Content with the Divorce?

I'm still reading selections from The Valley of Vision for my personal devotions during Advent. The prayer titled "Contrition" reminds me that I am "in the embryo state of my endless being."  Much food for thought in that small phrase, isn't there? How easy it is for me to live like my time here on earth is all there is! My heart and soul knows better but what a hard-headed fool I am. I simply forget the only things that are eternal down here: God's Word and other people (myself included!)
I think of the NLT version of Ecclesiastes 7:4:

A wise person thinks a lot about death, 

while a fool thinks only about having a good time. (In place of "having a good time" I could insert material stuff, house, work, school, etc. Oh, to be a wise person and not a fool! )

Also, from Calvin Miller's The Path of Celtic Prayer which I've just started reading -

"Our failure to perceive Christ's imminent return as our "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13) has contributed to our feelings of separateness from God. The problem is not so much that we seldom think about his coming but that we are no longer excited by the prospect. Paul says there is a crown laid up for all those who love his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8). But do we love and anticipate his appearing? What of our blase contentment with things as they are, Christless and self-managed? Many of us are secular captives, separated from God and content with the divorce."

Do I love and anticipate his appearing? Or am I content with the divorce? How about you, bloggy friend?

Finally, from this morning's prayer (Shortcomings) -

I am sometimes discouraged by the way,

but though winding and trying it is safe and short;

Death dismays me, but my great high priest stands in its waters,

and will open me a passage,

and beyond is a better country.

May we remember today (and be encouraged!) that this life may be winding and trying yet it is (with Christ) safe and short and our Savior stands waiting for us, ready to open a passage to the Better Country.

(You can find all of the Valley of Vision prayers online here.)

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Chapped Ground

Still away on vaca..... and lovely it is! But busy and very much on the move, so I am a tired B, friends.

I've managed to read  my three prayers for Advent this morning before hitting the road. The one I'd like to share with you today is titled The Divine Will and is from Section I: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Valley of Vision.

The next to last stanza is worth committing to memory, I think:

"Teach me to believe that all degrees of mercy arise
from several degrees of prayer,
that when faith is begun it is imperfect and must grow,
as chapped ground opens wider and wider until rain comes."

As the prayer says, I'm asking the Lord to help me

• to honor Him by believing before I feel, for great is the sin if I make feeling a cause of faith
• and to strengthen me to pray with the conviction that whatever I receive is His gift

Oh, how I do sometimes often depend on my sin-filled "feelings" to determine whether I should believe in the Lord rather than on the truth of His Word!

And doubt what I receive from His Hand to be a gift? Every day.... every day, I do. You would think as I get older and look back at the "hard" things He has placed in my life and then see the blessings that come from it that I would be quicker to understand that all He gives me is a gift. And trust that this next new "hard" thing will carry blessings with it as I am obedient to whatever it brings.

Maybe I am learning just a bit, but my first instinct is still to doubt.  

May your imperfect faith grow and your chapped ground be filled with His living water, bloggy friends.

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Valley of Vision - Advent Readings

A friend and I are going to read prayers from the Valley of Vision this Advent Season. We started yesterday and are using this schedule (see link at bottom of article). While neither of us think we'll be able to stop and read the prayers at the times specified each day, we plan to read all three assigned prayers daily. For me, with my current schedule and life, that means figuring out the best time of day. We are traveling this week (more on that later!) so there's an even bigger challenge with starting something like this while on the road. 

The very first prayer (Self-Knowledge from Section III: Penitence and Deprecation) gave me much to chew on - nothing less than my sinful self! From the prayer, here is a list of my "needs" - 

My lack of:

1. Scriptural knowledge to know God's will 
2. Wisdom to guide others
3. Spirit of prayer (i.e. words without love - ouch!)
4. Daily repentance (without which I keep God at bay)
5. Joy in God and His will 
6. Zeal for God's glory (seeking my own instead!)
7. Love to others

Pretty complete list, I think. And as the prayer says - I'm asking God to give me the grace to recall my needs....

