Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoyed reading my blog as much as I enjoyed writing it! I would love to hear your feedback, in case I decide to do this again next year. Have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!
You are a painter and have just been commissioned to do a large oil-on-canvas painting that depicts something about the holiday season. What scene would you choose to paint?
I think I would paint the wise men following the star.
Merry Christmas Eve! On Christmas Eve in the Bennett family, we all try to be the first person to say Christmas Eve Gift. If you get someone, then supposedly they have to give you a present. So, Christmas Eve gift!
If, like Santa, you could take a night flight in a sleigh over any city in the world, which city would you choose?
I think I would have to choose Paris.
I know I have shared a lot of favorite things this month, but Cosmic Christmas (also known as An Angel’s Story) by Max Lucado is possibly my most favorite Christmas book. It tells the story of the birth of Jesus through the eyes of the angel Gabriel. I won’t tell you the whole story, but Gabriel fights to protect Mary and Joseph through her pregnancy and their journey to Bethlehem. Towards the end of the story, Jesus is finally born, and I want to share this passage with you.
We were a wreath of Light around the stable, a necklace of diamonds around the structure. Every angel had been called from his post for the coming, even Michael. None doubted God would, but none knew how He could, fulfill His promise….
Within moments the Awaited One was born. I was privileged to have a position close to the couple, only a step behind Michael. We both gazed into the wrinkled face of the infant. Joseph had placed hay in a feed trough, giving Jesus his first bed. All of God was in the infant. Light encircled His face and radiated from His tiny hands. The very glory I had witnessed in His throne room now burst through His skin.
I felt we should sing but did not know what. We had no song. We had no verse. We had never seen the sight of God in a baby. When God had made a star, our words had roared. When He had delivered His servants, our tongues had flown with praise. Before His throne, our songs never ended. But what do you sing to God in a feed trough?
…Sophio was whispering. I drew near to hear his words:
‘A child has been given to us; God has given a Son to us. He will be responsible for leading the people. His name will be: Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Father who lives forever, Prince of Peace. He will be wounded for the wrong they did, crushed for the evil they did. The punishment which will make them well will be given to Him. They will be healed because of His wounds.’
…So this is He. Immanuel. This is God’s gift. A Savior. He shall save His people from their sins. ‘Worthy is the Lamb,’ I whispered as I knelt before my God. My heart was full. I turned to Mary as she cradled her child and I spoke. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t hear me. The stars could. All of nature could. And most of all, my King could.
‘Do you know who you hold, Mary? You secure the Author of grace. He who is ageless is now moments old. He who is limitless is now suckling your milk. He who strides upon the stars, now has legs too weak to walk; the hands which held the oceans are now an infant’s fist. To Him who has never asked a question, you will teach the name of the wind. The Source of language will learn words from you. He who has never stumbled, you will carry. He who has never hungered, you will feed. The King of creation is in your arms.’
‘What manner of love is this?’ Michael whispered, and again we were covered with silence. A blanket of awe. Finally, Michael again opened his mouth, this time to sing. He began quietly, pausing between the words.
‘Glory, glory, glory to God in the highest.’
…Our praise rose into the realms of the universe. In the most distant galaxy the dust on the oldest star danced with our praise. In the depths of the ocean, the water rippled with adoration. The tiniest microbe turned, the mightiest constellation spun, all of nature joined with us as we worshiped Immanuel, the God who had become flesh.
Suppose that a new fad was to wrap your gifts in anything other than wrapping paper. With what would you wrap your presents?
If I had lots of time, I would knit little bags so that each present looked like a little stocking.
It was the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and the manager of a certain department store hired Santa Clauses to stand outside the store. A few days later, business was so brisk that he hired others to stand there too. A week before Christmas, buying was at an all-time peak, and the manager engaged still more Santa Clauses, so that his store was veritably surrounded by men in red suits ringing bells and wishing people “Merry Christmas.”
On Christmas Eve, the manager called in all the Santa clauses and gave them their pay envelopes. When they opened them, they discovered that they had all received the same amount.
“Hey!” demanded the ones who were hired first. “What is going on here?” We have been pounding the pavement outside this store since Thanksgiving. We should have had a lot more than these other men.”
The second group agreed. “And we should have had more than these last bums!’ they said. “We have frozen our cans off a week longer than they did. It isn’t fair to give us all the same pay.”
