Hello everyone. I hope that you are well. We seem to be ok here. I'll be honest, I am struggling a bit to get on top of the Christmas planning, what with one thing and another. I don't know if you are the same. It is a particularly busy time at work with all hands on deck working on a large tender. That's finished now, so hopefully, things may start to fall into place a bit more. I have learned, through extensive study (i.e. coming across it on Instagram), that this is the week that I am supposed to light the rose pink candle, which represents joy. And that is what I have done, and that is, in no way, a complete coincidence.
So, here's to feeling joyful. Eventually. It's a bit difficult at the moment, what with Australia, America, "Unite the Kingdom" Christmas Rally, etc. etc. However, I think that Christmas (the original Christmas, not the stuff we are wrestling with at the moment) is meant to be the antidote to this sort of thing and has been since the very first Christmas. Jesus was born into a time of wars, massacres of babies, fleeing to other countries and a wildly oppressive government. Nothing much that is happening now is a surprise, I think.
On a slightly separate note. Does anyone know where it says in the Bible that Joseph was elderly? I can't find it. I saw an article today about a woodcutting of Joseph done in the 16th century. I'll tell you, no way was Mary having any children with this Joseph - he can barely straighten up.
Today was Messy Christmas. Unusually for us, it is on a Sunday afternoon and about three times the usual number attend, so about 300 people were booked in. It felt like more. There was a Nativity - obviously - we're not animals and singing and bouncing (not me - not with these knees). HOH came to help out on the door and to warn the general public about parking next to our car park because the traffic wardens were acting like they were donkeys in a field of strawberries with all the illegally parked Christmas shoppers. Someone in church offered him a piece of tinsel to wear to get him into the Christmas spirit. Sometimes, you wonder if your friends actually know you at all, don't you?
Then I went to a craft table to help little people (and a couple of competitive mothers) to make these candle holders. They were very pretty and popular, but there was an awful lot of glue in the making. I expect to be peeling little bits of it from my crevices for the next six months or so.
Still, it was all very civilised. They were obviously excellent. We sang carols, and they sang Vivaldi and Handel - they got a couple of ringers in to do the really difficult singing. A couple of negative points. Do you mind?
1. When you invite people to your church to sing carols, they should be provided with a free carol sheet and shouldn't have to buy a programme or ask for one. It's not very friendly. HOH and I were ok because we knew them. Quite a few people didn't.
2. If I come out to hear a choir sing Handel's Messiah, I don't really expect the conductor to signal for us all to stand up and join in when it gets to the Hallelujah Chorus. I'm not really here to have a pop at it myself. I'm here because I assumed that you would be good at it.
It's week three of Advent, and I sometimes imagine that somewhere in time, shepherds are beginning another long week of shepherding shifts - completely unaware that they are closer than ever to the event that is about to change their lives. Packing their sandwiches, dragging the collie out of his warm bed, getting on with another life shift of grinding poverty with no prospect of change. Then joy bursts in and changes everything. With or without a rosy pink candle. You just never know the when do you? Have a good week.
Comments
Post a Comment