The minutes of 2021 are ticking down towards another year. I have written on all four Advent Sundays, and today, I write on Christmas day. Christmas Eve passed quietly as a dangerous, milky fog enveloped the earth and ice was the prevailing road condition. There seems to be no end to the pandemic, and many people are stubbornly refusing to wear masks. This is the second year in a row where I have not attended services on Christmas Eve. Last…..
What do you loose when you have no faith? What do you loose when you are not vaccinated? What do you loose when you don’t love your family or your neighbors? What do you loose when you don’t defend our country’s freedoms? What do you loose when you don’t do good in the world? What do you loose when you criticize everything and everyone without offering concrete advice or solutions to problems? What do you loose when you don’t help…..
It’s the third Sunday in Advent, and once again, we have been blessed with a foot of the purest, most beautifully white snow. I’m not really sure why the snow reminds me of so many things, times, and people, but I do know my heart is yearning for peace, a peace that will bring hope and love to all of the hurting people of this world, of our country, and of our communities. It just seems like 2021 needs to…..
I have watched the movie, “Home Alone,” countless times at Christmas, and this Christmas was no exception. As I was watching it, a question began emerging in my mind. Do we short-change our children in preparing them for serious things that may happen to them and how to respond to those situations? In the movie, a family forgets that Kevin is sleeping in the attic for the night before the family leaves for a vacation in France. They fly all…..
“White Christmas,” title song for the movie by the same name in 1954, was originally sung by Bing Crosby on December 25, 1941, for the radio show called the Kraft Music Radio Show. Its composer, Irving Berlin, was a Russian-born immigrant who did not celebrate Christmas because he was of the Jewish faith. Christmas, 1941 was sad for many families because so many sweethearts, brothers, uncles, and husbands were lost at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. That sadness grew for…..
This is the first Sunday in Advent, the time when we anticipate the birth of Christ on Christmas day. In the book of Revelations, Christ said He was the Alpha (the beginning) and the Omega (the ending). He came to us as a child for His first coming, and He will come again a second time to welcome all who believe into the Kingdom of God. Today, we are living our lives somewhere in the middle of the Alpha and…..
My husband died of cancer eight years ago. There’s not a day goes by that the memory of him saying, “Good-bye,” to our dog, Sammy, and our cat, Mikie, before leaving for the hospital on February 27th, 2013, doesn’t warm my heart with gratitude. That memory came roaring back this past Monday morning as my neighbors helped me place Sammy in the back of my car to take him to the vet. Sammy was in terrible pain, his eyes were…..
Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday in the Lutheran church calendar. We haven’t celebrated this Sunday together as a congregation for two years because of COVID. The church’s doors were closed, and praise for Christ seemed hallow with a computer at home. I’m glad we could celebrate Christ’s life today by celebrating with other Christians and by singing songs of praise so rightfully His. Unlike so many Americans, my faith is strong, and I owe Him for everything…..
I wonder sometimes if we as a nation have forgotten about the courage, resilience, determination, and faith that the Greatest Generation put forth to overcome WWII. The United States managed to stay out of the war in Europe and in the Pacific until the flood gates were opened with Pearl Harbor. It seems, today, we take fore granted the light that shines all around us, only to cower when a pandemic puts “black out curtains” on our lives. I don’t…..
Minnie Louise Haskins wrote in her poem, “The Gate of the Year:” And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ (The King’s War by Peter Conradi and Mark Logue) I sat…..