Thinking about Easter.

The yard is beautiful as the sun brightly shines on the beautiful white snow covered yard.

snow?

it's spring... isn't it?

it is.  

it's the beginning of spring in Canada.

sometimes we get more snow.

This snow has me thinking about Christmas.

the season we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

without Christmas we would not have Easter.

Easter the season we remember the death and celebrate the resurrection of that same babe we remember at Christmas.

without Easter we would not have any reason to celebrate Christmas.

they are tied together and i always think about one when i think about the other.

It's Wednesday today.

Good Friday is in a couple days.

i was thinking about Christ dying on the cross for me.

and wanted to share a small portion of a book i read years ago.

The Book was Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott

chapter 3: The Character of Christ

He was misunderstood and misrepresented, and became the victim of men's prejudices and vested interests.  He was despised and rejected by his own people, and deserted by his own friends.  He gave his back to be flogged, his face to be spat upon, his head to be crowned with thorns, his hands and feet to be nailed to a common Roman gallows.  And as the cruel spikes were driven home, he kept praying for his tormentors, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.' 

imagine the loneliness he was feeling at that time.

He was dying on that cross for those people... 

for the ones who were convicting him. 

for the ones just doing their job and crucifying him.

for the ones who enjoyed their job of crucifying him.

for the ones who had followed him up until that point, then scattered.

for the ones who watched with sadness and tears, feeling their hope fading.

for the ones who jeered, who spat, who mocked.

for the ones who walked by seeing another criminal on the cross, maybe thinking he got what he deserved.

for the people in the generations to come.

he was dying on the cross for all, whether they loved him or not.

and he forgave each of them.

they didn't understand back then.

they hadn't read the ending.

they thought their hope was gone.

their king!  

their saviour!

they didn't understand he was going to actually rise again.

The Romans knew what they were doing.

They didn't make mistakes with the cross.

no one came back after.

except one.

 

 

Mary.

i love the Christmas season.

i love the reason I celebrate it.

i love that i celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

i love that celebrating Christmas reminds me that Easter is why Jesus came to Earth.

I had a baby boy in August of 2007.  

my first child.

my first son.

i remember being in tears at Christmas that year.

reading and thinking about the very first Christmas eve.

thinking about Mary.

a young girl.

never even been with a man and now was to be carrying a baby.

i think about her feeling the baby growing.

the baby moving.

i think about her traveling, not by plane or car... but walking, to a distant town.

with many other people.

some she knew, some she did not.

feeling the weight of the baby.

heading to a crowded little town.

aches, pains, joy, fear.

she was going to have a baby!

i remember that thought passing through my mind quite often.  

sometimes it brought fear, sometimes excitement.

then... no bed to sleep on.

into a stable.

with the animals.

still probably better than some people got.

stinky animals.

i remember my sense of smell was do heightened.

was hers?  surrounded by the animals.

then it comes time to have the baby.

that young girl now delivering a baby.

i like to think that someone in the town was a midwife of some sort who was able to assist her.

it would have been quite scary for her.

the fear she would have had, going through it all.

and then, she got to hold her baby.

her son.

the memories of the Angel Gabriel's words probably flooded her as she admired every single inch of him.

"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."   Luke 1:31-33

she snuggled him, fed him, kissed him.  

then wrapped him in a cloths and lay him in a manger.  

an animal's feeding trough.

she would provide for her son the best she could.  

and a manger was the best at that point.

my first Christmas holding my son i thought about Mary. 

an ordinary young girl.

but used by God to carry and raise His Son.  

she would love him dearly.

she would care for him.

what she truly expected he would be like and what he was like... 

i don't know how similar they were.

maybe this is why when i first heard "Mary Did You Know?" brought tears to my eyes.

a prayer for the Cast of our Christmas Performance.

It's raining out.

the crazy snow we had is melting.

there are 11 days until Christmas.

but only 3 nights until our Christmas Performance.

A JOURNEY HOME

this week is crazy.

i am at the church every evening.

Last night i stayed after the rehearsal to prime the stairs, on the set.

i got home at 2:15am.

tonight is dress rehearsal #1

"Oh Lord, please help us all know our lines.

