Away In A Manger

 It's Christmas time. And one of the things most of us do during this time of year is to sing Christmas Carols. Whether we sing them in church, when we go caroling, or maybe just at home singing with them on our favorite cd, some of the best-loved carols are sung every year. 

But, have you ever wondered where your favorite carols originated? Who wrote them? What stories might have helped produce them? Where they come from?

I  myself have at times wondered about them. However, I don't ever recall checking into them to answer those questions. So for the next few weeks off and on, I will be doing just that here in my blog. 

Perhaps we can gain some insight into those carols we have loved to sing over the years.

I am going to start off with a favorite one from childhood.

Away in a Manger

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.
I love thee, Lord Jesus! look down from the sky,
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with thee there.

Wow, what memories this little carol brings back to my 70-year-old head. It invokes thoughts of singing it in the Baptist Church we went to all those years ago. And one memory that goes along with it, which we kids enjoyed was receiving a small box of candy on Christmas Eve at the church. Another one is of my dad filling small containers of oranges and candy to be given out one year. I honestly do not remember who they went to, as I was very young. But that bit of memory of watching my dad still resides somewhere deep in my heart. 

Anyway, where did this little song come from? And by whom? Wikipedia tells it this way:

"Away in a Manger" is a Christmas carol first published in the late nineteenth century and used widely throughout the English-speaking world. In Britain, it is one of the most popular carols; a 1996 Gallup Poll ranked it joint second. Although it was long claimed to be the work of German religious reformer Martin Luther, the carol is now thought to be wholly American in origin.^[1] The two most-common musical settings are by William J. Kirkpatrick (1895) and James Ramsey Murray (1887).

Wow, written decades ago, I wonder how many churches utilize it in their Christmas services today? Are children still singing it, or has it 'gone out' because it is no longer popular to sing about the birth of our Savior like so many other parts of Christmas that has because of groups of people that find them redundant? Intolerable? Or worse?

I don't know about you, but as for me, it was the very early beginnings of my own love for the baby Jesus, that led lit the path for where I am today. 

You can take carols out of the kind of events that they used to be sung at.

But you can't take them out of the heart. And that is where they can always be.

Thanks for coming by Friends. May your days be merry, and your love of Jesus be forever. God bless!

All I Want For Christmas

Perhaps you grew up in an era when a little song made its debut in 1944 called, "All I Want for Christmas Is my Two Front Teeth." It was written by a music teacher named Donald Yetter Gardner in a public school in Smithtown, New York. 

I won't go into why he wrote it here, but if you would like to read about it, you can find it on Wikipedia.

The year 1944 was a few years before my time. However, I remember singing this when I was very young. 

Now that I am much (much, much...) older, the things I want are more important than the baby teeth I had lost as a child, that this song is about.

One of my greatest wishes for Christmas this year is that my adult son would call me. He has not spoken to his father or me in several painful years and refuses to have anything to do with us. 

But as the following letter I found on Pinterest explains, he does not realize the bond he and I had when he was born and a little tyke, was so strong, but I don't think he remembers that. Somehow, life happened and stole those precious years away. 

Perhaps life stole your child away as well. Maybe even through death. Perhaps your greatest wish this year would be to have them call you on Christmas Day. Perhaps they can't. Or won't. 

There are situations in this life that we have to leave to the Lord. For me, this is one of them.  I can still cry, and I still do. But I can hope, and I still do. In the meantime I know this:

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

For now, all I can do about it is trust Jesus, because he knows this situation even much better than I do. And I know it is in his hands. 

Thanks for coming by, Friends. Have a blessed day!

Christians and Pumpkins?

 

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin.

God picks you from the patch and brings you in. John 15:16

Then washes all the dirt off you  2 Corthianians. 5:17

He opens you up and scoops out all of the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Romans 6:6

Then he carves you a new smiling face. Psalm 71:23

And he puts a light inside you for all of the world to see. Mathew 5:16

Well, I guess this little poem gives new meaning to Christians and pumpkins alike. And while I do not actually identify myself as a pumpkin, I do identify as being a Christian. 

It is a cute little poem that I found on Pinterest and I wanted to share it with you. 