"And let me not lay my pipe too short of the fountain,

never touching the eternal spring,

never drawing down water from above."

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Seven on Sunday

1. I took the "E" from my "Mouse" yesterday and colored it in Photo Shop and added it to my collection at Letter Playground. The color palette came from COLOURlovers.

2. Happy first day of the Advent Season!

3. Handel's Hallelujah Chorus:

Hallelujah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!" (based on Revelation 19:6, 11:15, 19:16)

4. I want to put together some kind of simple Advent Calendar for the girls, maybe just small envelopes with Scripture and tiny gifts to string along the mantel. I have until Wednesday!! Here's nine Advent Calendars to stir up some ideas!

5. I'm thinking of getting tickets to Handel's Messiah next week.

6. I think Mary and I are going to see The Nutcracker today!

7. Here's an interesting blog from a very talented illustrator. Catching the end of it, but maybe she'll do something else for 2011!

Happy and blessed Sabbath day, bloggy friends!

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Advent, Ten Lepers, and a Sketch

Happy Thanksgiving, bloggy friends!

Guess what? Sunday is the beginning of the Advent Season (check this link - great resource)... which means it's the beginning of the new Christian year... which means it's kind of like the New Year Holiday (my most favorite of all holidays!)

Advent is a time of anticipation, expectation, preparation and longing. This year I want to do something special with Mary and E as we look with anticipation to Christmas Day - the remembrance of the First Advent of Jesus. Not sure what I will do, but whatever it is it will be different for each of them... they are both in such different places. E is busy with work, school, boyfriend, and college preparations. Mary is still a sweet little pre-teen spending a whole day sewing stuffed animals for her friends. (I'll be posting photos soon of her new "Pouch Pal" line she's designed, made, and is now planning to market. *Smile*)

And for me for Advent? I know I'll work through this devotion book again. And I this one, too. Oh, and there's these Scripture readings I want to do, also.

I'm reading through C.J. Mahaney's Christ Our Mediator in the mornings. Much food for thought. Today's chapter was titled "The Divine Dilemma" where he discussed the problem of how God could reconcile His Holiness with our Sin.

He referenced the story of the ten lepers in Luke -

"Luke tells us of the time while Jesus was "on the way to Jerusalem," and He encountered ten lepers. From a distance, they begged Him for mercy. Knowing of their condition, we should easily understand their desperate cry. yet our own innate condition is far more serious than leprosy."

This made me go to Luke and read the story myself. You can read it here. It's a pretty good Thanksgiving passage, actually. All ten were healed. (By the way, they weren't healed instantly but only as they were on their way - obeying Jesus - to tell the priests they were cleansed.) Only one of the ten turned back, praising God, and thanked him. Jesus then went on to tell this one that his faith had made him well (or saved him as the note in the English Standard Version says.) I find this link between being thankful and faith interesting. To truly be thankful to God for our blessings means having faith that He is the One who has provided for us.

So, all of this led to a sketch in ink on watercolor paper, colored with Prisma Color markers, scanned into Photo Shop and touched up with the blur and burn tools. I like the way they turned out.

So may we all have faith to thank the One who have so wonderfully provided! Off to finish cooking a few dishes to take to The Girl's parent's house this evening. Life is good.

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Late Seven on Sunday

Here's my Seven for the week:

1. I've noticed something kind of weird: every time Sean goes to Lynchburg, the Baking Fairy shows up the night he gets home. When I got up this morning, I found this in our kitchen. Yum.

