Deep Calls

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...

BLESSED IS SHE WHO HAS BELIEVED       Zechariah came out of the Holy of Holies mute! Perhaps he tried to use sign language to communicate what had happened, but ... everyone knew  something  supernatural had happened, but ? ? ?       Zechariah went home, and in the 'natural course of events' Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant. It says she stayed in seclusion for 5 months. However, it never says  WHY.  I checked a few commentaries ... nothing! OK, some clearly biased guesses. (Sometimes I wish commentators would just say "Wow! don't have a clue!")      Elizabeth wasn't ashamed. She said, " 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 Elizab...

BEYOND BELIEF 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, tragic for any couple but 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 him,  " Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice becau...

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 also 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 fath...

This is another re-run ~ I wrote it thinking of Zechariah and Elizabeth after the Magi left ~ - - - - - - - - The old man stood in the shadows, leaning on the doorway, letting it bear his weight. He gazed at his wife as she sat in a corner of a now dark room. She held a small boy in her lap; she hummed and stroked his hair. "Is she going to be alright? "Oh Anna! You have come again. Thank you. I do not know...I do not know...will any of us be alright? She sits and rocks him -- will not put him down. The first nights she slept by his bed ~ when she slept. This is a nightmare -- thank you, my friend, for coming. I could not leave her without knowing you were with her and John." "Such a child. See, he sits so still in her lap. It is like he ... knows. As long as you need me, I will come. But I have thought, in this grief we can rejoice...they did not come to your door." "Simeon thinks he would not dare to touch the son of a High Priest ~ ...

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... The post below is a re-run...I actually wrote it last year. I was reviewing with an eye to doing a Magi story for our Advent Adventure. and. . .I re-read this and . . . (she says blushing a bit) I liked it all over again. So: I am putting it here AGAIN! Hope you enjoy it!! - - - - - - - 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...

OK, we do something kind of crazy in December...some people as soon as the day after Thanksgiving... 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! 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 your kids even ask why? Have you ever asked why? There is an answer. Ok, don't freak out on me. It began as a pagan tradition. (I can hear it now, "OK Mertle. Get that thing out of our house...its pagan! " Calm down. don't do anything rash!) It began  ...