cazadventblog23

  Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” Joyful, all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies; With th’angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!” Refrain: Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!” I was listening to this in the car yesterday on the way home from a very pleasant beach walk and lunch out with the family.  It was being sung more slowly that I would normally listen to it and this made me stop and think about the words and what it is that Wesley actually managed to pack into a few lines.  We know these words so well we may not often stop to think about what we are actually saying.  So here is my re-write of Hark the Herald in 21st century English Listen!  The angels are singing something prophetic.  They are heralding the birth of a King who is worthy of having glory ascribed to Him.  From hereon in there will be peace on earth ...

  The day I met you, changed me. I had spent my life in the pursuit of scientific knowledge, being taught by the best minds in Arabia and studying alongside the brightest students in the country.    My parents had paid for me to travel so that I could expand my knowledge and I was considered one of the leading scientists in my field.    Which was geometry and astronomy.         Several weeks prior to my journey to Bethlehem I had been with a group of students calculating the next season of lunar phases    and mapping the stars when one of my youngest disciples asked a question    which changed the trajectory of my life.      He wanted to know what was my explanation for a comet which he thought he had seen the previous evening    in the eastern    skies.         I had assured him that the charts did not predict any such comet and that he must have been s...

 The day I met you started off just like any other day.     I was twelve  ( or maybe thirteen – I was never very good at keeping count)     and I was with the sheep as I had been all season, searching the hillsides for green places and watering sites.    I had my dog with me, and I could see my brother Lamech over on the other side of the valley with his flock and Uncle Malachi further on up the hillside.    We had agreed to meet at sunset on the far side of the eastern slopes where we knew there was some shelter for the animals and water for us all.      Id been quite successful that particular day – the animals had behaved themselves, none had wandered off or injured themselves on thorn bushes or by catching hooves in rough ground.     The dog was in a good mood and the weather was not too hot.    I had been singing to myself as I kept one eye on the flock and the other on the terrain up ahe...

 The day I met you was one of the most stressful days of my life.      We had walked for four days to get to Bethlehem to register for the census.    Id done the journey many times before, but never with a heavily pregnant wife, and never with so many people on the roads.    It was hot and busy, but at least there were plenty of people to chat to, and of course your presence in the form of a sizeable ‘bump’ was a good conversation starter.      We had found places to stay along the road – a cousin of your uncles sister and a business associate of mine put us up for a night each.    Not exactly luxury, but good enough and it was kind of them to offer their food and beds to us as we travelled.     But by the time we got to Bethlehem your mother was very tired and somewhat anxious that we would find somewhere to sleep that night.     Town was heaving with people, and with soliders. ...

 I was already in love with you before I met you.     I think it was probably about     two months after the angel that I was down by the river washing clothes with some of the other village girls.     It was a warm day and I was tired.     I seemed to be tired a lot of the time in those early months – probably something to do with you!     I had sat back on the river bank with my feet cooling in the water when I felt you.     A tiny jump in my belly.     An unmistakable movement which took my breath away.     I lay very very still, willing you to move again.     And you did!     A surge of joy like I have never known raced through me and I jumped up, leaving the washing behind and ran into the village to tell my mother that I had felt you kick.      At that moment I loved you with a fierce passion.     You had been an idea, a foretelling, a promise...

 On the flight home to Belfast yesterday I was sitting behind a very happy smiley baby who was probably about four or five months old.  His Mum and Dad spent the whole flight sitting a monkey soft toy on the headrest of the seat in front and then dropping it into baby's lap.  And he just laughed and chortled and giggled over and over again.  It was delightful.  But it made me wonder..... why do babies find the repetition so amusing?  And why is it that laughter is one of the very first things that we human beings learn to do?  Long before we can talk or sign or make our needs known we can laugh.  I suppose we do cry first. But the next skill we learn is laughter.   If you want a chuckle watch this wee one having fun with a piece of paper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4abiHdQpc&t=37s Its nice to think of Jesus as a baby laughing . Playing peek-a-boo with his Mum and Dad.  Being tickled and thrown up and caught. There is such ...