2. The Boy and The Girl M got to go flying together last weekend. Aren't they cute?

3. The Collect from the Book of Common Prayer for the first Sunday of Advent:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

4. I think I'll put the 5th Grade Five Word Monologue on hiatus for a bit. It was fun, but time for a break. Check back later... :-D

5. Like these:

Amy Blackwell

6. "...in seeking to be filled and empowered by the Spirit we must pursue him indirectly - we must look to the wonder of Christ. If we look away from Jesus and seek the Spirit and his power directly, we will end up in the mire of our own subjective emotions. The Spirit does not reveal himself. The Spirit reveals Christ. The fullness of the Spirit is the fullness that he gives as we gaze on Christ. The power of the Spirit is the power we feel in the presence of Christ. The joy of the Spirit is the joy we feel from the promises of Christ...Devote yourselves to seeing and feeling the grandeur of the love of God in Jesus Christ and you will be so in harmony with the Holy Spirit that his power will flow mightily in your life." ~John Piper

7. Can't leave out my girlies:

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Advent Thoughts

On being righteous....
Tuesday night at CBS we had a lively discussion on Genesis chapter 19, specifically on Abraham's nephew, Lot. The New Testament (2 Peter 2:7-8) calls him a "righteous" man. But after reading about his cowardly attempt to appease an angry mob outside his door with his two virgin daughters (albeit to try to protect two angels) many in our group strongly disagreed with the word "righteous." How could he possibly be righteous, some asked. Look at what he DID! Well (thank God!) righteous doesn't mean PERFECT. Righteous means in a right relationship with God. Righteous means believing in the only truly righteous Person ever to walk our earth - Jesus Christ. I think through the Bible and there are such great examples of those who were part of the family of God but who were very much UN-righteous at times: Abraham (giving away Sarah to protect his hide TWICE), David (adultery AND murder), Jonah (a mean-spirited pouter putting others in danger as he fled from God's commands), Elijah (after all God did through him it only took one little word from Jezebel to send him running to the desert wanting to die), and Peter (rebuking Jesus, cutting off ears, denying that he even knew Christ). What a sad group. But righteous and used by God none-the-less. This gives me hope.

On grace...
"Grace? What is grace? Is it a sprinkling of fairy dust, a warm happy feeling? No. Grace is a power that lifts you out of the domain of darkness and transfers you to the domain of light. Grace is God's magnificent power erupting in your heart and soul by his own intervention so that you move from death to life, from darkness to light, from hell to heaven. Grace is power that is embodied in a person." ~Joseph R. Ryan

On scoffing...
St. Pete tells us in his letter, 2 Peter 3:3, that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing. Of course we see that today. Plenty of jeering and derision is being thrown at God, Jesus, and Christians. But...hmmm...this made me think about the scoffing that goes on in my own heart. How often do I hear that little voice saying, "Does God really care? Does the details of your insignificant life matter to Him? Is He really paying attention? Is He really in control?" Yes, scoffers have come scoffing...

On pitching tents....
But on the tail of that I think of John 1:4 - and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Scholars tell us the words "dwelt among us" more literally means "pitched his tent." Jesus pitched his tent with us here on earth 2,000 years ago. But He is still dwelling with me today. He has pitched his tent in my tiny scoffing heart, driving his stakes deep, planning to be there through the rough storms and high winds.

On telling about Jesus...
"O tell, tell to each other what great things the Lord has done for your souls; declare unto one another how you were delivered from the hands of your common enemy, Satan, and how the Lord has brought your feet from the clay and has set them upon the rock of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ; there, my brethren, is no slipping." ~George Whitefield

And finally...
Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer. (Psalm 6:8-9)

Amen

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Sunday Susurrus

susurrus \su-SUHR-uhs\, noun: A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur; a place to reflect on the Sabbath day, the blessings I've been given, the praises I have to offer, and the rumblings rattling around in my mind.

Feeling: A little far from God these days. I've been a Christian long enough to know that He hasn't left me, that He is the God Who is There, that He is good, and that this is a season I'm walking through that has a purpose. I was so looking forward to being in worship and hearing our pastor preach today after being in Philadelphia last week. Just as worship finished and the sermon started, E leaned over to me with her hand over her mouth and said, "I think I'm going to throw up!" and dashed out of the sanctuary. I ended up following her to the bathroom and then taking her home. Sigh. But, I know my days are numbered for taking care of her while she's sick. She'll be too grown soon to need her mom when she's ill, so it was a blessing to spend an hour or so alone with her. I'll get the CD and listen to it this week on the drive to work.