But with it, it is true. God does pick us out, takes us in, cleans off the dirt, and scoops out the crud.

And then he puts a light in us that the whole world can see. (Whether they want to or not, I would add.}

So while maybe you don't identify yourself as a pumpkin either, if you are a Christian, you can identify with what God did for you!

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blessed day!

Thanksgiving Praises to My God!

 Thanksgiving is over for another year. At least the holiday is. Our thanksgiving to God should go on and on. For days, years. Forever. And ever.

Did you have any unplanned incidents happen over the past few days before as you were preparing, or at least trying to prepare for Thanksgiving day?

Maybe a problem with a relative that you expected to come to dinner, but wasn't exactly sure if they would show up? And what might happen, if they would?

Maybe your washer broke and water went all over your garage floor and you didn't know it because it happened while you were running an errand.

Maybe the cake (scratch) you made the morning of Thanksgiving didn't quite turn out the way you wanted it to. 

Well, let me clue you in on something. All three of those things happened during our Thanksgiving preparations.

The worse of the three was the relative that we weren't sure would show up. And if that person didn't, it was possible that their family wouldn't either. 

I must admit, I was not in an overly festive mood because I really wanted them to come and for it to be a peaceful and happy time. The night before, I went to bed pleading for God to intervene in it. But I wasn't sure he would. (Oh, ye of little faith...)

The second worse thing was on Tuesday when we came home from running those errands. You see our garage is attached right off of our living room. My hubby had taken our dogs out to do their business and it was I who heard a strange noise in the garage. He came in about that time, and I told him about it. Yep, our washer had filled up and was not spinning out, and water was making our floor into a pond. Oh, no. Another problem to deal with and right now no resources to do anything about it. God, why?

And then the last thing was that cake. I was up Thanksgiving morning at 4 a.m. I was not really wide awake and the icing I made for it was too thin. You could see the cake through it. Well, I didn't question God on this one, but I wasn't in a much better mood than when I went to bed the night before. 

Still, God heard my pleas that night. Because guess what?

Our relatives did show up for Thanksgiving. They enjoyed it, and so did we. There was no arguing. It had been a happy and peaceful time.

The washer did get water on the garage floor, and so we used towels to soak it up. And the next day (Wednesday), our daughter and her husband came up and helped clean up what little it really had done and they gathered up the towels to take home to wash. Disaster adverted to a more convenient time, preparations went on. 

And as for that cake. Well, I just made another batch of icing and it turned out fine. Most of it was eaten, and some were taken home to eat later. And there is very little left for us, which made me happy because they liked it. 

So these things happened while trying to get ready for a day of Thanksgiving. So what? There are so many other people that have gone through much worse this week than what we did. I had nothing to complain about. 

But I do contribute the peace and happy time we had yesterday, were mine to take hold of because I turned to God early on and did not forget that he is my Source. And He could get us through. 

Which he did. All praise be to him alone!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Thanks for coming by. God bless you!

To My Frielnds

 

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phillipains 4:7

May you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Scripture For Today

 I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth, not his prisoners. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein. For God will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein. Psalm 69: 30-36

With Thanksgiving Day just a few short days away, and us in our busiest to prepare for it, let us not forget to always be thankful for what God has done and given us. If it were not for the man called Jesus, we would not be celebrating this day or any day. And no matter what is going on, we know that He is with us and calls out to us to remember that He gave His life for us.

Thanks for coming, Friends. Have a blessed afternoon and evening.

Even Jesus Did It. Will We?

Nick Vujicic stood atop a table and faced a room full of mesmerized high school students.

Some of them wept silently as they listened to this man who was born with no arms or legs proclaim joyfully, “I love life.”1

If there is anyone who would seem to have a good reason to be joyless, it would be Nick. And yet he has chosen to embrace his life and the possibilities it offers as well as the gifts hidden in his suffering.

I think people like Nick are so compelling to us because we all want to know the secret of joy like his — joy that doesn’t depend on physical perfection or life following some specific formula for success. We long for this because deep down we know that our journey throughout this life is fragile… inherently without guarantee. People like Nick show us that joy doesn’t need to be tied to circumstances. They hold out the possibility of unshakeable joy that transcends suffering. For many of us, joy is at a very low simmer. Even small disappointments — a canceled lunch date with a friend, an unexpectedly high bill, finding the last piece of pie gone — can rob us of whatever joy we have.

