Circular Calendar Monologue

Calendar Girl me is getting ready to speak at MOPS tomorrow. 'Tis a rich season we're approaching. But then I love the richness each season has to offer as we recycle rhythmically around the calendar.

"Around" the calendar wouldn't be a term you'd use, when our calendars are linear and we tend to live linearly as well. God established festivals to recycle each year for establishing traditions, retelling of stories, and re-remembering.

"Live linearly"? Hmmmm .... that's what I love about sitting down to write - to journal. When waking and desiring to post something, living linearly was not in my thoughts. As I write, it's like my fingers are their own being and take off with stuff on their own. And then the rest of me has to pause and reflect ... and I'm thinking, "How cool!" What am I thinking in connection to seeing live linearly on the page?

I'm actually visualizing a line of time. Like I have to speak tomorrow, and then there's a very busy art and tea day at church next weekend I'm involved in. So often when there's things demanding more of me, my default mode thinks "I can't wait for tomorrow to be done with" or "next saturday to be over". Like when Monte had us speaking all over the country, I always had those thoughts. Like I want to jump ahead on my calendar timeline. Hmmmm ... isn't there a movie like that, fast forwarding thru things of life?

When I saw that the main point of Jesus' time with Mary and Martha in the recorded scripture story was that they be present to him in the moment - whether able to sit at his feet, or working in the kitchen, I related that message to my times I'd like to fast-forward thru. No! Not if I'm living beyond just linear time ... Like I'm supposed to be living rhythmically ever present to Loving God and Loving My Neighbor in every moment, aware of his Larger Story he asks me to be a part of.

Sure I can live in my own small story and focused on the past or the future and not really present to the here and now of this moment ... missing God winks!

So what was I going to post today? ;^)
Oh yes, I'm readying to speak on the calendar season tomorrow. I reread my postings a year ago - by clicking on the sidebar months of November thru January, you'd see the calendar season posts I'm not wanting to take the time to link you to. We just passed Halloween, which the stories I connect to that time is Reformation and the following day of All Saints Day, which was a huge turning point in our Christian history. Before that in September thru October are the Jewish Fall Festivals. That's where the calendar book I'm writing begins: The Jewish New Year and God creating our world. The Jewish festival of Sukkot that God instituted to be celebrated every year became our Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving.

I'm taking tomorrow, a picture I drew of my circular calendar (which is posted in June of this year under John the Baptist Day, where I also talk about my living rhythmically). I'm also taking an old Thanksgiving Tree I kept one year. Because I reread last years post, I'm remembering a turning point in this established tradition, and I'm going to share that tomorrow.


Because each year, for years, I've drawn a bare tree on a large piece of paper and put it up before Thanksgiving, and cut out leaves from colored paper for people to write things they're thankful for, Thanksgiving day is rich with thoughts already in a full-of-thanks mode or posture. Last year the wall space was not there for the tree, since I'd put up more photos, so I didn't do the tree. I waited to see if it was missed. One guest did make a comment I loved! "Where's the tree? I've been thinking of things all week to write on leaves to glue on the tree!!" So I quickly drew a tree and the refrigerator was the decided place to put it and I brought down my can full of colored markers - a way more colorful creative tree of gratitude, from the tangible to intangible, took shape throughout the day!

I'm also taking a Christmas stocking full of things. I keep this stocking in the ready for times when I speak. It's filled with things related to the Saint Nicholas story. When protestantism threw out the church calendar, they threw out so much Christian history rich with Third Testament stories. People used to wake up remembering these stories - which help me remember that if God was there for them, he'll be here for me. People used to wake with lives aware and looking for miracles in their everyday living. Do we, in our linear days? Because we no longer remember St Nicholas and his story on December 6, he's gotten mixed up with Jesus and celebrated on Christmas! I now put up stockings on December 6 and we can tell people as we live the days of December that Santa Claus already came to our house - and then share the real story!

I'm bringing JRR Tolkiens Father Christmas book, as well as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever book (my favorite read-aloud every year! - such a healing story for me at one point of my life), and Madeline L'Engle's Dance in the Desert book. Dawson and friends dramatized that book one year using things from the "Dress Up Box" (Halloween is such a good time to find great things for a dress up box: wigs, funny glasses, long gloves, costumes of animals ... I've still got the stuff in a barrel, awaiting Grandkids!). In the days following Christmas (the 12 Days of Christmas) there's a day remembering all the children ordered murdered by Harod in Jesus' story, which too remembers an OT scripture mentioning the wailing Hebrew mothers for their slaughtered children. The Dance in the Desert book imagines the fleeing "Holy Family" (as depicted in so much art) crossing the desert to Egypt in a caravan, and one night all of creation comes to pay homage to the Christ child.

Since I'm posting on this season, I'll post a picture of the pumpkin Dawson carved this year. His friend Aaron helped him draw it out first. In case you can't tell, it's a Jesus face pumpkin. Since we were out of town last week, he did it at a friend's house and I've not seen the real thing. I wish I could see it, cuz it's unreal looking!

Where am I ending my seasonal talk tomorrow? My handout takes everyone thru the Advent season. The Christian Calendar begins with Advent, awaiting God Incarnate, enfleshed in the birth of a baby. Last year's December link defines this season for you with daily scripture readings, if you'd like. The 12 Days of Christmas culminate January 6 with Epiphany, remembering the adoration of the Magi. Then my handout has some Third Testament story days with St Nicholas and St Lucia, on the 13th (our Swedish roots, yet she's not Swedish!), and Hanukkah. Then there's Boxing Day, St Stephen's day, Peter Pan day (you've got to read my post on this!), Childermas, Circumsicion Day (yes, it's a part of the Jesus story and art depicts it!), ending with Ground Hog Day.

