by Laurie Klein
Black sheep? Moi? Oh yes: In childhood I cradled my stuffed counterpart, complete with music box. During adolescence I perched it atop the desk handed down from my mother.
Seven decades later, it sits near my keyboard, flop ears and button eyes cocked my way.
Twist the oval brass ring in its belly and the song still plays, almost as if time runs backward and my Mom croons the lullaby words of Brahms. I remember one night, an insecure new mama myself, I asked to hear it again, her voice by then crackly with age.
Sleepyhead, close your eyes.
Mother’s right here beside you.
Do we ever outgrow the childlike longing to be held? Rescued?
Re-wind with me . . .
to a distant, long-ago night. A swaddled infant’s gaze locks on his mother’s brimming eyes.
Perhaps Mary sings:
Guardian angels are near,
So sleep on, with no fear.
From starlit Bethlehem, slip further back in time. A month will do. Picture slopes and valleys partially blanketed in wool, as if fallen clouds rest on the earth. These sheep are specifically raised for temple sacrifice.
And King David’s descendants keep watch.
Farther afield, a grizzled shepherd bows over a feed trough. He swaddles a flailing newborn lamb. The birth rags will protect spindly new legs from harm. Little eyes close, the damp body nestled in warmth.
Does the shepherd pipe a tune?
I’ll protect you from harm,
You will wake in my arms.
What of this motherless lamb? And that ewe, over yonder, grieving over a stillborn body?
How gently the shepherd nudges the bereaved mother aside. How painstakingly he bathes the orphan in the dead lamb’s placental blood.
And then, how wondrous, the milk of recognition, the miracle of adoption!
From these hills we can look toward Bethlehem or, five miles north, toward Jerusalem; from incarnation to eventual crucifixion.
Among these grasslands hundreds and hundreds of lambs were once raised for twice daily sacrifices in the temple. Thousands more met the priestly blade at Passover. BUT . . .
. . . before that feast of remembrance, each household brought their best lamb into their home for several days. Hand-fed it. Treated it as family. Maybe the children named it.
Everyone knew that when they presented their gift to the priest, he would ask them this: “Do you love this lamb?”
Spotless, cherished lambs led to the temple.
My threadbare black sheep on my desk.
Heaven’s Lamb—who loves us.
Now and forever NOEL, noel, noel . . .
What sacrifice might Love ask you to make this Christmas?
Black sheep, white sheep: Photo by Megan Johnston on Unsplash
Close-up, white sheep Photo by Sam Carter on Unsplash
Lamb: Photo by Bill Fairs on Unsplash
by Laurie Klein
Have you seen my alter-ego? I call her Eeyore, after the classic Pooh character: a morose, self-pitying donkey ever-expecting the worst. Think: forgotten birthdays, cold rain and sodden dejection. Thistles and limp balloons.
Lord knows, I’m a gloomster at times. Even at Christmas. When pessimism feeds on fresh dread and old disappointments, I take on the splayed, dug-in stance of those braying creatures in old westerns: mulish, stubborn, unbudgeable.
Turns out, my intel’s outdated. As are my assumptions.
Donkeys are intuitively sensitive to threat and actively protect one another. They safeguard livestock. Picture snapping teeth, sensational back-kicks deflecting coyotes and wolves.
Once, during Bible times, a donkey outwitted her stubborn master, so obsessed with his agenda he missed the sword-wielding angel of God blocking their way! The stouthearted ass veered. Three times. Each time, her rider, blind to their shared peril, beat her with his staff. (You can read her cagey reproof in Numbers 22, roundly amen-ed by the angel.)
So here’s to God’s gentle, vigilant beasts of burden.
May I be more like them. Guide a blind herd mate to water? Oh yes. Transport what I’m called to carry without complaint? May I emulate the self-aware donkey, uniquely able to view all four hooves at one time, thus nimbly traverse deserts and crumbling mountain switchbacks.
Joseph’s donkey, perhaps going silver around the muzzle, carried Jesus to Bethlehem; a stranger’s donkey bore Christ through Jerusalem.
Joyous Noels and Hosannas can be lovely, optimistic, but fleeting. “Bear one another’s burdens,” Paul said, “and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
My default personality suddenly seems more promising.