What makes people like Nick different?

I believe part of the secret to Nick’s kind of resilient joy is to consider life, all of life, as a gift. Every single day.

We can choose to be thankful for the gift of life no matter how difficult our path is because we are assured that God is with us in the middle of it and that He continues to bring blessings to our lives, even in our most painful moments.

I love this quote by Rowan Williams as he reflected on Jesus’ final night before the cross: “When Jesus gives thanks at that moment before the breaking and spilling, before the wounds and the blood, it is as if He is connecting the darkest places of human experience with God the Giver; as if He is saying that even in these dark places God continues to give, and therefore we must continue to give thanks.”2

Take some time today to reflect on a difficult season in which it wasn’t easy for you to experience joy. What gifts was God still giving you? Perhaps it was the comfort of His presence or a powerful truth He revealed to you during that time. Grab a pen and a journal, and list any gifts that come to mind. Then spend some time thanking and praising God for His faithfulness, rejoicing that He never stops giving to us, even when our way is marked with sorrow.

Because God is good, we can worship Him always.

(source:   Thankful for the Greatest Gift - FaithGateway )

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We can all go through hard times. Like this man, like a tragic incident of mass murder, or perhaps just the struggle of everyday life.

But no matter what, can we thank God for our lives, no matter what?

Thanksgiving is a day to do that. But not only is it for that day. It is for every day. We are to live a life of thanksgiving to God every day. Because...Even Jesus did it.

Can We. Will we? Do We?

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Stay blessed!

No He Doesn't

 I was a college student in Illinois that Thanksgiving, and I couldn't wait to get home to Massachusetts for the holidays. A friend's mother offered me a lift as far as upstate New York, where my parents were going to pick me up.

Mrs. Case and I drove all through the chilly night. Just after sunrise on Thanksgiving morning, the engine quit and we rolled to a stop on a deserted highway somewhere in western New York.

Mrs. Case said calmly, "God doesn't get you just halfway. Let's pray, Richard." After we prayed a little, she turned the key again. The engine coughed and started. The car lurched down the road. We barely made it to a garage at the next exit. I found the owner in the back.

"Lucky you caught me," he said. "We're closed today. I just came in to clean up." He checked the engine, then gave us a funny look. "Who pushed you in from the highway?" We told him no one. He shook his head. "That's impossible," he insisted. "A part is burned out and the engine can't run without it."

He didn't have the part, and he told us no other shops were open that day. "I doubt anybody has it in stock anyway," he said.

Seeing our stricken expressions, he said, "Won't hurt to try, I suppose." He went to make a call. In a few minutes, he was back. "My buddy's shop is closed, but he just happened to be there doing some paperwork. Strange, huh? He's got the part you need."

Mrs. Case delivered me to where my parents were waiting with their car. At home in time for Thanksgiving dinner, I said a special thank you, because now I knew: God doesn't get you just halfway.

(source:    Almost Home for the Holidays}

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No, he doesn't. In everything we do, if God is in it he will get us to our destination. Because he is good. Because he loves s. Because he is able.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Psalm 92:1-2

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. God bless you and yours

Happy Thanksgiving Dad!

 Another Thanksgiving Day approaches without my beloved father. He went on to be with Jesus 16 years ago, on this very day.

My dad and I were close. He always called me his "favorite kid" to everyone he introduced me to. And though it was a bit embarrassing, I sure wish I could hear it from him again.

Maybe I will when I meet up with him when my turn comes to pass this life. At least I will be there with him. And that is enough for me.

But like many that have lost someone this past year or even before, it's another day that his place is empty this year. And that is hard. 

And so how do we get through the upcoming holidays with the heavy hearts that carry those loved ones we miss so much?

We can go to websites that speak to that question and get ideas on how to honor those who have left us. 

The following one has 64 of them that perhaps you will want to check out if you are beginning to feel the sadness of the loss of someone you love. 