Why Ground Hog Day, and how does that connect with the Incarnation of God story? Originally, February 2 was, and is, Candlemas Day: the day Jesus, "a light to lighten the gentiles", was presented at the temple, and old Anna and Simeon were patiently awaiting him.
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"One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next."
- Isaiah 38:19

"...for they shall hear from us about the wonders of the Lord, generations yet unknown will hear of the miracles he did for us."
- Psalms 22:30-31

"Enter God's gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation."
- Psalm 100

February 2

The below is what I posted last year, so I copy and pasted it here for this year, and I was going to do it last night, thinking I'd be back from the hospital before 10, but no. Heather still had not slept in two days and was falling asleep nursing and baby Will was not going to sleep. So I didn't leave until he got to sleep and Heather was sleeping.

But as the day progressed I thought of this day and the timing in Scripture of baby Jesus's continuing story. Heather had even talked about this, without her knowing the calendar day's story. So off to the hospital again I go.
____________________________________
So what day is February 2? Groundhog Day!
Yes and No.

On the Christian calendar February 2 is Candlemas Day. This was the day Jesus was brought as a baby to the temple. Old Simeon and Anna were there waiting for years! for the Messiah, and proclaimed Jesus the Light to lighten all peoples.

A meeting of the old and new.

In some places candles may still be brought to the church to be blessed.

Folklore: "If Candlemas day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight;
But if it be dark with clouds and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again."

Groundhog Lore: If he sees the sun ...
and is frightened by his shadow he'll crawl back to sleep for 40 days.
If it's cloudy ...
and stays above ground; it's a harbinger of early spring.

Did dislike of religion bring the change from Candlemas to Groundhog Day?

Watch the movie "Groundhog Day".
Bill Murray, a TV weatherman seems condemned to live the day over and over again. He tries every role or small story he can think of. When all fail him, does he discover the real meaning of life?

It's Ecclesiastes in modern film--all is vanity. I love the fact that you can find a part of the Gospel in most every film.

On A Night Like This

After last night's Christmas Eve service, I wanted to post the words to a song written by our Minister of Worship, Kerry Conner. I was only going to post some phrases, but love it in its entirety - 

On A Night Like This

A Baby shivered

When first he felt the evening's cool caress

The creator of the cosmos clothed in flesh

But he must have warmed at the tender touch of a mother's kiss

As the young girl held the Savior in her arms

On a night like this.

The shepherds shuddered

When they heard the host proclaim that peace had come

They left their flocks to seek the virgin's son

They heard the angels sing

In the sparkling midnight mist

And their hearts leaped as they gazed upon the child

On a night like this.

Chorus:

On a night like this

Everything was changed

The Father sent his son to pay our debt

On a night like this

Our ransom was arranged

Because the hand of God became a baby's fist

On a night like this.

The darkness shattered

As the brilliance of a new star split the night

To announce the bold invasion of the light

And there must have been a groan

From the heart of the abyss

Because the chilly hand of death would lose it's grip

On a night like this

The Spirit quickens

And a spark of faith can fan into a fire

A lonely soul can find its true desire

Because Immanuel has come

And he offers us the gift

A restless heart need never stay the same 

On a night like this.

Chorus:

On a night like this 

Everything can change

There's no wound too deep and dark for race to heal

On a night like this

Love can break the cruellest chains

Because the hand of God became a baby's fist

On a night like this

Everything can change

On a night like this

Our ransom was arranged

On a night like this

Everything can change

On a night like this

Love can break the cruellest chains 

On a night like this.

Though written and produced in 1992 by Kerry, it's recorded by his friend Debbie Milligan on her album "Teach Me to Dance in the Rain". Her website is www.healingwings.com

Art The Nativity by Salvador Dali

Adoration of the Shepherds, unknown, and then El Greco

Advent Ending

I've not posted for a few days! Monte got home from Norway at 2am Monday. We went to Travis and Sarah's Tuesday, bearing gifts: Christmas presents and tons of food. We spent the night there and had a wonderful fun family time together - new memories: Las Posadas food. The hit? Yes tamales were good, as was the green mole pork stew, churros ... ha ... we have to perfect ... But the stuffed jalepenos wrapped in bacon and baked, were our first bite, and everyone was lifted into another place. "Oh, man", said Travis. "They are luscious!!!!!!!!!!!" said me. We ate the leftovers, looking forward to them, for lunch the next day (after playing the game "SET".

This is going to post as AM, but I'm finishing writing now in the PM. Dawson woke earlier than I thought, and I put our "Pankaka" (Swedish oven pancake) in the oven, and we spent some time together before he left to carry on celebrating with his girlfriend, Splarah (Sarah's), extended family. So it's just Monte and me, and he's feeling the effects of his long trip without sleep for 24 hrs, so napping. Dawson and me set him up on Facebook, and I'm downloading some pictures for him. So I'm going back and forth.

My emotions have gotten stirred up as the day progresses ... Heather & Bill called this morning to talk Christmas, but also that his date for redeployment could be before their baby is born. Their first baby, and married a year ... I'm bummed ...

So, I was going to give the remainders of my Advent Basket. Maybe as I start typing and sitting with scripture ... I'll feel a little better.

Advent day 22's miniature was a dove. And the paper insert reads, "We learned what a cross stands for; what does a dove stand for? Read Matthew 3:13-17." Jesus insisted that John baptize Him. This is a setting where the fullness of God is there: God Incarnate coming out of the water, God's Spirit - looking like a dove, and God's voice. And John the Baptist saying, "Here is the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world".

Day 23 has a little skein of wool. "Where does wool come from? In John 10:1-18 Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Who are His sheep?" When I rededicated my life to God I wore a necklace, till I lost it, of Jesus carrying a sheep in his arms - that was me!

Day 24 has a marble. "This is the world. Read John 3:16. What did God do for the world?" God, so loves the world, He incarnates Himself, taking on human flesh, from the beginnings in a womb, birthed and laid in a wooden feed trough for a bed ... to a death for us, the world; hanging to death on a wooden cross. God asks us to believe IN this, IN Him, so that we might not have to die our deserved deaths, but live incarnately with Him, on into eternity!

Day 25, today, has a miniature baby. "What do we celebrate this day? Read Luke 2:1-20." Remember Linus, his voice was refreshed in my memory, not only from church last night but a radio program we listened to - Linus tells Charlie Brown what the true meaning of Christmas is - reciting this Luke passage from memory. We lit the center Christ child candle in the Advent wreath.

