If Christ had not come

A number of years ago a remarkable Christmas card was published by the title "If Christ Had Not Come." It was based on our Saviour's own words, "If I had not come," in John 15:22. The card pictured a minister falling asleep in his study on Christmas morning and then dreaming of a world into which Jesus had never come.

In his dream, he saw himself walking through his house, but as he looked, he saw no stockings hung on the chimney, no Christmas tree, no wreaths of holly, and no Christ to comfort and gladden hearts or to save us. He then walked onto the street outside, but there was no church with its spire pointing toward heaven. And when he came back and sat down in his library, he realized that every book about our Saviour had disappeared.

The minister dreamed that the doorbell rang and that a messenger asked him to visit a friend's poor dying mother. He reached her home, and as his friend sat and wept, he said, "I have something here that will comfort you." He opened his Bible to look for a familiar promise, but it ended with Malachi. There was no gospel and no promise of hope and salvation, and all he could do was bow his head and weep with his friend and his mother in bitter despair.

Two days later he stood beside her coffin and conducted her funeral service, but there was no message of comfort, no words of a glorious resurrection, and no thought of a mansion awaiting her in heaven. There was only "dust to dust, and ashes to ashes," and one long, eternal farewell. Finally he realized that Christ had not come, and burst into tears, weeping bitterly in his sorrowful dream.

Then suddenly he awoke with a start, and a great shout of joy and praise burst from his lips as he heard his choir singing these words in his church nearby:

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and trimphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!

Come and behold Him, born the King of angels,

O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

Let us be glad and rejoice today, because He has come! And let us remember the proclamation of the angel" "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10-11)

- Streams in the Desert

Plays

Our church recently did a rendition of "Good King Wenceslas!" It was a very humourous one! How we laughed at all the antics!

Did you know that the words to the carol "Good King Wenceslas" were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853? The music originated in Finland. This Christmas carol is unusual as there is no reference in the lyrics to the nativity. Good King Wenceslas was the king of Bohemia in the 10th century. He was a Catholic martyr and the Patron Saint of the Czech Republic. St. Stephen's feast day was celebrated on 26th December which is why this song is sung as a Christmas carol.

When I was a kid, we did the play of King Wenceslas. I was the princess in that play.



We did plays twice a year at our one-room schoolhouse in Japan. Once at Christmas and once at the end of the year. Sometimes we invited the neighborhood children to come watch it. But mostly we did it for our missionary parents.

Here is my brother Doug, being silly.

Brother Dan is Hansel.

I'm the angel facing Hansel who has fallen into a deep sleep.

Here I am a pirate and my brother, Doug is Captain Long John Silver from Mutiny on the Bounty.

We don't do the children's Christmas program at church any more. It was too hard with doing Judgement House in late October. Now they do Easter plays at church. Last year was the first time we did that and it was fantastic!

The little children (nursery through K) still do their singing at Christmas time and that is sooooo fun! Laurel sang "O come little children" while they entered the stage. The little nursery kids sang Away in the Manger while they rocked their little baby Jesus. After singing him to sleep, they laid their babies in the manger (we had to have 3 mangers to fit all the baby doll Jesus' in). Then they did a little finger play.

(picture taken by Ian Johnson)

Aren't they just precious!! Christmas plays are so fun!

Baking

I planned that we would do some Christmas baking when the girls came over today.

They kind of got carried away with the sprinkles.

* * * * * * * * *

Hannah picked up a copy of our National Geographic.

"Look Nana! An Egyptian mommy!"

She wanted to read the article.

"Let's get grossed out!"

As I was reading the article about Egypt, there was a picture of the Nile river and the wilderness. That led to a fun story-telling about Moses being hid in the river as a baby. And how the princess found him. And then as an adult fleeing into the wilderness (I traced on the page with my finger from the river to the wilderness) I explained how he met Jethro and began to work for him and that he got married to Jethro's daughter.

Hannah: Boys marry girls. Who do you want to marry, Sophia?

Sophia: I don't want to do that marrying thing.

Hannah: You have to! Who do you want to marry?

Sophia: I want to marry mommy.

(Perhaps an Egyptian mommy?)

Sorry, Adam and Jill. I am sure the kids had a super sugar high this evening!!!

Cookies and carols

Christmas is around the corner! It is evident in the church nursery!

During worship time in church today, we sang Tommy Walker's version of Silent Night. I LOVE the chorus:

We worship You, we honor You, born on this night, our God our true light; we worship You, we honor You...

Christina Siriwardina did signing to a solo by Bernie Zuercher and it was almost a dance and so very worshipful!! "O come let us adore Him!"

This afternoon there was a Christmas party at the Pretty Prairie Sunset Home where Al's Dad lives.

Del Stucky sang "Stille Nacht"

Santa came to visit

We had a fun program at church tonight - Cookies and Carols - or maybe it was called Carols and Cookies. The cookies did come after we sang carols.'

That one guy who was parked out in the parking lot all week and the Sri Lankan guy came running in to start us off. So funny!

People had put requests in a box and Adam had different people in the audience pick a song out out of the box to sing.

There was a game played "Last caroler standing". Questions were asked and if you got it right, you could continue standing. I had to sit down when I didn't know that Frosty the Snowman had a button nose. I assumed it was a carrot. The last person standing got a $25 gift card to Red Robin!

After the singing, we had cookies in the Fireside room. Yum!

(we had our share of cookies today! 'Tis the season!)

Six more days!