“Why not?” said the manager. “Haven’t I paid you what we agreed to? And besides, isn’t this what Christmas is all about, that we are dealt with not according to our merit, but according to grace? So don’t let it spoil your Christmas. Rejoice in the gift of the Savior!”
-Parables for Christmas by John Killinger
I love this parable, because it once again reminds me of the true importance of Christmas. Even in the midst of the frantic last minute shopping and preparations, I don’t want to forget to rejoice in the gift of the Savior!
What ingredients go into your favorite Christmas drink or beverage?
Chai tea, eggnog, and nutmeg.
Today I want to share one of my favorite Christmas picture books with you.
Once there was a gray donkey. He was walking along as usual, with a load on his back. A man was leading him. And as they walked on and on through the starry night, the donkey began to dream.
He dreamed he was carrying a city, with gates and towers and temple domes. He dreamed a child cried in the city. And doves flew all around.
He dreamed he was carrying a ship. It rocked like a cradle. It shone like the moon. And the sea danced all around.
He dreamed he was carrying a fountain. Its water splashed and sang like a child’s laughter. And a garden sprang from the desert sand all around.
He dreamed he was carrying a rose, soft as a mother’s touch and sweet as the sleep of a baby. Angels stood all around.
Then he dreamed he was carrying a lady full of heaven. They had come to a town. But only the village dogs ran to greet them. The man knocked on a door. It did not open, so they had to go on. The donkey followed him down narrow alleyways paved with cobblestones.
They came to a place that smelled of hay, with a watering trough and a cave for a stable. The man helped the lady down from the donkey’s back. Then he took the donkey’s saddle off and followed the lady into the cave.
But the donkey was left alone outside. He had walked so long, his back was aching and his legs were sore. One star high above him shone in the watering trough below. The tired donkey drank.
Just then, a cry rang out in the cave. And its echo rang like a bell, over the hills, all around. The night was so still, even the stars heard it. The man came out of the cave. He whispered to the donkey, “Come.”
Together, they went inside the cave, where the lady lay on a bed of hay. The donkey’s saddle was her pillow. She smiled. “Come,” she said to the donkey. “See what we have carried all this way, you and I.”
It was only a tiny child. Yet, when the baby opened his eyes, the cave was full of light. The donkey blinked. But he was not dreaming now. He was awake.
And suddenly, the donkey was not tired anymore, though he had carried a city, a ship, a fountain, a rose, and all the heavens upon his back.
What do you think is the most enjoyable thing to do in the snow?
I love making snow angels, but sledding down the big hill in our neighborhood is pretty awesome too.
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
-Luke 1:26-45
I love that within the story of the birth of Jesus there are so many instances of people encountering angels. Seeing an angel must be a huge faith booster. As Luci Shaw would say, receiving a message from an angel would certainly widen your imagination.
It came to me, recently, that faith is “a certain widening of the imagination.” When Mary asked the Angel, “How shall these things be?” she was asking God to widen her imagination.
All my life I have been requesting the same thing – a baptized imagination that has a wide enough faith to see the numinous in the ordinary. Without discarding reason, or analysis, I seek from my Muse, the Holy Spirit, images that will open up reality and pull me in to its center.
This is the benison of the sacramental view of life.
-from Winter Song by Luci Shaw
(In case you were wondering, numinous means supernatural, and benison means benediction.)
Regardless of the electric bill, what man-made or natural object would you most like to see strung or outlined with Christmas lights?
I think the Eiffel Tower would be beautiful with Christmas lights.
Today I have another letter from Father Christmas for you.
Cliff House, Top of the World, Near the North Pole
Monday December 20th 1926
My dear boys,
I am more shaky than usual this year. The North Polar Bear’s fault! It was the biggest bang in the world, and the most monstrous firework there ever has been. It turned the North Pole BLACK and shook all the stars out of place, broke the moon into four – and the Man in it fell into my back garden. He ate quite a lot of my Christmas chocolates before he said he felt better and climbed back to mend it and get the stars tidy.
Then I found out that the reindeer had broken loose. They were running all over the country, breaking reins and ropes and tossing presents up in the air. They were all packed up to start, you see – yes it only happened this morning: it was a sleighload of chocolate things, which I always send to England early. I hope yours are not badly damaged.
But isn’t the North Polar Bear silly? And he isn’t a bit sorry! Of course he did it – you remember I had to move last year because of him? The tap for turning on the Rory Bory Aylis fireworks is still in the cellar of my old house. The North Polar Bear knew he must never, never touch it. I only let it off on special days like Christmas. He says he thought it was cut off since we moved.
