Deep Calls

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Du kannst mir sehr gefallen! OK, we do something kind of crazy in December...some people as soon as the day after Thanksgiving...so I am just sure most of you already have done this crazy thing: We put a tree in our living rooms. Yes...We put a tree -- very very often -- an evergreen tree that was alive days ago, still green, still still smelling (wonderfully) of pine forests -- into our house. I know that since we all do it, it seems so normal and traditional and all that we really don't question it. We just do it! It doesn't seem odd, it doesn't seem to even warrant the question, "WHY am I doing this??" Then we decorate it with pretty, Christmas themed things: ornaments, garland, maybe popcorn and cranberries on a string, lights...a star or an angel on top. We leave it there and we let it shed its needles all over our living room floor. Why DO we do this? Is "because it is a Christmas tree" a good enough answer? Do...

Such a sweet couple...I won't forget them, that is sure! I wonder about them...I saw them last before .  .  . well .   .   . before the slaughter.  I wasn't there when they came. So much to do with the travelers and the Romans in and out. And Eli -- I could not believe! He put them in the stable!!!! Said he didn't even see she was with child ~ the LUNK!! He thought they looked tired, and just as he was about to turn them away, he thought of the stable. HUH! He could have put those camel drivers in the stable...how could he not have seen??  It was in the night...a funny night it was...it had been cold and drear all the week, but that night the stars shone so it look almost like day. And there was music in the night ~ Eli said it was a dream, but I heard it clear as clear ... even above his snoring! It was in the night I found out about them  --  after the music  .  .  . a commotion in the yard,     ...

So when we decorate at Christmas we use stars, we put them a top our trees, and we gild the rest of our decorations with stars, stars, stars. Why? OK, they ARE pretty! But lots of things are pretty. The stars of Christmas ... and the story of why we use the stars ... may be my favorite side story in this wonderful Advent adventure. I LOVE IT! It's multi-layered. It is awe-full...in the take-your-breath-away,-wonderful way, and sadly - in the chill-you-to-the-bone way as well. Now... - - - - - - - Sometime after Jesus was born, while he was still living in Jerusalem ~ as we will see from the story ~ when he was somewhere between birth and two years old, Magi came from the East with extravagant gifts to worship him. The story . . . at least the  end  of the story . . . is told in Matthew chapter 2. It is amazing ~ it is horrible. Wait...Matthew chapter 2 is the  end  of the story? ! ? YES! So, I can hear you asking, what is the beginning? The beginning...

"Alexi !!!  Here you are! When you were late to dinner ... again ... I finally came looking. I must say Sari is annoyed. She made lamb.  Reading the old scrolls again, Alexi...?" Looking up as if coming from a long way off and just now noticing his friend, "Ah Beltzi. . . .OH DINNER !!  I am sorry. I just meant to stop by for just a moment. Ahhh...its dark.!  Oh, I am so sorry! Come, is it too late? May we stop on the way? I must bring a gift to Sari to apologize." " ... and then the camels spit, right on the bundles ~ Alexi, are you even listening? Where are you? What has come over you lately?" "It is the scrolls, the old ones ... " "The scrolls? Again the scrolls? I love study as much as the next man, and I always thought MORE than you until ... what is it?" "I don't know, I swear they haunt me! I ... dream of them, no, don't laugh ~ I do! I think of them all day and find no peace till I go and read them. And...

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by...an angel of the Lord appeared to them ..." "I have always loved this view ~    the hills green, dotted with the sheep. I especially love being here on this side when it is their night where I can look  up  into these stars.  It is so quiet for them -- such a silent night. Look! The shepherds, mostly, are asleep...hmmmm, wait, there  -- see a few  -- there and there -- are on watch. Their eyes like eagles scan the darkness for shadows moving where they should not, but...mmm haha --We have no shadows. They are a wonder ~ men ~ don't you think?" "Remember David, sitting there alone ~ yes, just there  ~ with that harp, singing to his sheep, and to Him on all those dark nights. He is to call Himself David's Son, you know. It is, I think --  it is for him, for David, that we greet these men with this news now." "What I remember is that first time -- but that was E...

His Eyes She remembered their story in flashes : The first time she saw him,  setting down a load of wood to lift a child from the dust where she had fallen,  his voice tender, his eyes soft. The first time she caught his eyes.  She had looked up from the well into his eyes. The world had stopped. Her breath had stopped. The look he gave to her across the room when her father had given his consent. But then ~                   the look he gave her when she had to tell him she was pregnant. Rage,            shock,                               grief.  His eyes turned to stone. He turned his eyes away and stumbled from the room.  She thought the world would end.    OH, God,   I thought an angel would have come to him too. Why did you not tell him when you told me? 'May ...

