On The Move

The Living Area as staged by the Realtor

We're moving again! Yes, we've purchased a townhouse and all the ducks are in their row. We will be moving in at the end of the month, so our Christmas is going to be very minimal. That is alright, too. To quote the Grinch: 

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!” 

Advent and Christmas are about Christ and the honoring of Him - O Come, Let Us Adore Him! Since I am working part time for St. Paul's United Methodist Church, we will have a lot of holiday services to choose from. Last Sunday was Harp Fusion - a most wonderful collection of harpists from those as young as eight years old to, well, older harpists. 

This coming Sunday will herald the children's program at 5 pm. Then there will be three candlelight services on Christmas Eve as well as a dinner, then on Christmas Day there will be a service plus a brunch. Indeed, there will be a number of celebrations from which we can select to attend.

I am so grateful  my word for 2013 was S.I.M.P.L.I.C.I.T.Y. and that I heeded its message! This theme has been impressed upon my heart and spirit many times over this year. It has proven to be a blessing when moving and moving yet again. I have found it amazing that things I didn't think I could live without are now memories and not missed. More importantly, they are not cluttering my life or my counters.

I've been patiently waiting for my word for 2014... it will be revealed on New Year's Eve! 

To all of you who are my blogging partners and friends, Christmas Blessings to you and yours. May your expectations be minimal and your hearts overflowing with love and goodwill!

Simply yours,

Tamara

P.S. 

John 1:14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Merry Christmas

O Come, O Come Immanuel!

May we each experience the joy that is wrapped in love and sealed with grace brought by the Christ child.  

Immanuel - "God with us."

Remembering the Less Fortunate

In the Old Testament, the poor, and service to the poor is the second most frequently mentioned topic.  Idolatry is first. 

In the New Testament, the results are even more dramatic.  One of every sixteen verses refers to “the poor”.  Among the four Gospels, the ratio is one of every ten.  In the Gospel of Luke, it is one of every seven.  In the epistle of James, it is one of every five…  

I’m sure that by now, you are beginning to see the direction I’m taking.  The Messiah celebrated in the Old Testament book of Isaiah and in Handel’s great oratorio is a God with special preference for the poor.  

And isn't that what we are celebrating?  God With Us - because of our great poverty (spiritual) God came to us in the form of the Christ Child.  The Messiah however, did not remain a child but fulfilled His mission to reconcile us to God.

As Christ’s followers — those who are committed to sharing in the work of the Messiah —we must constantly remind ourselves of that preference.  In our consumeristic world, during such a blessed season when commercial temptations often reach their highest level, such reminders become even more critical.

George Fridric Handel’s work, Messiah is generally reckoned to have been composed in three weeks; with the Hallelujah Chorus having been written in three days. Handel is reputed to have said, “that Heaven opened” while he was composing it.

Messiah remains Handel's best known work, although this was not a status that it enjoyed until the last few years of his life, brought about by annual performances in Handel's oratorio seasons and charitable benefit concerts at the Foundling Hospital, an organization for underprivileged children.

Last Sunday evening we were privileged to see the 75^th  performance of the Messiah by our local community college, due to the generosity of our Sunday School teacher and his wife. (Thank you again, Ed & Peggy!)

Persons from the community perform with the college choir and the college orchestra.  Most of the soloist parts are performed by students, but not all.

It was wonderful to behold!

My husband is not specifically drawn to the arts, especially oratorios, operas, classical music and works performed by orchestras!   Bless his heart, he attended nonetheless!  He did believe the performance was finished when the Hallelujah Chorus was complete. 

I diligently and gently tried to explain the Messiah is a performance that covers the Old Testament references from the book of Isaiah, all the way through the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of the Christ.

My Prayer

Almighty God, remind me how often scripture mentions the poor, and help me to remember that I also should give them priority.  Help me to speak and act on behalf of those whose voices our society often ignores.  ~Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Quotes on Poverty and the Poor

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. ~Mother Teresa

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work. ~Mother Teresa

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. ~Mother Teresa

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own. ~Cesar Chavez

We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs. ~Gloria Steinem

How will you be responding to those in need this season?  Take the opportunity to read Isaiah 53 ~ this prophetic word always amazes me.