Anyway, he was nosing round the ruins this morning soon after breakfast (he hides things to eat there) and turned on all the Northern Lights for two years in one go. You have never heard or seen anything like it. I have tried to draw a picture of it; but I am too shaky to do it properly and you can’t paint fizzing light can you?
I think the Polar Bear has spoilt the picture rather – of course he can’t draw with those great fat paws –
Rude! I can – and write without shaking.
By going and putting a bit of his own about me chasing the reindeer and him laughing. He did laugh too. So did I when I saw him trying to draw reindeer, and inking his nice white paws.
Father Christmas had to hurry away and leave me to finish. He is old and gets worried when funny things happen. You would have laughed too! I think it is good of me laughing. It was a lovely firework. The reindeer will run quick to England this year. They are still frightened!
I must go and help pack. I don’t know what Father Christmas would do without me. He always forgets what a lot of packing I do for him.
The Snow Man is addressing our envelopes this year. He is Father Christmas’s gardener – but we don’t get much but snowdrops and frost-ferns to grow here. He always writes in white, just with his finger.
A merry Christmas to you from North Polar Bear
And love from Father Christmas to you all.
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
Mary Love and I went to The Nutcracker last night, so I want to share a clip from that!
If you were asked to choose four songs for a Christmas medley, which songs would you pick?
I would pick Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming, O Holy Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and Angels from the Realms of Glory.
As of last night I'm home in Tennessee! We're going to see the Messiah tonight, so today I have a reading for you from a new book that my parents have been reading that is based on the Messiah.
“Let there be light,” we demand at Christmas. And in every household that celebrates Christmas and in every store that sells to Christmas shoppers, there is light. Homes and malls are decorated inside and out with blinking bulbs of all kinds imaginable. Many people mark the days of Advent using a wreath with four candles, lighting one candle each week of the four weeks before Christmas.
Christmas in every country and in every time has included light – candles and fires, burning logs, or electric wonders. Light is the essence of life and the symbol of joy and safety. It is no accident that Jesus is called the “Light of the World,” nor is it an accident that His birthday is marked by a universal display of light….
To know a little about light is to know a little about time and space, energy, and matter. To know about light is also to know a little about what God is like. Light is the symbol the Bible uses over and over to describe Him.
The New Testament book of 1 Timothy tells us that God “lives in unapproachable light.” These words suggest that we cannot know all there is to know about God or approach Him as equals. The mysteries surrounding the God of light are represented in the mysteries surrounding the nature of light.
Light is the fastest thing there is. It travels at a speed of 186,282 miles per second. (That’s equal to about eight times around the world in one second.) Scientists have concluded that if people could travel at near the speed of light, time would slow down for them and they would get heavier. Knowing the truth of these astounding possibilities doesn’t make it any easier to understand them. Our everyday ways of understanding nature are not enough to explain light. How then can we possibly expect to explain all there is to know about God?
Experiments have also shown another surprising characteristic of light. Light acts like two completely different things. It moves like a continuous wave, similar to a steady ripple that comes from a pebble dropped in a pond. Light is also totally unlike a wave, moving in little bits similar to a line of individual bullets shot from a machine gun. We can accept the truth of this seeming contradiction because it explains the observed facts about light. In the same way, Christians accept the spiritual mystery that God can be both a human baby and the all-powerful God at the same time….
Light is the source of life itself. Light warms our body with the heat that makes our blood flow and our muscles move. The sunlight that shines on our green planet enters leaf and plant where it is changed, by the miracle of photosynthesis, into the living food energy that every animal and human must have to stay live. So we can say that light is in every life giving bite of food that we put into our mouths. The Bible tells us that “God is light,” and that “in him we live and move and have our being” (1 John 1:5; Acts 17:28). He is, in a sense, the light that keeps us alive.
God showed Himself to Moses in a burning bush. He led the Israelites through the desert by a pillar of fire. The apostle Paul found his Savior in a blinding flash of light. Christ’s birth was announced by angels in a glory of light, and the wise men followed the light of a star. God is light. And just as every young child cries for the light that will take away the night fears, so every human heart longs for the light of God’s love, every mind searches for the light of God’s truth, and every spirit cries for the salvation to lighten its darkness.
-The Handel’s Messiah Family Advent Reader by Donna W. Payne and Fran Lenzo