Laughing: Over the time we had last night drinking wine and eating dessert with three other couples. It was a casual, easy place to be. Best line of the night: "You mean you buried your Grandfather naked?"

Grateful: For my health. A friend's mother passed away this week. Another friend is gravely ill. Another friend is struggling with various conditions that could add up to some pretty serious stuff. My mom is still recovering from heart surgery this past summer. My brother-in-law is suffering with kidney stones. With all that on my mind, I'm so very grateful for a body (though far from perfect!) that was capable of walking 13.1 miles last week. (It's VERY important not to forget about the 0.1 mile!)

Hearing: The Boy play the guitar and The Girl M sing with the praise team this morning. It was a surprise to see her up there and a delight to see them together leading worship. I'm still hearing them sing and play We Fall Down. Glad I made it through worship before having to leave!

Happy: We made it for the sign-up for the Half Marathon at Myrtle Beach in February. It was almost full...Yeah!

Blessed: By my husband and all the talents he has to help take care of me and the kids and our home. He's upstairs now with a circular saw cutting out our bathtub to prepare for installation of a new one. :-) Yesterday he took Mary on a long bike ride in full "biker" gear. A few nights ago he sat up with E just talking about life. And he has the wisdom to know how to be available but not intrusive to Sean as he's making decisions about his future.

Thinking: About something a husband of one of the couples we were with last night said as we were discussing wives (ahem) throwing things at husbands. He said, "I wish she would throw something at me. She's usually just mean. I can't dodge "mean"!" The whole conversation was in jest, and we were laughing, but there was a lot of truth in what he said. When we're just plain "mean" to each other with our actions, words, or attitudes, it's awfully hard to get out of the way. It's a lot easier to dodge a projectile plate than a harsh word. I've been thinking about that in reference not just to my relationship with Matt, but with my kids and friends, too.

Inspired: To draw! I'm on a drawing jag the last couple of days, it seems. (See my Sing Loud drawing I just finished above. Yes, grammarians, I'm sure I should have put Sing Loud-LY but I didn't like the way that looked! And, yes, that's a chicken. Matt says it's a duck-chicken, but I say it's a CHICKEN-chicken.)

Wanting: To follow the Advent Season closely this year. I love the idea of the lighting of the Advent candles, of anticipating through the gathering illumination of the coming of Christ. I read this devotion book during Advent last year and think I will do so again, along with following the Scripture readings in the Book of Common Prayer.

Blessings, bloggy friends. And Happy Advent Sunday!

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Christmas

On this side of eternity, Christmas is still a promise. Yes, the Savior has come, and with him peace on earth, but the story is not finished. Yes, there is peace in our hearts, but we long for peace in our world.

Every Christmas is still a "turning of the page" until Jesus returns. Every December 25 marks another year that draws us closer to the fulfillment of the ages, that draws us closer to...home.

When we realize that Jesus is the answer to our deepest longing, even Christmas longings, each Advent brings us closer to his glorious return to earth. When we see him as he is, King of kings and Lord of lords, that will be "Christmas" indeed! - Joni Eareckson Tada

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Advent Thought

It is easy to see why gold is an appropriate gift for Jesus Christ. Gold is the metal of kings. When gold was presented to Jesus, it acknowledged his right to rule...

It is also easy to see why incense was a significant gift. Incense was used in the temple worship...In presenting this gift the wise men pointed to Christ as our great High Priest, the one whose whole life was acceptable and well pleasing to his Father...It is interesting that incense was never mixed with sin offerings. When we discover that, we think naturally of Jesus, to whom the incense was given. He was without sin...

