Pictured above is the ice collected at All Saints Lutheran Church on the morning of Wednesday, February 29th.  This is a notable day, because my Aunt Nancy Fornes had her 20th actual birthday on this day, and her son, my cousin Paul, celebrated an actual birthday as well...

Most Deadly March Tornado Outbreak on Record...

                                    Pictured above is a sunset at the end of February 2012    

As of a recent report, 38 people have died across multiple states in the Midwest and the South.  Life is so fragile.  One man had just opened an auto repair shop in the Fall.  His neighbor had opened a restaurant one month ago.  Each business was obliterated.  The owner of the repair shop shared that his wife had totaled her car in the midst of attempting to get to her family at some point during the storm.  The owner of the repair shop, now gone, nevertheless stated emphatically that his family had survived.  This man clearly knew what is of most value in this life...the relationships we have in this world, which transcend time, space, and even separation in death.  We can be robbed of most everything except the relationships with which we've been blessed.  And even when we have to say good-bye to the ones whom we cherish in this world, "the circle will be unbroken" one day.  When we cling to the promises of God, our relationships will resume.  Remember what I've written before...A sunset in this temporal world is a sunrise in the Halls of Heaven...

    

Epiphany 2012

 Epiphany 2012 began in earnest on January 6th.  In the West, we have celebrated the event called "Little Christmas," when the wise gentiles from the East (representing all seekers worldwide) finally found the Christ Child.  It is thought by many scholars that it took a good year for the Visitors to find Jesus and the family - probably still in Bethlehem.  They searched and searched for God's best (and so should we).

  It is thought by many that when the wise visitors somehow got mixed up with Herod the Great (who was not so great), they avoided him like the plague - after finding and worshipping the Christ Child.  Herod wanted to eliminate all pretenders to his throne and, thereby, choose any male under the age of two.  The Holy Family then fled into exile in Egypt (from whence the Israelites had come) and hid away until it was safe to return. 

  While we in the West celebrate the "Light of God's Revelation" in the form of a star and the discerning of God's plan, the Eastern Churches celebrate Christmas...

  God's gift of a Son - remarkably keeps blessing any of those who will - still - receive "the only Begotten Son...,"  this Child of God...

Delta's Flowering plant

     Delta's flowering plant still blooms on the Administrator's desk, basking in the afternoon sunset...

It served in the concluding days of Advent to remind me once again that this medical Missionary to Nigeria, to Alaska, and to many more lives along the way...still lives.
  Her flowering plant, so beautiful and so healthy still, - is a reminder that Delta lives... gone from our sight, that is all...  She resides along with all those to whom I've (we've) been forced to say a temporal good-bye,  
     but one day, we will all be together again.  As surely as a Star led those who were seeking, we seek the Coming One and all He offers to those whose hearts are turned outward to those around and Heavenward to those who await...

Christmas is a Season

All Saints Altar just after Midnight Christmas Day 2011

...Christmas truly begins with the Nativity of Our LORD on December 24-25.  When the world puts away lights and wondrous wishes and begins to turn toward the future, I love to pause - during this special week to recall the incredible gift of a Child who came among us so that, in fact, we could look to a more glorious future than we could otherwise imagine, embrace, or enter...

Exhaustion

     Christmas Day culminates in mixed emotions.  For a pastor, the body is exhausted but the spirit uplifted.  I loved the chance to share a dramatic presentation including a song to eager participants in the Christmas Eve Services.  Watching the candles' kindle in the eyes of a gifted tenor brought particular peace to my heart.  Watching little Kennedy dance to "Go Tell It on the Mountain" on Christmas Day brought joy to my heart.

     Much more could be shared, but I'll have to reflect on the satisfaction that munching on ham ("man candy") and cheesy potatoes brings...Thanks, Molly and Mike!  I sorely missed Mark for the first time in 25 Christmases and his bride, Marissa.  But the reflection of love in the faces of those gathered around a tree larger than me brought a calm to my heart.  As Henry Van Dyke wrote around one hundred years ago...It is a good thing to keep Christmas and to share it with as many as we can........
   

Memories..."Christmas Memories"

There is a song which was once recorded by "the Chairman of the Board" and more recently by Rosemary Clooney.  The song has a line that always brings me to the point of both tears and deep nostalgia as I remember my own upbringing and that of my children.  It unfolds this way...

"Happy faces
of all the children
who now have children of their own...

Memories, Christmas memories,
of all the Christmases I have known..."

I'm not always aware of the passage of time - until I see such in the faces and the maturity of the children I've known.  Kids like Josh Bonno, Marion O'Neil - whom I baptized and who is about to be married to a courageous soldier, and Marissa Bergeson - who just married my second birth ordered son, Mark, in a beautiful Advent Service when my captivating Gaelic Granddaughters, Aine and Sylvie, danced the night away on Dec. 10th...

"Memories, precious memories......of all the joys that I have known.