Advent Glory

From an old German tradition, Advent,

which means coming, prepares our minds and

our hearts for the coming of Messiah,

the Prince of Peace, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach.

It is a solemn time of reflection, and yet one of

anticipation at the coming of our Savior.

The first candle on the Advent wreath to be lit is purple and called

the Prophet's candle, calling to mind the Prophet Isaiah,

who prophesied the coming of the Messiah seven

hundred years before His birth.

"Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign:

Behold the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin

shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name

Immanuel, God with us."

Isaiah 7:14

The color purple also denotes royalty, and is symbolic

of Christ's sovereignty as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Traditional Advent Wreath

The second candle of Advent is also purple in color

and called "The Bethlehem Candle" or the Preparation Candle.

In preparation for the birth of His Son, God used the mercurial whim

of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus who had decided to

 impose a tax on the whole of his empire.

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Each subject was required to return to register in their own city for the tax,

and therefore Joseph, went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth

to Judea, to the town of Bethlehem, because he was of the house

and family of King David, to be enrolled with Mary, his wife,

who was great with child.  Thus, the prospective parents came to

Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means, "House of Bread", where Mary

would give birth to her Son, the Messiah Yeshua, Who would one

day reveal to us that He is "The Bread of Life".

"And she gave birth to her Son, her Firstborn, and she wrapped Him

in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger because there was no

room or place for them in the inn."

Luke 2:7

The Holy Family

Henry Ossawa Tanner

(1910)

The pink or rose-colored third candle of the Advent wreath,

symbolizes rejoicing, like that of the angels as they heralded the glorious

news of the birth of the Savior to the shepherds in the fields.

Christmas Shock and Awe

A painting by Brian Zahnd

The fourth candle of Advent is also purple and is called the

 Angel Candle, or the Candle of Love.

"For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When, with the ever-circling years,

Shall come the Age of Gold;

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And all the world give back the song

Which now the angels sing."

"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear"

Written by Edmund Sears

(1849)

The center candle of the Advent Wreath is white,

and symbolizes the purity of Christ, the spotless Lamb of God,

Who came into the world to conquer the forces of darkness and death, and

Whose precious blood shed on the cross cleanses us from the stain of sin.

"All are justified and made upright and in right standing with God

freely and gratuitously by His grace, His unmerited favor and mercy,

through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus.

Whom God put forward before the eyes of all as a mercy seat

and propitiation by His blood, the cleansing and life-giving

sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, to be received

through faith. This was to show God's righteousness,

because in His divine forbearance He had passed over 

and ignored former sins without punishment.

It was to demonstrate and prove at the present time

in the now season, that He Himself is righteous and

that He justifies and accepts as righteous him 

who has true faith in Jesus."

Romans 3:24-26

ADVENT GLORY

The day is fast approaching when the Savior shall appear;

And every eye His glory shall behold;

The tokens of His coming fill the loyal heart with cheer

Though strife abounds and love is waxing cold.

We'll see Him as He is,

And the brightness of His glory we shall share;

We'll see Him as He is

And the likeness of His image we shall bear.

(Refrain)

In all His Father's glory, clothed in majesty unveiled,

With myriads of the shining angel band,

The King descends triumphant in Whose might we have prevailed,

And all the ransomed rise at His command.

Oh, may we all as sons of light be watching unto prayer,

For surely our redemption draweth nigh;

With holy zeal and patient faith, let every soul prepare

To join the advent chorus in the sky.

"Now when these things begin to occur,

look up and lift up your heads,

because your redemption is drawing near.

Luke 21:28

"Advent Glory"

Words and Music by J. Harker

(1881)

First Sunday Meditation: "So Teach Us To Number Our Days That We May Get A Heart Of Wisdom"

"Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved,

that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and 

a thousand years as one day."

II Peter 3:8

Illustration by Gustave Dore

PSALM 90

*A Prayer of Moses, the man of God

Lord, You have been our dwelling place and our refuge

in all generations (says Moses).

Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You had

formed and given birth to the earth and the world, even from

everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

You turn man back to dust and corruption, and say, 

Return,O sons of the earthborn (to the earth)!

For a thousand years in Your sight are but yesterday

when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

You carry away (these disobedient people, doomed to die

within forty years) as with a flood; they are as a sleep

(vague and forgotten as soon as they are gone).

In the morning they are like grass which grows up-

In the morning it flourishes and springs up;

in the evening it is mown down and withers.

For we (the Israelites in the wilderness) are consumed

by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we troubled,

overwhelmed, and frightened away.