Joseph's birth announcement Joseph kind of fascinates me. We know so little about him ... but in that little bit I can see so much. What do we  know ? Well, we know that he was from Nazareth. (Luke 1:26-27) We know that Joseph was in the family line of David the king. (Luke 1:6-16) We know that he was a carpenter, because Jesus was called a carpenter and sons learned their trades from their fathers. (Mark 6:1-3) and ...             really ...                             not much more.  OH ~ wait! We know he was betrothed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she became pregnant with Jesus, and that, at the time, Mary was a virgin ~ hence, Joseph was NOT the biological father of Jesus. We know that when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he was going to divorce her...

In Morning Light     Just before dawn, in the last whispers of night, she stood.      She had been there a while, having risen in the dark hoping to see the first light of the sun begin the day. Her thoughts had been of bread to knead, and floors to sweep -- and Joseph.     Closing her eyes she thought about the night months ago, swaying into the memory... Joseph came and talked with her father, talked a long, long time. Joseph rubbed his rough, strong hands together nervously; his eyes somber then. She had never seen them like that: dark, intense. In fact, it was his eyes she knew best: his eyes that laughed, that sparkled in merriment, his eyes that strayed to children at play as he worked. She could not hear the words they spoke, just the voices of her father and Joseph. And then her father nodded and Joseph had turned ~ and she had caught her breath as Joseph caught her eyes .        The agreem...

Zechariah comes out of the Holy of Holies ~mute! He tries to use sign language to communicate what had happened, but ...                           they know  something  supernatural had happened, but  .  .  .  ? ? ? He goes home, and in the 'natural course of events' Elizabeth, his wife, becomes pregnant. It says she stayed in seclusion for 5 months. However, it never says  WHY.  I checked a few commentaries ... nothing! OK, some 'drivel' ~ clearly biased guesses. Sometimes I wish commentators would just say "Wow! don't have a clue!" Elizabeth wasn't ashamed. She says, " The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and  taken away my disgrace  among the people ." (Luke 1:25) So why 5 months of seclusion?  My answer:  We don't know ... don't have a clue!! What we do know is that in the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, ...

(Advent stories are replete with angels ~ have you noticed? We find it easy to believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that Magi came, etc. Why do we find it hard to believe that angels show up...really show up and talk to people? Hmmmmm) There was a couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was a high priest ... one of the very select few who could enter the Holy of Holies. The Bible tells us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were "well advanced" in years. One translation, in fact, says they were "well stricken with age".  What a way to say "old"!! Also, Elizabeth, we are told, was barren.                       NO hope for a child. This was beyond sad.      It was tragic for a couple ~ especially one in the family of the High Priest.  There would be no son to follow in his line.  Then one fate-full day, Zachariah is serving in the Holy of Holies and an angel shows up. The angel tells h...

I have been "gone" from the blog world for a WHILE . . . SORRY! Life had a way of yanking me off the path and zipping all creativity from my brain. But I have some 'off' time' and I thought I would meander through some of my Christmas-y blogs and do some re-runs. Perhaps that will nudge me to write again ~ we'll see. So RE-RUN # 1 : Advent . . . are question marks forming on your brow? I find that not too many people "do" Advent these days. Are you from one of those families that got the Advent calendars and did the readings and had the candle wreath? I didn't grow up doing that. I wanted to do it when my kids were small...never managed to do it. (Yeah, that is one of the [many] black marks against me.) Somehow, raising 3 small children, . . . then when the first 3 were older, one small child and three bigger kids ~ well, somehow I just never got the wreath on time, or made the calendar, or bought a calendar...then ~ zip--blink your eyes ~ and...

So today I went to the laundry-mat. After I had been there for a while, a homeless couple came in. They were dirty, and loud, and angry, did not seem to be wholly in their right mind, yelling at each other in language I am not sure a drunken sailor would understand.  The laundry-mat was pretty full, and all of us got quiet, and focused on our own laundry and moved as far from them as we could. I sat praying. After they had been there for a little while, a man came in. One look at the grin on his face, and one glance in his eyes and you could see he knew  and loved  Jesus. He walked up to the homeless man and hugged him saying, "Hi, Jake. My friend! I have missed you. Hi Sally. How about if I go get our dinner?" The man (the couple called him Carlos) left for a bit and came back with pizza and ate dinner with them, chatting and talking and laughing with them while they all ate. While he was there the couple was peaceful and quiet and calm and pleasant. Not l...