wise mankind still seeks Him

"....And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:10-11

"....And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
Matthew 2:11

Just pretend there's no Santa in the photo! Saint Nicholas certainly wasn't present at Christ's birth, but a Santa was one of many lights at the Fantasy of Lights in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Sunday scenery #3

For God and Country. A couple of triple-windows in our church sanctuary are of a patriotic nature. They were made and installed in the late 1800s or early 1900s. They commemorate the American Civil War as far as I can tell. This is one of the windows.

Sunday scenery #1

"Sunday scenery" is a series in which I post snapshots of churches, mainly in southeast Kansas. This one is our church.

anouncing Easter in a small town

My Darling Husband and I spent the Easter weekend with my family in The Big City. When we came home, I glanced at Sunday's edition of our local newspaper.My eyes immediately fell to the top of the front page and I was pleasantly surprised. You know you're in a small town when the local newspaper editor is unafraid to declare that He Is Risen!
I have an educated guess that the editor of The Big City's newspaper would never allow this.

CutieDog very truly likes going to his "grandparents" (my parents) house. He gets to play with his "Uncle Dog" (my parent's Jack Russell Terror)...

and he gets to be a spoiled "grandog". See, he's not allowed to put his paws on our furniture here at home. He soaks up the extra allowances there. The first time we visited my parents with CutieDog, he tried to get onto our furniture upon returning home. This second time, he surprised us by minding his manners when we got home.

Smart and cute. Good choice, My Darling Husband.

I am

Thanks be unto the Lord for His gift of salvation! Wishing fellow believers in God's love and forgiveness a blessed Easter.

Lapel pin by Bob.

here, sample this

Did you see Alicia's? Here's my sampler. I'm going to cross-stitch it. I mean, I'll add it to the list of crafty things I want to do. But I will stitch it...perhaps embroider it. Living in a small town means I'm close to the country so I can drive quickly to the rural areas for country inspiration, or walk through town for city inspiration for the sampler. Samplers are so easy to personalize. You can add your initials and date you completed the project, the names of the recipients or images from the life you know.

be comforted

This is today's posting from Crosswalk.com/Breakpoint.com. I wanted to share it because we need to be reminded occasionally that there literally is a spiritual battle occurring in people's hearts, even thought we don't see it sometimes. Sometimes we can't see it because a person keeps it hidden without hints. I hope this is encouraging to you.

"THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTSThe First Attack on Life Chuck Colson

Yesterday, Christians around the world celebrated Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Magi. Epiphany reminds us that God's salvation reached beyond the Jews. Christ would be, as Isaiah foretold, "a light for the Gentiles." He would bring "salvation to the ends of the earth," (49:6) as far as those very kings had traveled.
But things turned decidedly bleak after the Magi departed. Suddenly we see that the Christmas story is more than the stylized Nativity scenes we see on Christmas cards. The historian Josephus tells us how Herod murdered two of his own sons and his wife because they threatened his power.
The gospel of Matthew tells us that Herod also turned his eye to the male infants of Bethlehem. In the painting "The Slaughter of the Innocents," baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens depicted the horror: a soldier dashing a child against a Roman column, another lancing a mother who tries to hide her babe. The painting also shows a woman weeping over the body of her dead infant. It's a scene from the Bible none of us likes imagining. Matthew quoted Jeremiah to describe the atrocity: "A voice is heard in Ramah... Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted..."
Those who heard Matthew's gospel would have remembered Ramah was where Rachel died in the throes of childbirth before reaching the Promised Land. They also would have associated Ramah with the deportation of the Jews during the exile. In that vicinity, the Babylonians tore Israel's children away from their mother's arms and carried them off as slaves.
As Catherine Larson, one of my colleagues, writes in BreakPoint Online, "That evocative solo [of Rachel weeping] would have called forth the agony, the despair, and the tortured Why, of a people waiting in great darkness, of a people not yet home."
As I think about this aspect of that Christmas, I'm reminded that Christmas isn't the saccharine story we've reduced it to. It's more like D-Day.
Once Satan realized that God had invaded planet earth, he let loose a vicious counterattack. And where did Evil strike? It attacked life in its most vulnerable form.
The very first assault of Satan after the birth of Christ is against society's weakest members-infants. He attacked the "least of these." Even today, the Enemy's mode of attack hasn't changed much. We're painfully aware of the slaughter of the unborn, and the devaluation of the elderly, the poor, the disabled, and the prisoner.
But the good news is our Savior has come. He has established the beach-head. And He will have the victory.
So friends, as this New Year begins, we mustn't be deceived. There is a real battle with real casualties. We remember that we wage war not against flesh and blood, "but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
We shouldn't be surprised at setbacks and assaults upon us. Of course the Enemy won't go down without a fight. But remember, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
So lay hold of it, and don't let go."

Last night God kept bringing to my mind the hymn, "Because He Lives", and John 14 in the Bible. I trudged from the warm bed to another warm room where I could turn on a light & read. I encourage you to read it also.

Blessed Christmas

night lights

In The Big City and in The Small Town, Christmas lights are a sight not to be missed. After dinner, My Darling Husband and I drove around the countryside (Ah, peaceful serenity.)(A pretty country church, shining as a beacon in the dark.)(Something tells me Katy is getting a sparkly ring for Christmas and might need that church.)and The Small Town to see what our eyes would behold. This Small Town and the small town I grew up in both use the crossed wreaths to decorate the downtown. They're pretty. A lovely Victorian dwelling that I constantly admire from afar.

a little songbird sang to me

Well...actually it was a choir of high school songbirds. Last night My Darling Husband and I were in for a treat when we attended the Christmas concert at the local public high school.

Ahhh, their voices! Especially the locally prestigious senior class choir could compete with a professional choir. And, they sang a cappella. I'd love to have them serenade me to sleep each night. Sweet dreams gare-on-teeed.

Another highlight of the concert is that the song selections included old Christmas hymns. Hymns, not just carols. Hymns that spoke the names Jesus, God the Father, Christ.... How refreshing that in this age of reality-denying political correctness that the high school choir director in this small town is not quivering in his boots at the thought of offending a single someone with accurate historical tradition. Take that, bully ACLU. Christ is in Christmas.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming was one of the songs.

everyday thanks

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Thanksgiving rolls around. every. year. But we should not take it for granted. It is a blessing to live in a country where we still have an official holiday showing official appreciation for our blessings. It is the Lord who gives such blessings...freedom, food, shelter, clothing, family and friends, and eternal life in heaven if we so choose to accept it.

Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.

My Darling Husband and I are visiting some of his family in Texas. It's nice and warm down here, compared to the Midwest. 60s vs. 40s!

it is Veteran's Day

The United States flag in this photograph shows fewer than 50 stars because it is one of the flags flown at Ft. McHenry. The National Park Service flies the flag that shows the number of states in the union at the time the U.S. defeated the British at Ft. McHenry during the American Revolution. Fort McHenry is also the birthplace of our national anthem.

I thank all the U.S. military service members, alive and deceased, for their part in creating and protecting this nation that God blessed us with. It is because of Him, and our military, that we have existed.

Take a moment to show your appreciation to the service members you know.