Still, lonesome blues will set in again, and sometimes, a feeling of doom. What do we do when heartache overwhelms hope?
Remember with me ancient Israeli families, commanded to sacrifice the firstborn male of all their flocks. The donkey, considered unclean, got a pass. “Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey…” (Ex. 13:13). https://biblehub.com/exodus/13-13.htm
A sobering, deep-down amen, to the perfect Lamb, once and for all sacrificed, in our place.
How has someone shouldered your burden lately?
How has someone shouldered your burden lately?
Donkey Photo by Luis Palicio on Unsplash
Lamb, in enclosure Photo by Daniel Sandvik on Unsplash
by Laurie Klein
Dear friends, we are between Noels, past and pending. This year, I’m learning about creatures that might have shared that long-ago Holy Night. Welcome to “Oasis: Between Noels, Part II.”
Errands . . . gatherings . . . holiday lists . . . To misquote Hamlet, To do or not to do, that is the question.”
Dare I multitask, count hurry a virtue, knowing the word “haste” once meant “violence”?
A slower pace might invoke peace. Consider the camel. Measured, intentional steps plod across shifting dunes, thus prevent the body from sinking.
When I married Dreamer, unresolved sorrows often buried me. “Tell me a story,” I said one day, desperate for a distraction. Enter “Luigi the Camel.” Dreamer launched what would become a tradition. Kidnapped one day, hapless Luigi headlined the visiting circus. On another rainy day, Luigi gate-crashed the school Christmas pageant.
To this day, I cannot spell the sounds that camel makes! If laughter is medicine, Luigi reliably shoos off my blues.
A camel instinctively knows how to cope. Escalating heat? No worries; fur reflects light. Plus, the animal’s remarkable countercurrent blood flow cools body as well as brain.
Fatty tissue stored in the hump can be metabolized into water as well as energy. Ingenious nostrils cradle precious expelled vapor, reabsorb it for later use.
Might these conserving actions relate to treasuring the Word in one’s heart? So many words already fill my holiday lists. Better to store God’s Word within.
I need an oasis. A daydream. A side-trip, real or not.
I could follow Luigi into Macy’s. Or take a backyard mosey, shoeless, like Moses, padding into the realm of stillness where an eloquent bush might, for a moment, blaze, as if it knows my name.
“So much depends on the light,” Margaret Atwood says, “and the way you squint.”
Give me prayer, practical as a camel’s translucent third eyelid: moving back and forth, sweeping away debris; clearing vision, for close-ups and vistas.
Did you know the Arabic word for camel means “beauty”?
May we step lovely toward the unknown . . .
Scout each day’s waiting oasis.
Sip and Savor.
Store up goodness.
Will you join me?
For starters, here’s a walking prayer I’m using these days. In waltz time, hold each line in your mind, or speak or sing it aloud, with each inhale and exhale.
I am yours,
chosen and known;
evermore,
yours alone.
Even now,
breath and bone,
Holy Noel,
sing me home.
“To do, or not to do.” In what ways will you refresh others this season?
P.S. In Kenya, The Camel Library carries books to far-flung folks, thirsting for stories, poetry, knowledge
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash
Photo by Roxanne Desgagnés on Unsplash
Happy Weekend before Christmas! How is it going? This is usually the time when the LIST of things to do gets longer, not shorter and the expectations we’ve had for the “perfect” holiday have to be re-evaluated and need to be thrown out the window. If you work at a church or live with someone who does, that holiday feeling may not be what you wish it was! In fact that holiday feeling is probably exhaustion! As I type this I am sitting with a half decorated Christmas tree and a very messy dining room. Both must be dealt with swiftly so I can go pack for trip to celebrate the holidays with Rob’s family.
Two of his sisters have late December birthdays and his youngest decided to throw a party at the beach this weekend. A lovely gift but it takes work to travel anytime, but especially at the holidays. And it takes a little brain floss for me to think warm when I’m sitting in winter temperatures. I finally got my suitcase unpacked from our anniversary trip so I can repack with “summery” clothes.