The John 10 passage I so love and have often meditated and journaled on. My favorite phrases? "He calls his own sheep by name ... he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice ... I know my sheep and my own sheep know me ... I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary ... I need to gather and bring them all in ..."

Which reminds me of a story I read -
"One cold night years ago in North Carolina I went outside to check on some animals then housed in my father's small barn. There was a full moon shining down in bright, brittle light above the pines. It was so cold that the water in the horses' trough had frozen over, unusual for the coastal counties. As I went to get an axe to chop through the ice, I noticed a yard chicken, a hen, perched near the trough, with several biddies tucked under her wings. I was impressed with how she had turned her face and frail body of fluff into the icy wind, her wings outstretched and, it seemed to me, surely tired, for the sake of her children. And I was uplifted by what I took to be a gift and encouragement to my faith, this visual depiction of Jesus' care for me.

"But it struck me that those chicks had come to the hen. I don't know if she chased them around the yard first, if some came more willingly than others, or if some were still out there half-frozen. (There were a few late arrivals perched on top of her wings.) I only know the chicks I could see had allowed themselves to be gathered up and protected. They had quit fighting what they had no control over in the first place and said, 'You do it, Mom.'"

Jesus did stand, looking over Jerusalem and wept saying, "how often I have longed to gather you children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings".

Advent Sunday 4 & Avent Basket Day 21

The 4th advent candle is the angel candle. Angels throughout scripture announce things. And give hope, support, and strength.

But they don't assure that the world at large and our own individual places of life go on unchanged. Angel visits usually mean detours are ahead, major changes are impending, and lives and destinies will soon be impacted. In fact, there's not one place in scripture where they start their words without "Fear not...". Is it their looks?

When angels appear, something of the divine breaks in upon our human history. Something beyond our understanding and definitely out of our control. Something that shows us there's more to life than what meets the eye - another realm beyond - another story larger than the small one we live in and tend to think we write.

What fears prevent or distract me from receiving a message wholeheartedly? My hearing it does not depend on how cute or striking the messenger might be. Do I have faith? Can I trust the God-graced words, seemingly in the dark and I can't see everything around me? even in the light?

"Hey, unto YOU a Savior is born," announced the angel Gladys Herdman. Just writing this makes me smile, thinking of the book it's out of. Every year since it came out we've read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (which there's only used copies of now, starting at $49!). It's such a fun and great book for a fresh look at the Christmas story. It was a healing story for me the first year I read it!

"I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all peoples." The Savior, Christ, is God's gift. In giving His Son, He gave Himself. He loved us first before we loved Him.

In today's Advent Basket bag is a miniature jar of mustard seeds. "A small seed. Read Matthew 17:20. These grow into a very large plant."

Candy Cane Legend & Happenings

Monte just called me from Norway. He's been there for a full week now and will be flying home tomorrow. All week I've been imagining 8hours ahead ... he's in geology meetings ... he's sleeping ... he's out eating supper. He typically calls me just before going to supper.

I've been planning our Christmas foods. With Heather not here, the sentimental one for tradition ... Our typical meal is Scandinavian. Monte said he's had ENOUGH Scandinavian Christmas foods, including several meals with lutkefish! So after remembering that Travis and Dawson don't even love some of our meal's foods, we're going to do Mexican! After writing my Las Posadas post on Dec 16, I got hungry for tamales.

So I'm currently cooking up field corn kernels with lime and water - for fresh masa. If you've ever had fresh made corn tortillas from fresh masa ... :-P !!!! And in my post I had mentioned churros, so I found a recipe. I've eaten them before, but not made them. Rather than typical doughnut shape, it's strips of dough dropped into some hot oil from a star shaped piping tip, then sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar.

Chanukah begins tomorrow and oil is an ingredient in their menu. Besides latkes, doughnuts are a more current food you can get in Israel today. So churros is good. We can remember the miracle of the oil as we make them and eat history!

Watch this for a well done presentation on the history of candy canes.

Advent Basket Day 20 & Jesse Tree

Not many bags left to open in my Advent Basket! 5 days to Christmas. Bag number 20 has a crumpled piece of foil in it. I'm trying to remember comments the kids would make with these miniatures and readings. Written on the parchment paper: "Can you try and smooth this and see yourself? Read I Corinthians 13:12. It may be fuzzy and hard to understand, but one day it will be made clear."

If you do the Jesse Tree Advent readings you're about to leave the Old Testament stories and prophets. Today's reading is about Nehemiah returning to rebuild the Jerusalem walls. 

Just thinking of this brings the memories of the returned Jews cleaning out the temple and finding the scrolls. Because the stories had not been told for generations, festivals had not been celebrated - where the retelling and re-living their story happens, the people did not know. They stood the entire time of the reading of their story - standing, listening, and weeping.

The coming of a Messiah is what the prophets foretold. Jesus comes, and yet there's still a lot of unknowing, non-understanding. I can imaging weeping in the seeing and understanding of the whole Larger Story - some sadness, but I bet, primarily love and joy!

Advent Basket Day 19

A miniature shamrock is in today's Advent bag. "This is a symbol of good luck. With Jesus we don't need good luck." Read Romans 8:28. (Do you remember this Heather? You used to always say you "hate the word luck!")

Some things don't seem to work out as 'good', but what do I know! And do I see and know it all? And so often I get so tired in the waiting.

The context from verse 18 with the "pregnant creation" is so pertinent to this season. "Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting ... joyful anticipation/expectancy."

As I write this ... I'm thinking I wrote something like this before. Yes, I did a Birth Post last year, read it. It has my "Transformation" felted piece, which I'm posting again here.

The new birth in me is that I can now anticipate. A defense mechanism I developed growing up has been transformed by God, Who began a good work in me, calling me by name, and is completing what He began. 

Advent season always seems to bring me back to this aspect of my growing faith as it relates to birth pangs and new birth. God knows me better than I know myself, knows my pregnant condition, and keeps me present before Him. Thus every detail of life works into something good.

Trusting ... as I gaze at my Bean Bag Nativity with the empty manger. 