Go to:  ( 64 Tips for Coping with Grief at the Holidays - Whats your Grief)

Above all else though, remember that God is with you in your darkest hour when you may be alone. He is there to be your comfort.

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18

Thanks for coming. God bless you!

Thank you God for giving me my wonderful father!

One of Ten

 When Jesus does something for us that we know without a doubt came from him, do we remember to thank him before we go on with our life? Consider the following Bible story:

The Ten Lepers

Ten Lepers“Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well

LUKE 17: 11-19 

Out of the ten lepers Jesus healed, only one went back to thank Him. This man, completely free from illness but full of faith, knelt at Jesus’ feet, thanking Him for showing mercy. Because of his gratitude, God healed him far deeper and more than the other nine men were.

When Jesus said in verse 19, “ Rise and go; your faith has made you well,” it appears that the man’s soul has been healed as well — something that only our love and appreciation for God can achieve.

(source: 7 Thanksgiving Bible Stories About Being Thankful)

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That one man knew what it meant to thank Jesus for healing him. And why shouldn't he? Being a leper was something that no one would want to be. 

But for us, it is a reminder that God does for us so many things that we take for granted every day. And because of that, our praise and thanksgiving for him should continually be in our mouths. Psalm 34:1

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blessed Lord's Day!

 

 

What Should We Be Counting?

 

If we counted our blessings more than we complain about our woes, we would be a happier and better society. We are all guilty of it. I have so much more than many people. Many people have so much more than I do. But that is life.

But, did you know that God resides in the praises of his people? Consider this passage:

 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3

The meaning of the word 'inhabitest' means exactly that. God occupies a place in the praises of those that love him. 

He is there for us. No matter what we are going through at any time of day. In any situation. Bad or good. Good or bad.

It is true, society teaches us to count our money, calories, and all else that doesn't always line up with the goodness of God. ( not that counting calories is a bad thing)

But when we give him all of our praise, worship, and thanksgiving-as he inhabits those places of our hearts, all the above will line up with his word, and fall into place in our lives.

Let us never forget to praise him. For he is worthy of all and not a speck of it falls to the ground, when we do.

Thanks for coming today, Friends. Have a blessed day

All Creatures Great and Small

 God has given me a great love for so many of his creations. I am not a garden person like my mother and sister had been. Not that I don't like flowers. I do. And I sure love to eat the veggies that grow in the garden. But, I am not one to enjoy working with the earth to grow them.

Well, they say it takes all kinds to make the world go round. And I think about that passage in the Bible about the birds:

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Mathew 6:26

God created them. And He makes sure they are fed. And sometimes he uses people like me, to do such a thing. 

I also feed the squirrels that have made their homes in some of our trees around the yard. Funny little creatures they are. And each morning, five show up early in the morning, waiting for me to bring out their breakfast offering of the day. Usually, I spread peanut butter on bread, and break that up to toss out to them from my chair on the patio. But they also get seeds, corn, and peanuts, that is specially sold in packages at our local store.

Yesterday, I took the food out to them and noticed about ten of these White Ibis birds in the yard next door. We see them all over here in the south, walking in groups, looking for bugs from time to time. 

I have never gotten close to one. But, as I started tossing out the pieces of bread to the squirrels, the whole flock suddenly flew over the fence into my yard, quickly rushing to get each piece I threw out before any other could get it. 

Once done with the bread, I took my container of grains out to a little platform that my husband had nailed to a tree And emptied it there. The ibis wasn't too afraid of me. They patiently waited to see if I had any more for them and moved over out of my way, but I guess they didn't care for the grain. 

I would take two more pieces of peanut butter bread out to the squirrels after they left. But it didn't take too long. Once they saw that I didn't have anymore, they were gone. Which made the squirrels happy.

I think back to all the years I have fed God's creations to us to enjoy. Both domestic and wildlife. If I had all the money that I have spent on food for them, I no doubt would have been able to afford much more in the way of material goods than I ever have had.

But what material good can compare with the beauty of those things that God has given us. He supplies the birds with their food. And he sometimes uses us to do it. 

He rescues those that need homes. And he sometimes uses us to do it. And he gives many of us the love for them, that need to be loved, where perhaps they would not otherwise get it. 

