was not blonde and blue eyed, but olive skinned, dark haired and eyed.  The One who saved the world did not sing God Bless America or even speak English.  It's good to revive perspective every once in awhile!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  L'chaim!

Prepare

Advent is a time of preparation. 

Getting ready to celebrate what God has done for us.

But beyond Christmas, can I constantly be preparing 

to see what God has ahead for me?

And how do I prepare to recognize what He is doing?

With

Is there any greater gift than the gift of time and presence - of spending time with someone else?  In this frantically hurried world, time is a commodity more precious than gold - more coveted than latest and greatest anything that money can buy.  Especially in this season, we dole out our time in precious allotments, hoping to stretch it just far enough, and knowing we are destined to fail in the endeavor.  "Time with" is impossible to wrap, but so precious to slowly, carefully, jointly peal back the layers with another.

Amid the hustle and bustle of the season, it's so easy to forget that God has given us that most precious of gifts.  Emmanuel, God with us.  His son, sent to live among us, with us, giving us the gift of Himself.  May we all spend some time unwrapping that gift, savoring the Savior - accepting His gift by spending our time with the child in the manger.  

Santa Claus, Frosty and Baby Jesus Are Coming To Town

Talk about covering all your bases. 

Just sayin.....

Adds another perspective to Lory's thoughts on
those who seek the Christ child.

A Crowd of One

This is the first sign of Christmas in my house, and the last to come down.  In fact, the Holy Family and a rotating guest or two stays out all year for good measure.  There is such a crowd here, seeking a glimpse of the child in the manger. 

Alongside the many animals who gathered (which includes a German Shepard and a couple of pigs - how odd), are several who didn't make the Biblical recitation of the event.  There are the well-dressed and the beggars, the young and the old, the worshipful and the awestruck.  They are all hurrying to see the Earth's Savior.

The same still happens this time of year: at Christmas concerts and tree lightings and shopping malls.  Hurrying throngs, awestruck and hopefully worshipful.  But even as we all rush in the same direction; the truth is we rush on individually.  Yes, Christ came to save the world, but He does it on a one-on-one basis.  It is the individual heart that must come to him:  young or old, well-dressed or ragged - even well-dressed and ragged.  Regardless of the crowd that presses in upon us, the journey is made in solitude - one Savior, one saved at a time.

Take a break from the crowd this season - just come!

Wait!

Is there ever a minute longer than the one 

you wait for with a microwave?

Or how about that first cup of coffee?

But imagine the Israelites and 40 years!!!

Or

Waiting for the messiah to come!!

Or

Waiting for the messiah to return.

They tell me it's called perspective. 

Angel Songs

"She sings like an angel."  Well, no, no one has ever said that to me - something about a tune and a bucket, maybe, but never an angelic comparison.  I'm not offended.

I wonder, though, what would an angel's song actually sound like?  Beautiful, to be sure!  But maybe too beautiful for mere human ears to take in.  I mean, when the shepherds heard just one angel, that angel had to calm them.  "Fear not," he (she?) assured them.  And let's assume that had a profound effect on the watchers of sheep and they let their fear melt away.  And then an unimaginable number MORE angels made a sudden appearance.  I might be tempted to think the first angel had been speaking sarcastically!

All those singing heavenly voices belting out their best "Glory to God in the highest!"  Imagine the loudest concert you have ever attended, in the smallest room possible, with an enthusiastic crowd singing along, and King Kong on drums, and the biggest and best amplification.  Then raise it to the multitude!  It had to sound like thunder - the kind that booms suddenly and immediately overhead!  The kind that reverberates in your bones!

Imagine Heaven, who had been anxiously waiting for Earth's salvation, bursting into song.  Now THAT is an angel song - one that cannot be even closely approximated by mere human.  But that won't stop me from trying!

Faith

Christmas is Faith.

Sometimes I feel like I have faith like a mustard seed.

And that's good. 

It's not my amazing faith at work but rather

Jesus' amazing work through

that little tiny mustard seed I provide.

Matthew 17:20

dread and anticipation

It starts on the day after Thanksgiving, in the crawl space - that deep, dark, dreaded place where things go to die.  Well, if not to die, at least to ferment.  Nothing that goes in there comes out quickly - except maybe the grandloves.  They are small enough to fit, yet wise enough to avoid that space.  While I, too, come out as quickly as possible, it is never quickly enough.  But since that is where Christmas slumbers from mid-January to November, that is where I must go.

I dread the trip into the crawl to revive Christmas.  I dread hauling the boxes upstairs.  I don't even enjoy the decorating as much as I should - not Grinch-like, but not nearly Elf-excitement, either.

Are two trips into that dreaded abyss within 6 weeks really worth it?  Why even bother? Well, dread is subservient to anticipation:  the anticipation of family and friends, gatherings and joyous refrains, and perhaps a glimmer of the love that brought Jesus to earth so many years ago.  Happy anticipation trumps all - even a trip into the crawl space.

It makes me wonder about Mary, though - a teenaged girl, newly engaged, and mysteriously pregnant.  Dread had to be at the top of her list.  What will the neighbors think?  What will Joseph do?  How is this even happening!?  And yet, the miracle of a child growing within - and more so, the promise of a Savior!  How does a heart hold that kind of anticipation without bursting?

In this Christmas season, may all our anticipations come true, but may we lean into the dread, as well.  We live between the famous duo, as one sharpens the other.  Dread loses its dreary edge in the light of anticipation, even as anticipation's crisp brightness revives us from that memory of where life has taken us against our will.  

Wishing you the Merriest of Christmases, even with, especially with, a side of dread.

25 Days

Wonder if we have it in us.

Facebook has a fun challenge 

going around at the moment.

7 days of black and white pictures

that describe your life.

No people.

No pets.

No caption.

We both took that challenge 
and actually really enjoyed it.

Lory and I took a break from our annual

Advent Blogs last year because,well, 
life.

My Christmas did not go well.

Now, I won't blame the lack of blogs

but I might attribute the lack

of deliberate focus

on the

Reason For The Season

for playing a part in my downfall.

Not this year.

We are challenging ourselves to 

25 Days Of Photos.

Black and white.

Subject: What is Christmas.

Words, optional.

If you want to play along, post your photos

in the comment section 

on Facebook.

Let's see where this goes!