Just as gold speaks of Christ's kingship and incense speaks of the perfection of his life, so does myrrh speak of his death. Myrrh was used in embalming...Christ was to suffer, to die for sin. It was myrrh that symbolized this aspect of his ministry.

There is a sense in which by faith we too may present our gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh.

Begin with your myrrh. Myrrh is not only a symbol of Christ's death but also of the spiritual death that should come to you for your sin...

...Come with your incense, acknowledging that your life is as impure as the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is sinless...Christ comes to live in the believer so that the good deeds produced in his or her life may become in their turn "a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God."

Finally, come with your gold. Gold symbolizes royalty. So when you come with your gold you acknowledge the right of Christ to rule your life...

If you have come believing in all that the myrrh, incense, and gold signify, you have embarked on a path of great spiritual joy and blessing. For those are the gifts of faith. They are the only things we can offer to the one who by grace has given all things to us. - James Montgomery Boice

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Advent Thought

These verses (Matthew 2:1-12; about the wise men) show us a striking example of faith. These wise men believed in Christ when they had never seen him; but that was not all. They believed in him when the scribes and Pharisees were unbelieving; but that again was not all. They believed in him when they saw him as a little infant on Mary's knees, and worshipped him as King. This was the crowning point of their faith. They saw no miracles to convince them. They heard no teaching to persuade them. They saw nothing but a newborn infant, helpless and weak, needing a mother's care like any of us. And yet when they saw that infant, they believed that they saw the divine Savior of the world! "They bowed down and worshiped him" (v.11).

We read of no greater faith than this in the whole volume of the Bible. It is a faith that deserves to be placed side by side with that of the penitent thief. The thief saw someone dying the death of a criminal, and yet prayed to him, and "called him Lord." The wise men saw a newborn baby on the lap of a poor woman, and yet worshipped him, and confessed that he was Christ. Blessed indeed are those who can believe in this way! - J.C. Ryle

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Advent Thought

People love to celebrate. People love to break from the routine of life and celebrate. All over the world right now lights are strung and special music is being broadcast and trees are decorated and gifts have been lovingly purchased and lavish feasts are being prepared....Life must be punctuated with celebration. It's a universal human impulse. And where did this inclination come from? God created us this way. "What is the chief end of man?" the Westminster Catechism asks, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever." Now that is celebrating worthy of the name!

...We who belong to Jesus have powerful reasons to celebrate. God has come to us. God has shown that this life is not the only life we will ever know, and that this world is not the only reality we will ever experience. God has thrown open the gates of heaven to us through Christ his Son. We have seen the celebration going on within those gates. And that's where we're headed! - Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

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Advent Thought

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed. Isaiah 40:5

To begin with, "the glory of the Lord" is the expression of God's person. It is any manifestation of God's character or attributes. In other words, glory is to God what brightness is to the sun. Glory is to God what wet is to water. His glory is like the heat of a fire. In other words, it is the emanation, it is the effulgence, it is the brightness, it is the product of his presence, it is the revelation of himself. Anytime God discloses himself, he manifests his glory.

...God had never been silent. After Adam sinned, he and Eve were driven from the garden and the earth was cursed. But God did not remain hidden from Adam's progeny. He did not leave himself shrouded in clouds of darkness. He shone the light of glory - in creation and through the shekinah.

But he also spoke through his Word, given to the prophets and recorded in Scripture. He thus disclosed his glory in a way that communicated truth and gave instruction to his people. This was the highest and most ensuring manifestation of divine glory Old Testament saints had access to.

You see, God only whispers in his creation. He revealed a shadow of his glory in the shekinah. But he speaks with absolute clarity in his Word. "God...spoke." (Heb. 1:1) - and not in a whisper but in full voice.