He did not create our friends nor humanity either to become what we have become. He created all living beings, to love and provide for each other. 

And I am just a drop in the bucket of life, who enjoys watching and feeding the gifts he brings to my back yard each day. Right before I then go in to feed my domestic babies. 

How much more satisfying can life be. Even on a day like yesterday that wasn't so great.

How great is our God? He is greatly to be praised!  Psalm 145:3

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blessed day!

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All IT Took To Remember

A Thanksgiving Story: Gratitude

Gordon tells how he grew up on a farm in Canada, where he and his siblings had to hurry home from school while the other children played ball and went swimming. Their father, however, had the capacity to help them understand that their work amounted to something. This was especially true after harvest time when the family celebrated Thanksgiving, for on that day their father gave them a great gift. He took an inventory of everything they had.

On Thanksgiving morning he would take them to the cellar with its barrels of apples, bins of beets, carrots packed in sand, and mountains of sacked potatoes as well as peas, corn, string beans, jellies, strawberries, and other preserves which filled their shelves. He had the children count everything carefully. Then they went out to the barn and figured how many tons of hay there were and how many bushels of grain in the granary. They counted the cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and geese. Their father said he wanted to see how they stood, but they knew he really wanted them to realize on that feast day how richly God had blessed them and had smiled upon all their hours of work. Finally, when they sat down to the feast their mother had prepared, the blessings were something they felt.

Gordon indicated, however, that the Thanksgiving he remembered most thankfully was the year they seemed to have nothing for which to be grateful.

The year started off well: they had leftover hay, lots of seed, four litters of pigs, and their father had a little money set aside so that someday he could afford to buy a hay loader—a wonderful machine most farmers just dreamed of owning. It was also the year when electricity came to their town—although not because they couldn’t afford it.

One night when Gordon’s mother was doing her big wash, his father stepped in and took his turn over the washboard and asked his wife to rest and do her knitting. He said, “You spend more time doing the wash than sleeping. Do you think we should break down and get electricity?” Although elated at the prospect, she shed a tear or two as she thought of the hay loader that wouldn’t be bought.

So the electrical line went up their lane that year. Although it was nothing fancy, they acquired a washing machine that worked all day by itself and brilliant lightbulbs that dangled from each ceiling. There were no more lamps to fill with oil, no more wicks to cut, no more sooty chimneys to wash. The lamps went quietly off to the attic.

The coming of electricity to their farm was almost the last good thing that happened to them that year. Just as their crops were starting to come through the ground, the rains started. When the water finally receded, there wasn’t a plant left anywhere. They planted again, but more rains beat the crops into the earth. Their potatoes rotted in the mud. They sold a couple of cows and all the pigs and other livestock they had intended to keep, getting very low prices for them because everybody else had to do the same thing. All they harvested that year was a patch of turnips which had somehow weathered the storms.

Then it was Thanksgiving again. Their mother said, “Maybe we’d better forget it this year. We haven’t even got a goose left.”

However, Gordon’s father showed up with a jackrabbit and asked his wife to cook it on Thanksgiving morning. Grudgingly she started the job, indicating it would take a long time to cook that tough old thing. When it was finally on the table with some of the turnips that had survived, the children refused to eat. Gordon’s mother cried, and then his father did a strange thing. He went up to the attic, got an oil lamp, took it back to the table, and lighted it. He told the children to turn out the electric lights. When there was only the lamp again, they could hardly believe that it had been that dark before. They wondered how they had ever seen anything without the bright lights made possible by electricity.

The food was blessed, and everyone ate. When dinner was over, they all sat quietly. Wrote Gordon:

• “In the humble dimness of the old lamp, we were beginning to see clearly again. …

“It [was] a lovely meal. The jackrabbit tasted like turkey and the turnips were the mildest we could recall. …

“… [Our] home …, for all its want, was so rich [to] us.”\

(Source:  A Thanksgiving Story of Gratitude)

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Sometimes it takes getting back to the very basics in life, to be thankful for how far God has brought us. Sometimes all it takes are as simple as a lamp, a rabbit and turnips. And yet those were the gifts that God used that Thanksgiving for a family to remember. And.....

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Fathe r of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. Have a blessed new week!