I love to decorate the tree! For me the tree is Christmas! I have had a tree every year since we got married I say I, because my Grinch husband isn’t a big fan. Some trees we cut down, some we purchased at a tree lot. During the pandemic when the boys were in other states, we found a bargain artificial tree and bought it. Just three pieces and the lights were already on it! What a gift to the Grinch! Plus it was tall and could accommodate all my ornaments. We collect ornaments from places we travel and the boys have gotten ornaments in their stocking each year so that they can have their own trees with decorations that hold memories!
Since the kitchen ceiling flooded while we were away, I got way behind on decorating and I knew I didn’t have time to decorate the big artificial tree. So Grinch Rob said I could get a tree that was as tall as I am. Last week I went to the local tree stand and found a five foot tree that I could carry on my own! And it is now set up on a table in the midst of everything. I finally put the lights on it last night because I really wanted white Christmas lights but they were sold out and my order isn’t arriving til tomorrow! I dug out the old colorful Christmas lights last night and started the process! And boy to I miss the ease of a pre-lit tree.
How do you view the Christmas tree? Is is a gift or a chore? Is it your work of art or just another task on the list of things to do?
I am a huge tree fan in general!. Trees speak to me. We chose our neighborhood in Cincinnati because of the trees and our house had an amazing 100 year old oak tree in the front yard. In this house in Nashville, I have a beautiful magnolia tree that was planted by the builder and an ugly old tree that I wouldn’t let be cut down because it was the only one left on our street! The birds and the squirrels are thankful.
I am thankful for the imagery of trees in the Bible. They are life giving and celebratory!
“So you’ll go out in joy, you’ll be led into a whole and complete life. The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause. No more thistles, but giant sequoias, no more thornbushes, but stately pines— Monuments to me, to GOD, living and lasting evidence of GOD.”
Isaiah 55:12-13 The Message (MSG)
What trees come to mind when you think of trees in the Bible?
The tree in the Garden of Eden, the tree planted by streams in Psalm 1 and the ones I’d forgotten about in Revelation.
Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit…The leave were used for medicine to heal the nations. REVELATION 22:1-2 NLT
And Isaiah reminds us that the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah involves a NEW tree! New GROWTH from an old stump
ISAIAH 11: 1-10 New International Version
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.Roots
What is God’s Word for you today? What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about? Read again and allow Jesus to speak to your heart.
Roots and New Growth. In what ways have you put down roots in your faith this year? What new growth has taken place?
In what areas would you like to see NEW growth in the year ahead?
How would you like to see righteousness and justice in our land? Spend some time praying about this.
“From Genesis to Revelation…The symbol of a tree in our midst is the promise of sustaining life everlasting. The TREE is always with us. ( Scott Erickson) Honest Advent.
Scott Erickson Art
We put up trees and decorate trees in our yards for Christmas. When you see a Christmas tree be reminded of God’s healing, hope and the PROMISE of EMMANUEL…GOD WITH US!
BIG TREE last Christmas
JUST A REMINDER: When Rob and I both worked on a church staff, at two different churches, we often had a half decorated or even an undecorated tree at this point in the season. We just didn’t have the bandwidth to do all the church things required, and school parties and community events AND have the house the way we’d hoped. So this is our annual reminder that CHRISTMAS IS A SEASON! We are still in ADVENT and Christmas doesn’t begin til Christmas Day and runs until January 6th, Epiphany! So you have lots of time to celebrate and get the things done that are still on your list. With the way the postal service is going both here and in Canada, I think Epiphany presents are totally in order this year! Epiphany is the celebration of the Magi bringing gifts to Jesus and the LIGHT coming to the entire world, not just the Jewish nation. So honor this church calendar this year and celebrate Christmas for the real 12 days of Christmas that fall after the 25th! Give yourself permission to bake the cookies or share a meal with friends, AFTER the 25th! Keep listening to Christmas music, take the time to watch your favorite Christmas movie that you haven’t had time to see. When I lived in Seattle, January was so grey and dreary, that I would leave up my decorations replacing Santas with snowmen and refreshing the greenery from our yard. And leaving up the Christmas lights a little longer brightens everyone’s day!