Still, there was an incompleteness in it all until, "[God] has in these last days spoken to us by his Son" (Heb. 1:2)

Now that is God shouting. You can't mistake it. Christ is God and you see every attribute of God manifest in him: his judgment, his justice, his love, his wisdom, his power, his omniscience. It's all there in person as we see him walk through the world, working his work, living his life. The fullness of God may be seen as it was never seen before in Jesus Christ." - John MacArthur

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Advent Thought

If you look again at Philippians 2:7, you notice that there is a comma after "nothing," and then you have a verb in the present continuous: he "made himself nothing, taking..." There is a link here between nothing and taking. Alec Mattea...suggests if we ask, what did he empty himself into? rather than of what did he empty himself? we will be closer to coming to grips with it.

It's a fantastic paradox. It's what the Lord Jesus took to himself that humbled him, not what he laid aside. He emptied himself, "taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." It was in taking to himself humanity that he became nothing.

Of course, for those of us who think that man is the apex of it all, we can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be absolutely excited to be a man. But if you were God? Imagine. To be God and come down the birth canal, to be laid in a manger, to live as an outcast, to die as a stranger, to bear the abuse and the curse of the law - it all sounds like "nothing" to me. - Alistair Begg

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Advent Thought

"He is called Mighty God...If in Christ we find nothing but human flesh and nature, our glorying will be foolish and vain, and our hope will rest on an uncertain and insecure foundation. But if he shows himself to be to us God, even the Mighty God, we may rely on him with safety. It is good for us that he is called strong or mighty because our contest is with the devil, death, and sin, enemies too powerful and strong, by whom we would be vanquished immediately if Christ's strength had not made us invincible. Thus we learn from this title that there is in Christ abundace of protection for defending our salvation, so that we desire nothing beyond him; he is God, who is pleased to show himself strong on our behalf." - John Calvin

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

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Advent Thought

...For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - spending and being spent - to enrich their fellow men, giving time, trouble, care, and concern, to do good to others - and not just their own friends - in whatever way there seems need. There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things he will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." "I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free" (Psalm 119:32). - J.I. Packer (Photograph by Mike Terry)

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Advent Thought

Georges de la Tour (French painter, 1593-1652),

"Christ in the Carpenter's Shop" (1645)

We sometimes wonder why God doesn't just end suffering. But we know that whatever the reason, it isn't one of indifference or remoteness. God so hates suffering and evil that he was willing to come into it and become enmeshed in it.

Dorothy Sayers wrote,

"For whatever reason, God chose to make man as he is - limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death - he [God] had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace, and thought it was worthwhile."

The gift of Christmas gives you a resource - a comfort and consolation - for dealing with suffering, because in it we see God's willingness to enter this world of suffering to suffer with us and for us. - Tim Keller

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Advent Thought

'Jesus' by Rembrandt van Rijn

He will be great...Luke 1:32

...[Jesus has been] appointed the heir of all things, through whom also [God] created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Hebrews 1:2-3

"If you took all the greatest thinkers of every country and every century of the world and put them in a room with Jesus, they would shut their mouths and listen to the greatness of his wisdom. All the greatest generals would listen to his strategy. All the greatest musicians would listen to his music theory and his performance on every instrument. There is nothing that Jesus cannot do a thousand times better than the person you admire most in any area of human endeavor under the sun. Words fail to fill the greatness of Jesus." - John Piper

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Advent Thought

"This is the word of the prophet: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given" (Isa. 9:6). This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that he is the son of the virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours. That is where we wilt, but he who does feel it has become another man. Truly it is marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessedness should lie in him. And this Child belongs to all mankind. God feeds the whole world through a Babe nursing at Mary's breast. This must be our daily exercise: to be transformed into Christ, being nourished by this food. Then will the heart be suffused with all joy ad will be strong and confident against every assault." - Martin Luther

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Advent Thought

"The whole of Christ's life was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha, where he was crucified, even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for to his tenderness then the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as the cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of one and the same day. From the creche to the cross is an inseparable line. Christmas only points forward to Good Friday and Easter. It can have no meaning apart from that, where the Son of God displayed his glory by his death." - John Donne in The Book of Uncommon Prayers

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