Christmas 2018 Blog Post #2

In case you missed Sunday’s post, I am spending the month of December blogging about various Bible verses which remind us of the first Christmas and what the birth of Jesus really means to us. I’m sure they aren’t going to be in chronological order, but I thought I would start out that way.

“And I will put enmity

    between you and the woman,

    and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

    and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15 (New International Version)

Whether or not you know your Bible stories very well, you surely have heard about the serpent tricking Adam and Eve into eating the fruit in the garden. In today’s verse, God has just discovered their sin and begins carrying out judgement. First He speaks to the serpent, telling him what his future fate will be. The serpent, of course, is Satan, and the offspring of the woman, centuries later, is Jesus. Satan may strike Jesus first by putting Him on the cross, but Jesus has ultimate victory.

Amazing how the third chapter of the entire Bible foretells those events.     

Picture from Christmas 2010, the wall honoring our pets who have crossed the rainbow bridge. 

Christmas 2018 blog post #1

For a while now – okay, probably since last Christmas – I’ve been thinking about the theme I should write about during this month. Over the years, I’ve done carols, cookies, cards (that be the big three, I guess), the first Christmas, Christmas past, Christmas gifts. I won’t admit that I’ve run out of themes, but I still need to come up with something original.

A couple weeks ago, on the Christian radio station I listen to, they were talking about Advent calendars. You know, where each day you open a door in this calendar and there is a little gift inside. Then there’s the reverse calendar, where every day you do something good for someone, or maybe donate a different food item to the local food pantry. I was driving to work that morning, when the DJs were talking about this, so I may have totally gotten this wrong, but one of them said something about thinking of something each day which is about the true meaning of Christmas. Which you would think, from the Christian standpoint, would be only one thing, and not 24.

Baby Jesus, the Son of God, was born on the first Christmas Eve, so that He could grow up and die to save us all from our sins. Seems pretty clear-cut, but I’ve been thinking about it. 

Then the other day, when I realized that I better get working on this if I am going to roll out a whole series of blog posts, I also realized what really is important this time of year. Yes, first and foremost, it’s about that Baby in the manger. But I looked at my calendar for the month of December and it is already just about full, not even counting the shopping, wrapping, cleaning, cooking, baking, mailing, and working.

That’s when I really came up with the theme for this year’s Christmas blogs. Three days a week until the end of the year, I’ll post a well-known Bible verse along with just a few words of why it reminds me of Christmas.

 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2 King James Version)

If only because we might as well start at the beginning. The beginning of this Earth we inhabit and the beginning of the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And just like the earth was without form when it started out, we are without form without Jesus in our life.   

Christmas 2003, Val with her dog Pepper and Nick with his dog Shadow. My plan was to share a past Christmas picture on each post, but when I was looking back, I couldn't find any from 04, 05 or 06. I think those were the years just before digital but right after I stopped keeping pictures in photo albums, so their whereabouts are anybody's guess. 

Wabasha, MN

     If you read Wednesday’s blog, you may recall that I took a road trip to Minnesota with a friend last weekend. Though we checked out a few other towns along the Mississippi, Wabasha was actually our destination.

 Our accommodation for the night was the Americinn. I would highly recommend it.

 Wabasha is a darling little town, but might be most famous for the Grumpy Old Men movies, though very little was shot in or even around the town.

 For dinner, we ran to the even smaller berg of Kellogg for fish fry at the Town and Country.

 And I don’t even know what to say about this. I am just posting it for the entertainment of my kids.

 I’m posting this one for my friend Denise. She should know why. “Do you have a picture of this?”

 So many historic buildings downtown Wabasha.

 Of course, the best shopping was in the Chocolate Escape. Check their Facebook page for our picture. 

 Barton’s Brickhouse Boutique.

 Anderson House Hotel.

 The National Eagle Center. My hubby and I took a tour of it in 2009; Julie and I didn’t have time on this quick trip.

 This is Chief Wapasha II, holding a cedar sprig and an eagle feather staff. The city of Wabasha is named after him. And, yes, there was a Chief Wapasha I and III.

When is the next trip going to be?