Proverbs 14:31

The Message

³¹ You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless;
when you're kind to the poor, you honor God.

Proverbs 29:7

The Message

⁷ The good-hearted understand what it's like to be poor;
the hardhearted haven't the faintest idea.

Tamara

Reflecting on Christmas

My email devotional from the Upper Room today spoke on how we may need to have ‘spiritual glasses, or vision remedies’ that are specifically designed to help us see the star and the angels… in the hills over Bethlehem this Advent season.  Instead, we often see fuzzy images of sugarplums and reindeer and Santa and snowmen and gifts—and maybe, just maybe we might catch a glimpse of the child in the manger. It’s difficult to see any details outside the limited realm of our personal comfort levels. (From In My Heart I Carry a Star: Stories for Advent by Derek Maul.)

Do we see the advent of Christ in this world as a means to bring God’s message of reconciliation and love to our brothers and sisters?  Or do we see it as just another way to pad our comfort and reward ourselves with layer upon layer of material blessing?  And worse, perhaps we spend the next year paying off those material blessings…

We live in a great big world full of desperation, people, war, plenty, hunger,  joy, pain, and even hope sometimes — if only we have the eyes to see… And then, only when those eyes have been spiritually opened by the transforming power of the Christ, the lowly child in the manger.

When our eyes are opened and we have clear vision we run the risk of grasping something of the pain, the tragedy, the truth, and the crying needs of those with whom we come into contact with on a daily basis. These realities ultimately define all people who have not witnessed — or allowed themselves to respond to the sign that has been given by the star and the angels.

My Prayer
This Advent, God, I ask that You shine through my life.  Light my often pale and drab spirit with Your love.  Help me to give without reservation and remove my fear.  Thank You for the confidence that You bring. ~Amen.

Can you identify one activity that, upon reflection, you might consider a distraction from the true meaning of this season?

Psalm 126:6, NRSV


Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Tamara

Christmas 2009

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

My Thoughts and Perspective

Can you imagine being as heavy with child as Mary was and traveling all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem? That was a distance of approximately 90 miles and they had to either walk that distance or be carried by an animal, a beast of burden. Our traditional Christmas story has Mary riding a donkey. I cannot even imagine such a journey being that pregnant and so close to delivery.

I would imagine, since they were a poor couple, that they were hoping to get to Bethlehem as soon as possible, to be counted (as a couple, as two) and to pay the taxes for that amount, hoping the baby would not be born and having that additional tax burden.

Then the time arrives and there was “no room in the inn” and so the child was born in a ‘barn’ and placed in a manger. While some describe the innkeeper as an example of uncaring, sinful mankind who rejected the Savior, was he? He allowed them an area of privacy where they could bring their child into the world. Privacy is something I required when giving birth, I can’t imagine the Mother of our Lord would be any different.

Shepherds were the first to whom the angels appeared and announced the birth of a Savior. Stinking, smelly, working men. Lowly in stature and yet the angels who heralded the birth of Christ appeared to the common, working man. Perhaps that is why people who heard the shepherds story were so amazed. Recently I heard a sermon that equated shepherds and fishermen of that era to truckers and bikers of our day. I wonder how accurate that is? It is a wonderful contrast though.

Next, at all these happenings, Mary was in awe and treasured them in her heart. Isn’t that just like a mother? How many of us recall little things about the birth of our children and little things they did when growing up? Perhaps we didn’t write these things down, but that have become a part of the oral history of our family. These are the things we share in a family gathering or with our child when they are feeling low or perhaps ill.

Finally, and most important, the Christmas story is about the Savior who was God in human flesh coming to earth to save us from our sins and to establish His Kingdom in our lives, in our hearts and in our homes. The issue is, will we allow Him to be the King, the Ruler of our lives? Will we submit to His authority and deny our own selfish ambitions? That is the chief of all questions, isn’t it? It is the question each of us needs to consider and ponder in our hearts for not only this Christmas season, but for the coming year.

I won’t be posting possibly until after the New Year, but I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a blessed Christmas and to thank you for your friendship, your prayers and for becoming such a very real part of my life. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Because we’re His,

Tamara