Our iniquities, our secret heart and its sins (which we would

so like to conceal even from ourselves), You have set in

 the (revealing) light of Your countenance.

For all our days (out here in this wilderness, says Moses)

pass away in Your wrath; we spend our years as a tale that

is told (for we adults know we are doomed to die soon,

without reaching Canaan). 

(Numbers 14:26-35).

The days of our years are three-score years and ten

(seventy years)-or even, if by reason of strength, four-score

years (eighty years); yet is their pride (in additional years)

only labor and sorrow, for it is soon gone, and we fly away.

Who knows the power of Your anger?

(Who worthily connects this brevity of life with Your recognition of sin?)

And Your wrath, who connects it with reverent and worshipful fear

that is due You?

So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom.

Turn, O Lord, (from Your fierce anger) How long-? Revoke Your

sentence and be compassionate and at ease towards Your servants.

O satisfy us with Your mercy and loving-kindness in the morning

(now, before we are older), that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad in proportion to the days in which You have afflicted

us and to the years in which we have suffered evil.

Let Your work (the signs of Your power) be revealed to

Your servants, and Your glorious majesty to their children.

And let the beauty and delightfulness and the favor of

the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the

work of our hands-yes, the work of our hands,

confirm and establish it.

*This psalm is credited to Moses, who is interceding with God

to remove the curse which made it necessary for every Israelite over twenty years of age 

(when they rebelled against God at Kadesh-Barnea) to die before reaching the promised land.

(Numbers 14:26-35).

Moses says some of them are dying at seventy years of age. This number has often been

mistaken as a set span of life for all mankind. It was not intended to refer to anyone except

those Israelites under the curse during that particular forty years. Seventy years never

has been the average span of life for humanity. When Jacob, the father of the

twelve tribes, had reached 130 years (Genesis 47:9) he complained that he had

not attained to the years of his immediate ancestors.

In fact, Moses himself lived to be 120 years old, Aaron 123, Miriam several 

years older, and Joshua 110 years of age. Note as well that in the Millennium

a person dying at 100 will still be thought a child. (Isaiah 65:20)

-The Amplified Bible

A view from Mt. Nebo of the vast Kadesh-Barnea wilderness 

where Israel wandered for forty years.

The Spell Of The Yukon

I wanted gold, and I sought it;

I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.

Was it famine or scurvy-I fought it;

I hurled my youth into a grave.

I wanted the gold, and I got it-

Came out with a fortune last fall-

Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,

And somehow the gold isn't all.

After gold was discovered in the Klondike region of the Yukon in 1896,

thousands of potential prospectors rushed there with the hope of "striking it rich".

No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?)

It's the cussedest land that I know,

From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it

To the deep, deathlike valleys below.

Some say God was tired when He made it;

Some say it's a fine land to shun;

Maybe; but there's some as would trade it

For no land on earth-and I'm one.

You come to get rich (damned good reason);

You feel like an exile at first;

You hate it like hell for a season,

And then you are worse than the worst.

It grips you like some kinds of sinning,

It twists you from foe to a friend;

It seems it's been since the beginning;

It seems it will be to the end.

I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow

That's plumb-full of hush to the brim;

I've watched the big, husky sun wallow

In crimson and gold and grow dim,

Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,

And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;

And I've thought that I surely was dreaming,

With the peace o' the world piled on top.

Purple Wildflowers at Kluane Lake, Yukon Canada
Photograph by Barbara Burkhardt

The summer-no sweeter was ever;

The sunshiny woods all athrill;

The grayling aleap in the river,

The bighorn asleep on the hill.

The strong life that never knows harness;

The wilds where the caribou call;

The freshness, the freedom, the farness-

O God! how I'm stuck on it all.

The winter! the brightness that blinds you,

The white land locked tight as a drum,

The cold fear that follows and finds you,

The silence that bludgeons you dumb.

The snows that are older than history,

The woods where the weird shadows slant;

The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,

I've bade'em goodbye-but I can't.

"The woods where the weird shadows slant..."

Stunning Yukon Winter Beauty

There's a land where the mountains are nameless,

And the rivers all run God knows where;

There are lives that are erring and aimless,

And deaths that just hang by a hair;

There are hardships that nobody reckons;

There are valleys unpeopled and still,

There's a land-oh, it beckons and beckons,

And I want to go back-and I will.

They're making my money diminish;

I'm sick of the taste of champagne.

Thank God! when I'm skinned to the finish

I'll pike to the Yukon again.

