Sunday, December 29, 2013

Christmas Past

At this time of the year with a large part of my family overseas I was remembering Christmas's past when my own children were young and also the many nativity plays I've put on either at church or at school. When our children were young we always acted out the nativity including the 3 kings. I remember when our youngest daughter desperate to play Mary, played her with great seriousness even though her right leg was in plaster! I remember my husband was always typcast as Herod because of his stong deep voice! At school my greatest delight was once persuading a boy to be an angel. After all, all the named angels - Michael and Gabriel- had male names. So for our brave boy angel we ditched the white robes and tinsel round the head and gave him a simple and manly angel costume of austere gold. He played the part with great seriousness and dignity and it was extremely moving. Another year I shall never forget, we picked a beautiful but rather highly strung girl for Mary; all went well until Joseph made a slight mistake and Mary picked up Baby Jesus, who fortunately that year was a doll, and hit him over head with it! There were also some very touching years... when a 7year old 'Mary' sat on the front of the stage with 'Jesus' in her arms and her eyes fixed on Him, sang in a gentle, sweet voice "Sleep Quietly my Jesus..." And mostly I remember we chose as 'Mary' a dear little 8 year old and a few days before the play was performed she was diagnosed with a serious and ultimately fatal disease. But she insisted on going ahead and played her part beautifully. Now it's just Alex and me and we do no acting but he loves to get the Bible out and asks me to read aloud for us both the greatest true story ever.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

A REAL Christmas!

My eldest daughter and her family are spending Christmas in Vermont USA. For the first time in their lives they are seeing, and experiencing, snow - and they are loving it! To go out in the snow and choose and cut down their own Christmas tree is a magical experience for them and as my daughter said to me "Suddenly, In The Deep Midwinter makes sense". We DO miss out here in NZ where it's hot and the Christmas tree and its ornaments looks rather tawdry in our brilliant sunshine. Some people have put Christmas lights outside their homes but they don't show up until around 10pm! And yet...the wonder of the true Christmas is as real to us in our "Upside down Christmas" as it is anywhere in the world. We still welcome God's great mercy in sending His son into our world. And our Silent Night may be hot but it's still full of joy.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Advent Changes

Our Advent is a little different this year. Usually Alex makes an lovely advent wreath which we put on our prayer table and light as we say Grace before our evening meal. This year we have put larger candles on a wide front windowsill and made the advent wreath around them. We still pray and light the candle before our meal but then we leave it so it shines out in the darkness of the street all evening. We hope it will be a blessing to those who pass by and a reminder that what we are waiting for is the celebration of the time when He who is the true Light of World came into it.