Please don't let us play a character, but let us BE that character.

when we step on stage, each night, i ask that we see through our character's eye, speak with his/her voice.  hear with his/her ears, may our actions, mannerisms, laughter, be the character we have become.

Thank you for the talent of the people involved.

i love them like family Lord. 

I am so honored that you allow me the opportunity each year to be able to be a part of these performances.

May the performances this year be pleasing.. very pleasing to you.

You have gifted us.

Our directors, writers, tech guys.

our builders, painters, creative geniuses.

our actors, stage crew, prompter.

and everyone else involved that i have no idea about.

Thank you for our families

who allow us to take the time to be out there doing what we are passionate about.

Help us as we strive to bring you the best.

to bring the community of Huntsville the best.

Help us not be shy, not be distracted, not be sick.

Help us to be confident, be strong, bold, healthy.

I ask for your blessing on those of us in this production.

i ask for your blessing on each of the audience members.

some don't know if they'll go yet. 

Use us to show them who you are.

Thank you for Christmas.

Thank you for sending Jesus, your son, as a baby.

thank you for easter, Lord.

without Christmas, Easter would not have happened." 

"Wow, Anna, it sounds like there might be a lot more to this story!" - Gail



Merry Christmas

O Holy Night

the stars are brightly shining

this is the night

of our dear Savior's birth.

Merry Christmas!

not happy holidays, not season's greetings...not even happy festivus.

(but if you're a Seinfeld fan, have a Happy Festivus)

I wish you a Merry Christmas.

I celebrate Christ's birthday.

so I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Happy birthday Jesus!

or in the words of the song I knew from our Sunshine and Snowflakes record:

Happy birthday baby jesus

even when your birthday's through

all year long i'll remember

to sing happy birthday to you.

Christmas music

I used to start playing Christmas music as soon as it got cold out.

Then I started playing it when the stores got out their Christmas stuff 

(it didn't used to be at halloween time)

Then I started playing it after US Thanksgiving - it made more sense to me.

now I don't want to hear it until at earliest - Dec 1st.

I'm listening to the radio, Life 98.9 right now, and it is Christmas music all day.

(sunday was a day of praise and worhip with some Christmas music thrown in)

I am not a fan of that much Christmas music.. 

I miss the regular 'Christian' music.  

i get annoyed with the same carols over and over just by different artists.  

variety is not there.  and some of them I find quite boring or just plain annoying. 

I wish it would be a mix. 

I wish we could have the regular music with some carols. 

"Switch the station or put on some other music" you say.

I do. 

when I get annoyed enough i do - or i just turn it off completely.

or I just put on Sharon, Lois or Bram and dance around with the kids to the Elephant song.

Some of the non-traditional Christmas music are really good - and they're a nice change.

oh, I am not Scrooge McDuck, I am not the Grinch.

I do love Christmas. 

I love the Santa Claus parade.

I do love the Christmas specials on tv, and wish I would have some of them on dvd - 

i just need to buy my favorites.

I love White Christmas with Bing Crosby.

I love Lampoons Christmas vacation with Chevy Chase, It's a Wonderful Life, Scrooge (B&W version)... 

I love the Christmas story.

I love nativity scenes - although the wise men weren't actually at the stable with the baby.

I love reading the Easter Story at Christmastime to be reminded why Christ even came as a baby, why we have Christmas in the first place.

and I do love Christmas Music.  

just not 24-7. 

this is just me taking time on my blog to write my annoyance at that much repetition of Carols... 

so call me Scrooge if you want, but to me, most carols are sung without depth or emotion being revealed.. they are just sung - the words not really thought of -

now, Jingle Bell Rock (it just came on the radio) is one I don't like much at all - but that's not a real Carol.  

the ones about Christ are the ones I'm talking about. 

 people sing those all the time but don't mean the words or even believe them - they're just Christmas Carols.

O Holy Night is in fact one of my favorites... or What Child is this...and Mary's Boy Child

So, you see I do like the songs - i sang the 12 days of Christmas to the kids at lunch - although I got stuck on days 11 & 12...my true love didn't give me anything on these days - oh well.

I guess I rambled long enough.  

if you made it this far before quitting then Thank You, and I am sorry if you're now confused at the purpose of this entry... if it makes you feel better i am too.

anyway...

Merry Christmas