Merry Christmas from me and the grinch
Let the Christmas Tree remind you of the NEW things Jesus wants to do in your life even from what feels like a dead tree stump! AMEN and Happy Christmas!
by Laurie Klein
Once upon a yard, I collected maple samaras. Ladybugs. Pea-sized mystery-spheres I found under shrubs — until Dad explained bunny droppings.
To this day, I still watch for meaning amid the miniscule.
Friends, here we are again, between Noels, past and pending. I’ve been reading about creatures, even tiny ones, that might have shared that long-ago Holy Night.
But little things are a mixed bag.
For instance: Years ago, after our daughter returned from a mission trip tormented by hatching head lice, Dreamer and I spent hours combing sticky nits from strand after strand of her thick hair.
Parental love to the rescue — liberating one cherished, vulnerable scalp.
Aesop said, “No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted.”
Do our grown children remember our past, painstaking efforts? To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, When little things afflict us, even small actions can console us.
Two sisters in Holland, arrested for rescuing Jews during WWII, were remanded to Ravensbrück concentration camp. In Barracks 28, the ten Boom girls slept on reeking pallets swarming with fleas. Their prayers of gratitude for being alive and together included repeated pleas for relief from the infestation.
The vermin, however, thrived.
And those blood-sucking parasites? Turns out, they repelled sadistic prison guards. No inspections. No beatings. No rapes.
Compassion to the rescue — paradoxically — via pestilence.
So, consider the likelihood of itch mites infesting Bethlehem straw: Some types bite; others burrow beneath the skin and lay eggs, causing a contagious, festering rash.
Did they forgo their nature and leave baby Jesus in peace? Oh, I hope so! And if not, do mites possess any redeeming qualities?
I Google . . . and find:
no crucial link in the food chain
no rare source of protein
no secret component to help cure disease
And yet. The utterly despised were granted proximity to Emmanuel, God with us. Compassionate, cherishing Love vulnerably offered to all creation — no matter how repellent or negligible.
Sometimes, it really is the little things. Head lice, fleas, itch mites — one Creator, three ordeals. Head-scratchers, all. Like the teachings of Jesus: If you want to be first, embrace being last. Find yourself by losing yourself.
Truth nips: It gets under our skin and bides its time, hatching later perhaps, as revelation.
Merciful, mysterious God, thank you for your enduring forbearance and endless largesse — embodied for us through, and in spite of, so many little things.
Friend, where might a dash of compassion take you next?
“Anyone who thinks they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room.” —The Dalai Lama
Flea story here
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
The Church’s Liturgy of the Hours, Evening Prayer, also know as Vespers, always includes the Magnificat. Each day, the Magnificat is preceded by a short verse or “antiphon” that links the prayer to the feast of the day or the season of the year. In the last seven days of Advent (December 17-24), the antiphons before the Magnificat are very special. Each begins with the exclamation “O” and ends with a plea for the Messiah to come. As Christmas approaches the cry becomes increasingly urgent. The symbols around the circumference of the image above are designed from the traditional images for the O Antiphons. In past years, I attended the O Antiphon service at St Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle. It was a very moving experience.
It is in the Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” that most of us are introduced to the seven traditional “O Antiphons”. However the seven traditional “O Antiphons” are actually more than a thousand years old. They have long been used at the very end of Advent (Dec. 17-23) Each Antiphon highlights a different title of the Messiah and also refers to the prophecy of Isaiah foretelling the coming of the Messiah. The great “O Antiphons” became very popular in the Middle Ages when it became traditional to ring the great bells of the church each evening as they were being sung. If you are unable to attend an O Antiphon service, you might like to watch this series of videos which go through each of the daily O antiphons. You might also like to download this O Antiphon Prayer Companion to help guide you through your exploration of these important prayers.
At most churches there is a lot happening the week. Many churches have realized that Festivals of Carols, celebrations of Christmas, and children’s pageants do not meet everyone’s needs however. For those who have lost loved ones like I have, lost a job, or home or are struggling financially or with illness this season is anything but cheerful. To fill this gap, churches offer a Blue Christmas service, a Service of Solace or Longest Night. People who are not having a very merry Christmas, along with friends who support them, are invited to come and sit with one another in a liturgy that speaks of the love of God for the grieving. This post, has a number of resources and links for Blue Christmas services that you might like to explore. I am very much looking forward to our Blue Christmas celebration at church as it gives me a chance to grieve not only my brother’s passing but also the death of so many around the world from the violence of war and climate change.