Advent Basket Day 18 & Jesse Tree

Little stones are in today's Advent bag. The reading is Matthew 4:1-4. The parchment paper says, "Can you change these into bread? Jesus could". This scripture reading through verse 11 is a good yearly visit for children (and us adults!) to remember Jesus was tempted, and that the devil can quote scripture. Jesus answered back with scripture. I think I'd add Hebrews 2:18 and 4:14 into the reading as well.

I have mentioned that if you were doing the Jesse Tree Advent readings, by now you've read through the Bible's beginnings and the patriarchs of Israel's story up to king David. This week's readings are of prophets. Isaiah is called the Advent Prophet.

Yesterday's Advent reading quoted Isaiah, referring to the ears not hearing and hardened hearts. "Why do you tell stories?" "I tell stories to create readiness of hearts, to nudge the people toward receptive insight," said Jesus. And further on said, "A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance". That said to the disciples. Think of all we've seen and know!

Are our times today that different from Isaiah's? Their lives, homes, nation, families, wealth, and positions in society were threatened by an impending political disaster that would throw them all into ruin. They were in no spiritual condition to go through it all. Repent, turn to God in true conversion, proclaimed Isaiah. Put your hope in God.

Isaiah lived in the presence of God. Isaiah was asking for a restoration of true worship that results in justice and compassion. He saw that we can't simply decide to repent and be done with it. He asked God, "Why do You make us wander and our hearts hard, so that we don't fear You?" Repentance comes from God.

We can turn from wrong living and prepare for a breakthrough from God. We're not ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus in a manger - that's Christmas. We're Adventing - a preparation time to long for the coming of the Savior, a longing for redemption. We should use this time to soul search. Advent is a time to yearly review where our faith is placed and how our lives are lived. What powers might hold me: bad habits, undesirable relationships, vices - anything a blockage to my living by the spirit of joy and generosity. Advent calls us to meditate on the re/birthing of Christ in our hearts.

Jesus left us examples to follow, like even his desert temptation, that paschal mystery power is there for us. Prior to Jesus' desert trial, He'd been baptized by John the Baptist. So as John and Isaiah said, "Repent and prepare for God's arrival!"

Advent Basket Day 17

Today's Advent basket miniature is a very cute little jar of seeds. I'm guessing they're carrot seeds or a black lettuce seed. (I just planted lettuce, spinach, and kale seeds a couple days ago - hoping to have some salad stuff growing in the greenhouse. Should have started them awhile back.)

Read Matthew 13:3-8, 20-23 (these readings are for kids, but the context is all of chapter 13 for a day full of Jesus telling stories). "These are seeds. Jesus tells of deeper meanings."

The context? Hearing that leads to productive living. Hearing with a receptivity, a readiness of heart - then the insights and understandings flow freely. Jesus tells of ears and eyes that are open and awake yet not hearing or seeing, cuz of hardened hearts. "They don't want to have to deal with me face-to-face."

There's people hearing in the parable - even with joy. People who think they can look like giant oaks without putting down deep roots. When they realize how much effort it takes to put down deep roots, they too often settle for being bramble bushes.

Matthew's kingdom coming involves: separating of the just and the unjust, that it may seem small but will have overwhelming impact, and that the kingdom is valuable; hearing and focusing on the message in such a way that one is defined by it.

Oh God, that I listen and hear, see, and receive and live out, what you desire me to know and do; that we connect heart to heart.

Las Posadas

Today, December 16, begins Mexico's Las Posadas, which means "the inns". It's nine evenings of peregrinos (pilgrims) wandering. Statues of Mary and Joseph are carried from house to house, seeking shelter, where they are told there is "no room". There's usually a planned destination each night for Mary and Joseph to stay overnight and people party. Then to be done again the next night.

Lots of pinatas to be broken with their goodies inside. Lots of tamales, churros (cinnamon fritters), hot chocolate and margaritas (or spiked "ponche"). Carols are sung as people carry candles. And it's usually a neighborhood thing.

Growing up in Tucson, tamales could be bought everywhere this time of year, the freshly made being sold in store parking lots. I've made paper mache pinatas. And I've made tamales. I LOVE tamales!

On Noche Buena (the beautiful night, Holy Night, of Christmas Eve) the festivities culminate with Mary and Joseph brought to rest with baby Jesus in the manger. The Nativity scene is the focal point for Mexican homes. Christmas trees are a newer decor that some people might have. Santa does not figure in the Navidad festivities.

The Flor de Noche Buena, the Poinsettia, has it's story. In Tucson we could plant poinsettias in a south facing planter and it would grow year round, it's leaf bracts changing color. The story is of a poor girl wanting to bring a gift to the Christ child and she picks weeds that turn red when she presents her gift from her heart.

Advent Basket Day 16

This Advent bag for today is easy for us to remember what it is. It's bigger than the other miniatures and a definite box. It's a box of raisins. "Fruit is good for snacks. Jesus taught how we could produce fruit." Read John 15:1-5.

I felted a picture of a grape-vine. We have a grapevine in our greenhouse and for years I read about pruning vines for producing fruit. The center framed picture is how austere grapes are to be pruned. Remind you of something?

Jesus said, "You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you ... you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me."

There is differing varieties of grapes I've now discovered. Mine is not a wine grape, but a table grape. It is not supposed to be pruned austerely. Once I stopped pruning it, we got tons of grape clusters hanging down in the greenhouse. But I still nurture it: watering and fertilizing it, ridding it of dead leaves or diseased branches.

In my art work, some grape clusters are hidden under the leaves. My friend Ellen once drew a grape vine with many leaves and said her picture was a reminder of community. We need community. The covenant of community is a primary theme of the Bible. Community can help us see our fruit.

The John 15 context carries on with "Love one another as I have loved you".

Advent Basket Day 15

I went to the musical/play The Christmas Carol with friends last night. It was really well done and very meaningful. It's message fits with the context of scripture for today's Advent Basket bag for day 15.

The scripture is Matthew 6:28-34, and the miniature is fake flowers. The message reads, "Jesus taught a lesson using pretty flowers". 

