Happy Christmas!!

Here's why!

Sooty Red

Last summer we visited the (reproduced) iron age house at the Chilterns Open Air Museum.  Unseen in the photo is the hole in the roof for the smoke to go out.  And the little thingies (demons, faeries, and the like) to come in as was universally believed.

Chimneys were a great invention.  We've dispensed with them in the centrally-heated-now but at the beginning they were a miracle cure for a very nasty problem.  But along with the chimney continued folklore about hearth-gods and chimney spirits.

What better place, then, for the magical Santa to come in by than the spirit channel of the chimney?  OK, so it messes up his red coat somewhat making the red a sooty red.  But he is a power for good after bogeymen of various kinds spooked the chimney.

At least in this respect Santa says something useful about Christmas.  I guess one way of retranslating the angel's instruction

you shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins is

he'll go through a dark place for you but get very dirty in the process. 

Not so much sooty red as blood red.

Birthday

Today is the birthday of Horatius Bonar.

The depth of his devotional poetry is being rediscovered and rightly so. It is quite ironic that this pastor-poet wrote hymns from within a church that would not sing them! Until very recently the Free Church of Scotland would only sing Psalms.

Quite a journey to North Cali. But that's the joy of Christian music. Why not take a moment of time to listen this through? You haven't time? Well it takes longer than this to hear Jesus' voice usually so maybe, just maybe, make 2011 a year to stop.

To come.

To rest.

To learn.

To find.

Then, and only then, to walk in His company. It was good enough for Horatius . . .

Open?

Today we had our Open House. 

It's the day when everyone is invited to our house all at once for calories (sorry, mince pies) and tea/coffee.  This is Christmas, after all.

Of course an open house is one thing.  As we discovered last year when there was a couple of inches of snow on our hill, an open road is quite another.

And this year?

Let's make that 5/6 inches of snow, at least in places.  Eight hardy souls made it however!

An invitation is one thing, a way is something else.

Although Jesus is both.

Advent - a study in waiting