I'll fight-and you bet it's no sham-fight;

It's hell!-but I've been there before;

And it's better than this by a damsite-

So me for the Yukon once more.

There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;

It's luring me on as of old;

Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting

So much as just finding the gold.

It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,

It's the forests where silence has lease;

It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

Arctic Sentinel

Ivvavik National Park, Yukon

Western Canadian Arctic

A painting by Cory Trepanier

"The Spell Of The Yukon"

(1907)

 A poem by Robert W. Service

"The Bard of the Yukon"

(1874-1958)

An Overworked Elocutionist

Once there was a little boy whose name was Robert Reese;

And every Friday afternoon he had to speak a piece.

So many poems thus he learned, that soon he had a store

Of recitations in his head and still kept learning more.

 A painting by Norman Rockwell

And now this is what happened: He was called upon one week

And totally forgot the piece he was about to speak.

His brain he cudgeled. Not a word remained within his head!

And so he spoke at random, and this is what he said:

"My beautiful, my beautiful, who standest proudly by,

It was the schooner Hesperus-the breaking waves dashed high!

Why is this Forum crowded? What means this stir in Rome?

Under a spreading chestnut tree, there is no place like home!

When freedom from her mountain height cried, "Twinkle, little star,'

Shoot if you must this old gray head, King Henry of Navarrel

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue castled crag of Drachenfels,

My name is Norval, on the Grampian Hills, ring out, wild bells!

If you're waking, call me early, to be or not to be,

The curfew must not ring tonight! Oh, woodman, spare that tree!

Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on! and let who will be clever!

The boy stood on the burning deck, but I go on forever!"

His elocution was superb, his voice and gestures fine;

His schoolmates all applauded as he finished the last line.

"I see it doesn't matter," Robert thought, "what words I say,

So long as I declaim with oratorical display."

"An Overworked Elocutionist"

(1908)

A poem by Carolyn Wells

(1862-1942)

Goodbye Gomer Pyle

"Shazam!"

One of my favorite television shows while growing up

 centered around the weekly misadventures ( shown in
syndication in the late 1960's and 1970's)

of the hilarious, lovable hayseed from Mayberry....

"Gomer Pyle USMC".

"Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!"
Jim Nabors as the gas station attendant-turned-soldier 
Private Gomer Pyle USMC.

In addition to his natural comedic acting skills as the goofy Gomer,

bane of his platoon, not to mention his troop commander, the irascible Sergeant Carter,

Gomer confronted by the crusty Sergeant Carter 

( played by Frank Sutton)

Jim Nabors was an accomplished singer with a truly wonderful, deep baritone voice,

which was showcased on many episodes of the mid-1960's sitcom.

I especially love his gospel and Christmas songs.

Take My Hand Precious Lord

Jim Nabors

O Holy Night
Jim Nabors

James Thurston Nabors

June 12, 1930- November 30, 2017

May He Rest In Peace

Supermoon Sunday

On Sunday, December 3rd, the moon will be full...

The Full Cold Moon

In the Cherokee language, this month's moon is called Usgiyi,

the Snow Moon, which brings cold and snow while the earth rests

until the time of rebirth, and the coming of the Anuyi,

or Windy Moon in March.

December's full moon will also be a Supermoon,

which means that the moon will appear larger and brighter

(at least 30% according to some websites) then the

average full moon which occurs each month.
On the East Coast of the United States, prime viewing
of the moon will start at 4:59 pm Sunday evening.

Now The Day Is Over

Now the day is over,

Night is drawing nigh,

Shadows of the evening

Steal across the sky.

Now the darkness gathers,

Stars begin to peep,

Birds, and beasts and flowers

Soon will be asleep.

Jesus give the weary

Calm and sweet repose;

With Thy tenderest blessing

May mine eyelids close.

Grant to little children

Visions bright of Thee;

Guard the sailors tossing

On the deep, blue sea.

Comfort those who suffer,

Watching late in pain;

Those who plan some evil

From their sin restrain.

Through the long night watches

May Thine angels spread

Their white wings above me,

Watching round my bed.

When the morning wakens,

Then may I arise

Pure, fresh, and sinless

In Thy holy eyes.

Glory to the Father,

Glory to the Son,

And to Thee, blest Spirit,

While all ages run.

Winter Moonrise

Clark Greenwood Voorhees

(1912)

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, Lord,

alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust."

Psalm 4:8

"Now The Day Is Over"

 Words by Sabine Baring Gould

(1867)

Music by Joseph Barnby

(1868)