Reading it in context from verse 19, why do we want to hoard treasure down here? Sure the basics of food and clothing are needs, but we tend to worry about it and want more. I like the phrases: "Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light ... relax, and not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving."

Oh God, that I trust you, with wonder and belief. I have seen the care You give to the beautiful birds and wildflowers, with eyes of wonder. Help me with my unbelief and lack of trust.

Advent Basket Day 14 & Jesse Tree & Advent Sunday Week 3

Today's miniature is a rock from Jesus' words in Matthew 7:24-29. "Jesus knows about building. Jesus builds lives." Jesus admonishes us to not just listen to great preaching and do great Bible studying as incidental additions to our life. The difference between building on sand vs a rock foundation is what we do with these words. Jesus' words are to build a life on, working his words into our life - obedience - a being vs doing.

When our hearts are open and we let love enter, we can know joy! The shepherd's knew the joy (after their initial fear!) as the angel of the Lord appeared to them, glorifying and praising God, "We have news of great joy" to share. Today's Sunday Advent wreath candle is the Shepherd candle.

Why did God choose shepherds to be the first to hear and worship and share the news with all? Shepherds were the lowest of society, like outcasts!

If you do the Jesse Tree Advent readings, by now you've read from God and creation and the highlights of the story; from the introduction of man's shunning listening to and obeying God, to wanting to do it our own way, and on through the story of a covenant community and what that looks like (or doesn't!), in the story of a people that leads to a new covenant in Jesus. Through Jesus we can return to a oneness with the creator God. Oh .... I'm getting ahead of where we'd be in the Jesse Tree readings ... from Noah to Abraham to Moses to Samuel ... today you'd be reading about shepherd to king, David.

Shepherds were not accepted, were dirty, and not welcome in the local synagogues or Temple. Who would believe a shepherd? Yet, "all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them".

The shepherds listened to the angels and believed; and obeying, went and saw the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus belongs to all.

Advent Basket Day 13 & St Lucia Day

I'm off again early this morning for a women's breakfast at church. The coffee machine is broken and I figured it out last night at a MOPS Christmas event at church. So I'm feeling the need to be there early to help with the coffee. I typically help with the decorating at these women's events, but today, women volunteered to decorate a table with their own china and stuff. Then this afternoon some artist friends are coming over and we're felting!

Today's Advent reading is Matthew 5:13 and Colossains 4:6. The miniature is a little salt shaker. The paper reads: "What is this used for? We are to be salt?"

Because of our Swedish heritage, we've celebrated St Lucia day for years. I have a Lucia doll that's 30 years old. Tradition has the oldest daughter wear a candle wreath on her head and serve breakfast treats in bed.

Lucia, or Lucy, means "light." Lucia was born in the third century in Sicily of Greek parentage. She was brought up Christian by her mother in times of great persecution. Lucia had been betrothed to a pagan. With her mother's permission she gave her dowry away to persons in need. Her betrothed was furious and denounced her as a Christian. She was martyred in 304, still clinging to her faith in Christ. Lucia held the Light of Christ for all to see in the cultural darkness.

The Scandinavians really celebrate her day. At this time of year the sun barely makes it over the horizon (Monte is there now, and will be able to tell me about it, and I just video chatted with Kimberley. WOW, technology is amazing - across the ocean, seeing and talking to one another for free! She held her computer up scanning the hotel lobby for me to see the setting and the decor.), so they hold great festivals of lights. It is believed her story reached them through missionary Vikings, and was strengthened by a legend:

In the Middle Ages there was a famine in Sweden, "Varmland." Just when the starving people were giving up hope, a huge ship appeared. The boat contained food, and clothes. They saw a maiden in white with a glowing crown and long golden hair at the ship's helm. Once the cargo was unloaded the ship vanished. They believe the maiden to be Santa Lucia.

Years ago, I used to always make something ahead, like lucia buns or muffins, and had the coffee pot ready to push the on-button (but I'm home alone and drinking tea and heated a rhubarb, blueberry scone from Great Harvest Bread). We also talked of possibilities the kids could do for themselves like hot cocoa. Then Heather (and Travis) could "surprise" us in the morning.

After reading Matt 5:14-16, sing "This Little Light of Mine." You could read Matt 10:26-33 to connect with Lucia standing in her faith even to the point of death. It killed her body but not her soul. I also think of Jesus' parable of the 10 bridesmaids who took their lamps to meet the bridegroom. Five were prepared, awake, and aware to see the bridegroom.

If we're turned in on ourselves, we cannot reflect the light of God's likeness. But if we're awake and aware in Jesus, we can see God in our midst in our daily lives and reflect His image to those we come in contact with.

Advent Basket Day 12 & Happenings

I'm going to be leaving tomorrow morning early to take Monte and Kimberley to the airport. They are flying to Norway. Kimberley and her husband Paul are from Calgary, Canada, and have been here before, and on geology field trips with Monte and Stan. Paul is a professor, and Kimberley returned to college and just graduated in geology, and the Norwegians want her to come over to Norway cuz she's being hired to help in their Calgary office. Kimberley is delightful, and I'm thinking they just want to have her bubbly personality as a part of the team, not to mention her brilliant brain!

So I'll be (almost - today is Dawson's last day of college and he'll be around off and on) home alone for awhile. I always enjoy these times of aloneness. I do the hermit, contemplative thing quite well.

Heather called from Texas today to ask me about making gingerbread houses. She's about to do it with a friend. We did it when they were growing up, always on the lookout for candy and things that would be cool for decorating. Like Triscit or Wheat Thin crackers for roof shingles, or straight pretzels for log cabin look or fencing. Great memories.

Advent day 12's scripture read is Philippians 2:1-11. The miniature is a cross. The paper says, "This reminds us of Jesus' love."

Advent Basket Day 11

Today's Advent bag miniature is a heart - "This is a symbol of love. Jesus speaks of love." Read Matthew 22:37-40.

I like sitting and imagining, often putting myself in other's shoes. Well in Jesus' sandals I've already posted during Advent about Jesus growing up knowing his genealogy. Jesus heard, probably asking Mary to tell him the stories over and over, of Tamar or Rahab or Ruth or Bathsheba ... And women weren't usually listed in genealogies, but throughout the Gospels you see Jesus living out the results of those stories.