 Ive always had a really poor memory.  I cant remember much about my childhood - have to look up dates when significant things happened - draw a blank on birthdays and the like. But recently Ive met someone who has suffered a traumatic brain injury and has no ability to recall any memory post injury. He lives his life by writing everything in computer files which he then consults at regular intervals. Every relationship is catalogued because if he were to meet you today and you were to tell him what you did for work or if you were married with kids or where you lived he wouldn't necessarily remember those things tomorrow. Meeting him has made me think a lot about the way our minds work and how much we take our thought processes for granted. Added to this is the recent experience of seeing my Mum go from being a really sharp, informed, opinionated woman to confused and rambling in the course of a couple of weeks.  Our brains are so precious. We probably don't look after th...

  We are back to looking at our verse from Isaiah 9.  Here's what one commentary has to say about the words Wonderful Counsellor.  Have a listen to this whilst you are reading.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixoeH-1SRJU&t=92s Wonderful . The Messiah would be "wonderful" in his nature as God-Man; in his teaching, which "astonished" those who heard it ( Matthew 7:28 ); in his doings ( Isaiah 25:1 ); in the circumstances of his birth and death; in his resurrection, and in his ascension. "Wonder" would be the first sentiment which his manifestation would provoke, and hence this descriptive epithet is placed first. The word used for wonderful in the Hebrew is 'pele' which also has connotations of the miraculous - of working wonders, doing marvellous things. So this Messiah will not only inspire awe in those who see Him but He will do awesome things . As the Word, as Wisdom itself, as he who says, "Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am...

    Airports are fascinating places. Ive spent quite a lot of time in them recently as Ive travelled back and forth visiting Mum. On a recent trip I watched as the plane I was due to fly in landed, discharged its passengers and prepared for take off. There are more people than you might think involved in this process. Two guys position the steps. Someone fixes the fuel pipe into its slot. Two guys unload and load luggage. Two guys position chocks under the wheels. Someone puts a rope round the wings to stop us walking under them. And then there's one special someone whose job it is to wave little red torches in the air so the pilot knows exactly when and where to stop.  As I was watching the well oiled Easyjet machine in action in the pouring rain it reminded me of all the unseen people in church, so necessary for the smooth running of the whole thing. Who orders the loo rolls, tidies the errant stationary cupboard, orders the tea bags for Mums and Tots?   Who d...

  Recently I have been confronted again by the story of the woman caught in adultery. In the past when Ive read the story my sympathies have always been with the woman.  I have indignantly wondered where was the man implicated in the adulterous relationship.  Why was she dragged out to be stoned and not him?  I have imagined that somehow she was an injured party in the whole business, knowing how little value was placed on the lives of women in those days.  But that is not what the Bible tells us.  She was caught in the act of adultery.  Her marriage vows broken, her husband shamed and betrayed and probably heartbroken.  Her children about to be bereft of a mother who is going to be stoned. Knowing the consequences were she to be discovered, she has chosen to follow her heart, go with her passions and risk everything.  Yes there were two people involved. But the Bible story doesn't tell us what happened to him.  It focuses on her and wha...

 You dont know theres a piece missing until the very end. Ive been doing jigsaws. Purchased from charity shops - which is always just a tad risky because theres always a chance that they aren't complete. And you don't discover that until the very last minute.  Then theres that annoying moment when you realised there are four or five spaces to fill and only three or four pieces left in the box.  And the picture you've spent ages constructing will be forever incomplete. I was thinking about this last night as I came to the end of the puzzle Id been doing and realised that there was one piece missing.  I checked on the floor and in the box in the hope that it might be hiding somewhere . But it wasnt.  There was another thing I noted about this jigsaw  - despite it being a really busy, complicated picture it was relatively easy to do.  The pictures with not much going on -sea and sky and fields -are the really tricky ones to complete. What's the point? I h...