Beverly Varnado at One Ringing Bell

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Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2013

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Luke 2:10-11

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Bells Across the Snow for those who are sad

For many, the Christmas season is a hard time for various reasons. For some, the loss of loved ones is more keenly felt this time of year. For others the bright wrapping and lilting carols stand in contrast to an ongoing struggle with sadness, or serious illness. That’s why I’ve always appreciated that on Christmas Eve the devotional, Streams in the Desert, carries the poem , “Bells Across the Snow” by one of my favorite hymn writers, Frances Ridley Harvegal (Take My Life and Let it Be). It speaks to the tension between sorrow and joy, which almost everyone at some time in their life, experiences at Christmas. O Christmas, merry Christmas! Is it really come again, With its memories and greetings, With its joy and with its pain? There's a minor in the carol, And a shadow in the light, And a spray of cypress twining With the holly wreath to-night. And the hush is never broken By laughter light and low, As we listen in the starlight To the "bells across the...

When you taste and see at Thanksgiving

While shopping at a holiday market, I came across a bakery vendor offering frosted cookies with lines to write what we are thankful for in edible ink. It was just the kind of fun thing my people would like, so I bought a few (This bakery makes delicious cookies, I might add). The Psalmist wrote, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). When we eat the cookies, we will literally eat a list of our blessings--tasting the good. The word “taste’ in the original language of this verse means “taste, perceive, and eat.” When we sit down to our Thanksgiving meal, we can smell and touch it, but until we actually put Alyne Varnado’s recipe (or your relative’s recipe) for dressing in our mouths, we don’t get it. And unless we take a bite of one of those cookies, we’ll miss out, too. And “see” in that verse also means “perceive, but also look at, inspect, and consider.” And there is one other meaning that caught my eye, “to look on joyfully.” It is the same with the Lord. Until w...

When you need to simply trust

While attending another church to see neighbor children sing on a recent Advent Sunday, I experienced a poignant moment. At the end of the service, a sweet four-year-old sat in my lap, and as the directions for communion were explained, I had a bit of uncertainty about where the child I held would go while I took communion and when I should move forward. She had no uncertainty. She hopped off my lap, took my hand, and began leading me forward. Of course, I thought. She does this with her mother. She knows exactly what to do. Several hours later, I still pondered that experience. As so many of us do this time of year, my brain sometimes spins—checking the lists twice and that sort of thing. It can all get so complicated. “Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom” (Matthew 18:3). Jesus spoke these words to illustrate to the disciples who would be greatest in the kingdom, but they also tell us where our hearts need to be to live th...

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