And I visualize Jesus growing up watching his mother every Friday evening lighting the Sabbath candles just before sundown, saying a blessing, as did every woman of every Jewish household every Friday evening. And too, like every other good Jew, Jesus probably said the Shema two times a day.

When asked by an expert in the law the most important commandment Jesus shaped his own version of the Shema. Typically Jews quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-9 two times a day. Jesus summarized it and added a verse from Leviticus 19:18. So instead of a Love-God Shema, Jesus made it a Love-God-and-Others Shema. Making loving others a part of his own version of the Jewish creed shows that he sees loving others as central to our spiritual formation.

So, a daily mantra or Shema we might say is the Jesus Creed:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.

So as I sit, walk by the way, lie down, and especially when I rise, I will say to myself Jesus' Shema. As Jesus said, "There is no commandment greater than this".

Advent Basket Day 10

Today's Advent read is John 9:1-7. The miniature is a small bar of soap. And the paper reads, "Do you like to wash? Happy time when met Jesus."

Yes, Jesus can bring healing and happiness. The disciples were asking questions of "Why?" which I've heard is not a good question to ask. They were looking for someone, something, to blame. Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question ... Look instead for what God can do".

Read the whole chapter - not so happy a time! His simple story of mud and washing was not accepted. "All I know is, I once was blind ... but now I see." 

Who is blind here?!

Advent Basket Day 9

Focusing on Jesus' ministry daily advent, the bag for December 9 has a piece of a road map in it. I had ripped a piece from a Colorado map that shows Evergreen and then folded it up.

Read John 14: 1-6. "We use a map when we travel. Jesus can be our guide."

The word Trinity may not actually be in scripture, but what it means is there, and this chapter 14 of John spells it out beautifully. Though to the disciples it's still all a riddle, to us, it takes us past the "We ... Us ... Our" we've been given prior to this passage.

Jesus is soon to leave the disciples. They've lived with Him for three years. While they're hoping for their physical place in time to change for the better, with Jesus as ruler, they've missed the deeper meanings of Kingdom that Jesus keeps talking about. They'll put it all together as they wait in the upper room after Jesus leaves them ...

Sit with John 14. Jesus tells the disciples, "it's to your advantage that I go away ..." 

The world seems a mess. "Let not your hearts be troubled ... Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives ... I am the way (the road), and the truth, and the life ... I will not leave you as orphans ... Because I live, you will live ... I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you ... Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

Advent Basket Day 8

As we feel our Advent bags, trying to guess what's inside, most of the items have a hardness to them. Today's bag is squishy soft (other than the slip of paper). Day 8 has two cotton balls in it. Maybe you're starting to catch on, but my Advent Basket days, as we're waiting for the coming of the Messiah, remembering His entering our history, our chronos time, are focused on Jesus' Ministry.

Two cotton balls? Well, we already encountered one account of Jesus healing a deaf person's ears. That would be my first guess. What else might cotton balls be for? I may not have cotton balls on hand, but I've wadded up Kleenex to put in my ears if there's a cold wind ...

Matthew 8:23-27 is the suggested scripture read for the day and the paper says, "Cotton can muffle loud noises when in our ears. Some one controls the weather."

I sat with the three gospel accounts. John has the time Jesus walked on water. The phrases that popped out at me were: "Do not be afraid ... Have you no faith? ... Why can't you trust Me?"

Advent Sunday 2

This second week's candle in the Advent wreath is the Bethlehem candle. The bedraggled Joseph and Mary searched for a place to sleep.

"Love" was born in Bethlehem and Love asks us to be open.

I love the song "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" written around 1868 by Phillip Brooks. During a sabbatical he traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem by horseback on Dec 24, imagining Mary and Joseph on their journey and a field of the shepherds. He was overcome by the beauty and felt the peace. Then he attended a five hour service at the Church of the Nativity. This experience never left Brooks and he wrote the song for his church's children's choir to sing.

"How proper it is that Christmas should follow Advent. For him who looks toward the future, the manger is situated on Golgotha, and the cross has already been raised in Bethlehem."
- Dag Hammarskjold


This reminds me of a drawing a friend's son drew while doodling in church.

Advent Basket Day 7

Day 7 miniature in my Advent Basket bag? A tiny loaf of bread. I can't remember if I bought it, but I'm guessing I baked it - taking a tiny piece of dough off one of my 6 loaves of bread I grind flour for and bake to freeze regularly. After letting it dry, I probably varnished it.

The suggested scripture to read is Matthew 14:13-21, and the writing says, "We eat bread. Jesus made a lot out of little." All four Gospels tell this story, and pretty similarly too, except John in chapter six.

In the first three Gospels the story follows the beheading of John the Baptist. Last year I did a post titled "Yes". Our church was going through an emotional upheaval and I spent a lot of the Advent season sitting with the nativity setting, putting myself in their shoes (sandals), starting with the genealogy, listening the stories Jesus grew up with, including those of the four women. In the "Yes" post I walked with Mary to Elizabeth's home, and the baby John leapt in her womb, the first to recognize the Incarnate God, in Mary's womb. And now I'm wondering what Jesus felt when he heard of his cousin John's death?

We see a 'moved to compassion' Jesus when seeing the large crowd of people following Him. He knows they want to see more miracles. It sounds like they, the disciples and Jesus, are exhausted. Jesus feeds the crowd. Now beyond just seeing miracles, they're going to want to follow Him for full bellies. I'm imagining this miracle was more for the disciples than for the people.

I posted on Andrew's calendar day about his noticing a boy with fish and loaves of bread. Buy food for all those people? Were there stores around? Did homes always have a lot of bread on hand for someone to buy? Having seen Jesus do all sorts of miracles would my mind immediately turn to the possibilities of all Jesus could do? Do I today, knowing the whole story - that resurrection power - think first of letting go and letting Jesus do?

John 6 carries the story further: Jesus tells the people, who he knows want to make him king so he can meet all their physical needs, that He's talking about a spiritual realm, an eternal kingdom. Beyond manna in the wilderness to the Bread of Life. "My flesh is true food ... whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" WAIT! That's weird! I'd probably walk away grumbling too, and hungry.