In my Meditation Monday – Stable Or Home Why Does it Matter this week I explained my contention that Jesus was not born in a stable but in a family home. I believe that where we think he was born really affects who we are willing to welcome into our lives and our homes and how we follow Christ in our own lives.
My spiritual practice on Friday was an Advent Labyrinth, a wonderful practice for this season. I also talked about Advent spirals which can provide a great alternative. I have also posted 2 beautiful Advent poems as notes on Substack that I think you might enjoy. One by Jan Richardson and one by Ana Lisa De Jong
On Godspacelight, in her post Freerange Friday – Receive the Gift. Lilly Lewin relates how she returned home from a trip to England last week with a flooded kitchen and her house is still in a mess, so she is giving herself the gift of a slow Christmas. Carol Dixon shared a second post on Rememberings one that is very appropriate as we lament the sorrows of the past year.
What is your favourite event of this last week before Christmas? In what way does it make the coming of Christ special for you?
On this long dark night,
we await the coming of Christ.
We long for the light of his presence,
With us, around us and in us.
When our souls are deeply troubled,
and our hearts break with the weight of sorrow,
may our grief be seasoned with love,
and our sorrow be buoyed by hope.
In our times of God-forsakenness and estrangement,
May we gaze on the innocent One,
made perfect through suffering.
and see in him our vulnerable God,
who saves in weakness and pain.
May our suffering empty us of pride,
and lead us to true joy
our only security,
in Christ in whom we see
the infinite depths of God’s grace and love.
by David Pott
Outside Salisbury Cathedral there is a striking statue showing Mary striding purposely away from the cathedral towards the city. The statue by Elisabeth Frink is called Walking Madonna. When we reflect on the many portrayals of Mary over the centuries, what comes to mind most often is a sitting Mary with Jesus on her knee or her sitting on a donkey, arriving in Bethlehem or on the flight to Egypt. There are also paintings of her standing by the cross, but I can’t recall images of Mary walking.
The first time we hear about Mary walking is in Luke 1:39 where we are told that Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea to go and share her special news with her cousin Elizabeth. The Greek verb used is the same as the one used of the shepherds hurrying to the manger in the next chapter and certainly implies fast walking and maybe even some running! She probably walked around 100 miles and the town Elizabeth and Zechariah most probably lived in was just over 800 metres high. It is clear that God chose a very fit and agile teenager to carry and then bear his son into the world!
Although there is no mention in the Bible of a donkey in connection with the nativity, in those images we are so familiar with, Mary is invariably sitting on that donkey and it’s Joseph doing the walking! So is it possible that Mary could have walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem? It’s a distance of about 90 miles and people in general walked greater distances than we do today. I don’t think it would have taken them more than a week. I suspect that Mary was a vigorous young teenager and many women feel quite a surge of energy in the last days before giving birth and clean the house from top to bottom!
If Joseph and Mary did have a donkey with them it’s quite likely it would have been used to carry their belongings. In this article https://petshun.com/article/do- donkeys-like-being-ridden, it mentions that “most donkeys do not naturally enjoy being ridden and may find it uncomfortable or stressful.” Of course many are trained to carry people, but they are better suited to carrying evenly weighted packs on their flanks. Another factor is that bumping along on a donkey’s back was probably less comfortable for Mary than walking.
It’s likely that the flight to Egypt was months after Jesus was born and she would be fit to walk the 150 to 200 miles to Egypt. I remember how well my daughter Katie walked on the 180 mile Thames Path Prayer Walk in 1996 carrying eight week old Esther! After a few years in exile, the longest journey was from Egypt back to Nazareth and I reckon that was at least 300 miles as they had to avoid Judea to get there. That would have been great practice for young Jesus who of course became the great walking rabbi who invited people to follow him. The Greek word for follow in the New Testament (ἀκολουθέω akoloutheó) means “to be in the same path with” and those first disciples responded in a literal fashion by walking after him. Maybe the stirrings of the walking Jesus were happening in Mary’s womb on that memorable walk to Bethlehem?
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