Red Wing, Minnesota

    It’s easy to become overwhelmed when one has traveled the same roads on very different trips within one month.

The end of October I was in the same area along the Mississippi River as I was this past weekend. I wanted to organize the pictures and the stories to blend together. I’m afraid that’s not going to happen, at least not seamlessly.

The trip in October, for a wedding, took us from our very cheap motel in Red Wing, Minnesota, to the historic St. James Hotel.

 The original front desk.

 The library just off of the historic lobby.

 An old piece of furniture in the historic lobby.

 A really old safe in the basement.

 Views from outside.

 This past weekend, my friend and I stopped in to explore the Pottery Place mall on our way through Red Wing.

 Many times over the years, I’ve visited the various shops inside the old pottery factory.

 I wish we would have had more time to wander around the two levels of antiques, but we had more towns to visit along the River. 

God and Google

Come back to the Lord your God.

    He is kind and shows mercy.

He doesn’t become angry quickly.

    He has great love.

    He would rather forgive than punish.

(from Joel 2:13 International Children’s Bible)

Do you ever get this feeling of despair for absolutely no reason? Or for such a stupid reason, that you try telling yourself to knock it off, stop feeling sorry for yourself and stop worrying about something that will probably not happen, but your mood just continues to spiral downward?

The last couple of days have been really good to me; I should have nothing in my heart but joy and thankfulness. Instead – well, I do have some stuff going on, but really? Is it really anything to bring me down? No, not at all.

I tried typing a few thoughts into my Bible Gateway search engine, but nothing said, “Ta-da, here’s your answer.” So instead I typed “what Bible verse do I need right now” into Google. Crazy how God has a direct tie to Google. Coz the above verse was the second one which came up.  

Lord, God, what would I ever do without You? Thank You for being my constant Friend and Provider. Amen. 

Serving Up Some Food

 When I look through all the hundreds of pictures I’ve taken on my various trips to Kenya, I always smile when I see the various foods we encountered and almost invariably ate.

In anticipation of the Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, I thought I would share some of the meals I’ve had while I was in Kenya over the last 12 years. I don’t know, I really would give up the turkey and stuffing for some fresh chapati, African bananas and real Maasai Chai tea. 

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. And let me know if you ever want to fly away to Kenya with me and eat some of these foods. There is always another trip on the horizon.

And if you haven’t voted today for our nonprofit, please click this link. Thanks!

Pleasing to God

¹ I will sing of your love and justice;
    to you, Lord, I will sing praise.
² I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
    when will you come to me?

I will conduct the affairs of my house
    with a blameless heart.
³ I will not look with approval
    on anything that is vile.

I hate what faithless people do;
    I will have no part in it.
⁴ The perverse of heart shall be far from me;
    I will have nothing to do with what is evil.

⁵ Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret,
    I will put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
    I will not tolerate.

⁶ My eyes will be on the faithful in the land,
    that they may dwell with me;
the one whose walk is blameless
    will minister to me.

⁷ No one who practices deceit
    will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
    will stand in my presence.

⁸ Every morning I will put to silence
    all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
    from the city of the Lord.

Psalm 101 New International Version (NIV)

Last Sunday, when I was looking up verses to go with the thoughts I was writing about, one of the lines in chapter 101 of Psalms came up. As usual, I pulled up the entire chapter and thought it had some good things to say, good things that would be one more follow-up to the thoughts I’ve been sharing the past two Sundays.

Now, this morning, as I’m working on my Sunday inspirational blog, I can’t remember what I wanted to say about any of the above chapter. Yes, I agree with what it is saying, but what really jumps out at me and has anything at all to do with our society, our government, the sad state of affairs world-wide?

I guess words like “slanders”, “vile”, “haughty eyes and a proud heart” could all be used to describe our most recent political campaigns. When we witness those things, I think, that instead of jumping into the fray with our own come-backs and insults, we need to not stoop to their level. We need to turn off social media, turn off the news, and instead turn to Scripture and to God for guidance and reassurance.

Lord, God, Heavenly Father, guide our actions and our words. Let all we do be pleasing to You. Amen.