I'm sure glad God drew me! romanced me, wooed me to Him!

Advent Basket Day 6

Once upon a time ... Who doesn't love a great story?! Some tell us about familiar things and some are from long ago and far away. Some stories are told as truth, some are believed only by children. Stories appeal to our imagination. They lift us out of the day-to-day and take us to a different, more fantastic place.

I just posted about the value of story, like the St Nicholas story. Jesus' birth sounds like many popular stories. We read of singing mice, fairy godmothers, talking animals; and we read about singing angels, wise men guided by stars, a birth in a stable ... God becoming human. We read of charming princes, pumpkins becoming carriages; and of a virgin birth, fulfilled prophecy, a humble child who grew up and healed the blind and sick.

Bag 6 of my Advent Basket has a bell in it. The paper says, "This makes noise. Read Mark 7:31-37. This man could not hear this until he met Jesus."

This is one of those fantastical and miraculous stories: Jesus put his fingers in a deaf man's ears and some spit on his tongue. He looked up in the sky and said, "Ephphatha!" And it happened. The man's hearing was clear and his speech plain - just like that.

Jesus' story is different. His story offers unmerited grace, not what we deserve. Because of His love, we get way more than we deserve. Jesus is real and it matters what we do with Jesus. There's very little at stake if we don't believe in Santa or Cinderella. What if we don't believe in Jesus' claims and accept the whole story of Jesus - His birth, death, and resurrection. Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life and have it in abundance."

Once upon a time ... Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Those who believe in Him ... will live happily ever after. Everyone loves a good story. But this is a story like no other.

Santa lives at the North Pole - Jesus is everywhere.
Santa comes but once a year - Jesus is an ever present help.
Jesus is as close as the mention of His name.
Santa lets you sit on his lap - Jesus lets you rest in His arms.
Santa has a belly like a bowl full of jelly -
Jesus has a heart full of love.
All Santa can offer is goodies and "Ho, ho, ho" -
Jesus meets our needs, offering healing, help, and hope.
Santa says, "You better not cry" -
Jesus says, "Cast all your cares on Me for I care for you."
Santa's little helpers make toys -
Jesus makes new life, mends wounded hearts ...
Santa may make you chuckle - Jesus gives joy.
While Santa puts gifts under your tree -
Jesus became our gift and died on a tree.

Advent Basket Day 5

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope.

With less of you there is more of God ...

You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you.

Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You're blessed when you're content with just who you are - no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God.

He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

You're blessed when you care.

At the moment of being 'care-full,' 

you find yourselves cared for.

You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperated instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom ... you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. 

My Advent Basket Day 5 bag has a Smiley Face in it, and says to "read Matthew 5:1-12. Jesus told us how to be happy."

Do you hunger and thirst after God, His righteousness? which is in the middle of The Beatitudes? The first three: poor in spirit, grief (those who mourn), constraint (those who are meek), I see as life experiences that can recycle throughout life. But how many people work up an appetite for God?

Children are poor - totally dependent. As adults it's hard to ask for help or admit our neediness and depend on God. Today, we tend to dull or sedate grief, working hard to avoid it, and not processing it and dealing with it. As a child, meekness is having to brush my teeth and make my bed, growing into accountability in the workplace, marriage vows, disciplines - all helping to shape who we are.

Jesus didn't just preach at us, but acted it out himself, and gave himself. Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full". "Follow Me."

Advent Basket Day 4

Once I get out my Christmas box of decor, I'll take a picture of my Advent Basket. Like a recent Prairie Home Companion Lake Wobegon story character, I'm reluctant to decorate for Christmas. Monte's leaving town for Norway in a week, not returning till the 21st, and we go to Travis and Sarah's for Christmas Eve, making our traditional meal there, and coming home Christmas morning. I am going to be reacquainting myself with tapestry weaving during that time as well as Adventing. BUT, Dawson will be on school break soon, and I'm sure there's going to be lots of young people hanging around. AND besides, I do like Christmas tree lights - peaceful evenings in the dark with the wood stove crackling. So this weekend I'll probably have Dawson find a smallish, mainly skinny tree (we have a lot of these around on our property)(not a Charlie Brown tree - boy has that become a phrase for literacy - we all know, picture, exactly what it means! I'd pull out that video, but don't think our VCR works.) 

Okay, okay ... Day 4's Advent bag has already burnt birthday candles in it, saying, "We use these when celebrating birthdays. They make light. Read Matthew 5:14-16."

Visual artist me loves the way Eugene Peterson words it: "You're to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept...If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you?...Shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives..."

Birthday - I am rebirthed in Jesus. "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound/ That saved a wretch like me/ I once was lost, but now am found/ was blind but now I see ..." I was thinking on how Jesus heals, and my response of gratitude, now that I'm found and can see: Oh that I DO be a light-bearer God, that others may see, and hunger and thirst after You.

I was also pondering Vincent Van Gogh's life, reflected in his art. When he didn't do his art, he was not sane, he was in darkness. Van Gogh felt sent of God to be a missionary amongst the peasants. Many of his sketches and paintings are of people in mining camps or working in the fields ... But he had a falling out with his denomination, in giving all his possessions to the poor. He felt abandoned by the church. If you look at two of his famous paintings: Starry Night and the Church at Auvers, there is no life/light shining from the church windows.

Open the eyes of our heart Lord; help us see ... help me, on my hill, shine my light ... This little light of mine ... help me, show me, how to be generous with my life. Be my mouth, hands, and feet.

World Vision

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Advent Basket Day 3

So, what's in Day 3 of my Advent Basket? 2 nails. Hmmmm ... are you thinking the scripture reading would have something to do with Jesus being hammered to the cross? No, yet yes. The slip of paper in the bag says, "Nails hold things together. Read Colossians 1:13-18. Who else can hold things together." (For kids, they shorten the passages, but I read to verse 23, keeping the context together.)

Christmas is a easy Holiday to celebrate. Babies are so easy to love and embrace. But we can't keep Jesus as a perpetual baby (or maybe that's where some people remain). Who wants to embrace a cross?!

I look at Jesus and am able to see God. I get to know Jesus' heart, and see God's motivation in creating everything, and see God's spacious heart as so enlarged to hold us all together! Because of Jesus' willingness to die on the cross, broken all/me is fixed and fit together.

The pictures are called Kissing the Face of God, Walking with God, and Father and Son.

Yes, I'm celebrating the baby Jesus. I'm celebrating that God chose to enter our history, coming as a baby birthed from a woman's womb, growing up through childhood, working alongside Joseph as a carpenter. Jesus called us friends and asks a response from us, a mutual give and take and give ...

Yes, God holds everything together; He holds the whole world in His hands. Advent reminds me of a pregnant creation. Birth pangs without and within waiting ... As waiting does not diminish a pregnant mother, nor are we. We are enlarged in the waiting. Anticipation ... joyful expectation ... for only God knows what!!!!

Advent Basket Day 2

My Advent Basket Day 2 bag miniature is a pop bottle of Coke. The little parchment paper says, "This can quench thirst" and says to read John 4:7-14. And then we talk about how Jesus can quench thirsts.

Rereading the story, I'm reminded of a piece of my own story. It's a time when Jesus showed up and audibly spoke to me!

I did a felted work I call "My Life's Journey". It's inspiration came following my sitting with Psalm 107 and 116. 

This is what I journaled -

I chose. I questioned. I bargained with God.

I turned my back on Him and wanted Him dead to me.

I wandered in the desert and dwelt in darkness.

I became sick and desired death.

I called out to God.

He got me out and put my feet on a wonderful road.

God received me back into His womb.

I was rebirthed in His image,

to the very origins of His being.

Another desert -

"Anyone who comes to me thirsts no more".

Set sail in big ships put out to sea.

Bottom dropped out and my soul melted in misery.

He quieted the wind to a whisper, led me to safety.

He led me out of my dark, dark cell.

I didn't wander away,

I was crying out to God!

Then I started drawing hearts -

Keep (heart) ... remember

Don't lose (heart)

I don't want to journey without my (heart)

(Heart's) desire is precious - guard it

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst

Return to your rest, O my soul.

I am standing in the Presence of God.

Alive in the land of the Living!

Reading and journaling is the way God usually speaks to me. But when did He audibly speak to me? It was a setting like in the classic Christian book Hinds Feet in High Places. The kids and me were traveling with Monte. The kids were playing in the back seat and Monte had parked the vehicle by the road-cut at the side of the road while off mapping and collecting rock samples - doing his geology.

I'd been in a depression. I could function in life, but felt I was barely floating above the surface of life, not feeling. I was looking at the dry dirt roadcut out the window and heard a trickle of water. Looking, I saw a small flower. That's when God spoke, reminding me that in His generosity, He gives fresh, living water - gushing living life!

So my Art piece has a stream of water flowing through it. It goes through the desert three times. The first time was a self-imposed desert. I decided the other two were God tapping me on the shoulder saying, "Hey, I want to give you more of Myself!" Then He led me out into the wild water. But if I don't retreat regularly to a calm harbor, I'd go crazy! 

 

Advent Basket Day 1

I haven't unpacked my Advent wreath or Advent basket yet, but my thoughts are there. We don't really have 'kids' at home anymore to be doing these with. But the 'kid' ME (and Monte) will still carry on traditions. It's just one of those things that help remind my heart. 

Over the years I've been attracted to all the Advent calendars, or things with drawers or doors, but most of them don't have a lot of meaningfulness. They're more like eating Cracker Jacks and seeing what the prize is (I saved the ones from my childhood - those were great prizes. They're in my Barbie case). So I made my own, maybe 25 years ago? I'm going to make more soon, so need to see if the same Hobby-craft store I found the miniatures at still is there and the same.

So which do you choose to do for Advent? A friend of mine years ago had bought an Advent thing at a craft show. I had her open each days gift bag and tell me what was in each and what was written. That's what I made my Advent Basket from. Later I bought a Jesse Tree booklet at a 2nd-hand store and we sometimes did stuff with it. And then a pastor friend had one that had things to learn - like the symbols representing the names of God...

The Jesse Tree idea is based on Isaiah 11:1 - a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. It begins from the Creation story, to Adam and Eve, the flood, to Abraham ... all the key Old Testament stories to the New Testament nativity story. It begins on November 27.

I'll lead you through my Advent Basket each day. We'd all pull out the calico bags tied closed with ric-rac, each days date was embroidered, and we'd feel them, trying to remember and guess what was in them. Over the years we had them memorized, and feeling them, would remember their story.

Keep your soul diligently, never forgetting what you've seen God doing, lest they (the stories) slip from your heart ... Deut 4:9

Today's bag has a quarter: 25 days till Christmas! We told the kids that there's 25 pennies in a quarter. We'd read Mark 12:41-44. We'd ask, "Who gave the best gift"?

Oh God, I desire to give extravagantly - giving my all!

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Boniface and Advent

Boniface inspired a number of Advent traditions. One story happened early in Advent around the year 720. He had left his comfortable life when 40 to minister to the savage Teutonic tribes of Germany.

Boniface had taken an axe to their sacred Oak of Thor. The pagans expected immediate punishment. When it didn't come, a seed of doubt about the strength of their gods was planted.

A few days later, the first Sunday in Advent, a young boy ran to Boniface to tell of a sacrifice of the seasonal virgin - his sister. Running, Boniface arrived as the knife was raised in the air. Lunging forward, he thrust forward his wooden cross in his hands. The knife pierced the cross - thus saving her life. In the following moments, Boniface used the astonished silence to proclaim the Gospel, declaring that the ultimate sacrifice had already been made by Christ on the cross - and there was no need for others.

They listened intently. He took his knife and cut branches from their sacred grove, handing them out, and told each family to adorn their hearths with the fir boughs as a reminder of the completeness of Christ's work on the tree of Calvary. It's said they also took logs to burn, and this is where the tradition of a Yulelog began.


"Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial. Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf," said Boniface