He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Revelation 2:17 (ESV)
How do you feel about your name? Most of us don’t think a lot about our names. In our culture we don’t give a lot of significance to them. We may like or dislike the sound—or perhaps the association with someone who shares the name–but we don’t expect our name to influence the direction of our lives. Still, if someone calls us by name we appreciate being identified, especially if our name is remembered by someone we look up to. And while we take having a name for granted, not everyone enjoys that privilege.
Boy in Mongolia from Jean Andrianoff
In Mongolia, for example, some children are simply called “ner gui”, which basically means “no name”, in order to fool spirits that might try to harm them. Unnamed, your existence is questionable.
In Thailand, small children, along with people of low status, are addressed as “mouse” or “rat”. For children, it acts somewhat as a term of endearment, but for an adult the name is rather derogatory. It’s similar to our calling out, “Hey, you!” It implies the person called is of little worth, simply an anonymous entity to do our bidding, unworthy of bearing a name.
Early in the 20th century, a small girl was purchased by a Lao merchant to sell trinkets in the market. When she contracted leprosy, he gave her, unnamed, to a Swiss missionary. The first thing the missionary couple did, along with bathing and clothing her, was to give her a name. Though Souphine eventually ended up in a leprosy village, the sense of identity her time with the missionary family gave her enabled her to remain faithful to God in these difficult circumstances. The church she began there continues today, 80 years later.
We visited an Uzbek orphanage about 15 years ago where the work of a missionary couple had revolutionized the care these handicapped children received. One of the first things the couple did was to name each child. Under the previous Soviet-trained staff, each child was simply referred to as Idiot. Naming the children gave each a sense of identity and self-worth and compelled the staff to see each as a person with value.
One of the ways in which God conveys our significance to Him is by calling us by name. He writes each name in His Book of Life, and even has a new name waiting for each of us. Though billions of people have lived, each of us is unique and precious to God. It’s not hard to imagine God coming up with that many names when we realize He has named each star in the vast universe. (Psalm 147:4)
Mine is not a name widely known. Neither my president, nor my state representative, nor even the mayor of our small town knows it. But the King of King and Lord of Lords of the whole universe not only knows me, I am significant enough to Him to have chosen for me a name known only to the two of us. This thought comforts me that I am known, and I am loved.
By John Birch —
Attune our ears to hear
your gentle whisper
through every moment
of this precious day.
by Christine Sine
Last week at our community meeting we made Advent jars, and filled them with ideas from our downloadable Advent in a Jar leaflet in preparation for the season.
Advent already you may exclaim. It doesn’t begin until December 2nd this year. Or you may ask: what on earth is Advent?
So lets start with a quick introduction or a refresher course for those who are familiar with the season.
Now that you understand about Advent let me confuse you a bit. I start celebrating Advent on the evening of November 15th – the beginning of Celtic Advent which starts on a fixed date 40 days before Christmas each year, mirroring the 40 days of Lent before Easter.
So now that you know what Advent is all about what are you going to do about it? This is such an important preparation for for our celebration of Christ’s birth and it is important to take time to find a focus and establish practices that help us fully enter into the season.
I suggest four steps (which I will talk about in more detail next week
- Pray
- Plan
- Prepare
- Practice
In this post you might think that I have jumped ahead to the “reaper” step. However creating my Advent jar was a great meditative exercise to encourage me to think about what I want to see happen in my life during the Advent season, so it has invited me to pray, plan and prepare all in the one exercise. And I have cut out enough ideas to practice from Celtic Advent to Christmas Day and still have a few left over.
This is also a fun activity to do with kids and provides a context in which to talk to them about Advent and the coming of Christ.
Advent in a jar downloadable pdf
Making an Advent Jar.
If you are not feeling very creative the simplest way to make your own Advent jar is to find a pint sized jar, cut out the first page of our downloadable leaflet using the “2 pages per sheet” setting place it and place it in the jar, like we show in the image above. This is a perfect size for holding the Advent ideas contained in the leaflet.
For those who want to make the creation of your Advent jar a fun and creative preparation for the season, you will need the following supplies:
Advent jar materials
- 1 pint or quart sized jar (we used Tassos olive jars from Costcos for this)
- Spray paint (we used Krylon metallic gold and silver)
- An empty cardboard box
- 1 roll self-adhesive Vinyl
- 1 pair of scissors
- Cookie cutter molds
- Self Adhesive stickers
- Ribbons for decoration
Use the cookie cutter molds
Use the cookie cutter mold to cut out a fun shape or several shapes on your vinyl roll. If you are particularly creative you might like to draw a shape of your own for this step.</span>
Stick the vinyl to the jar
Stick the vinyl shape(s) to your jar. Make sure they are pressed down firmly or the paint will run behind the vinyl.
Set up a box to spray your jar
Set up your box outside in a well ventilated area for spraying your jar – this helps avoid getting mess all over the place.
Turn the jar upside down in the box and spray it evenly. You might like to do this in two parts, allowing the paint to dry on one side then turning it around to spray the other.
Allow two hours for the jar to dry completely before the next step.
Decorate your jar
Remove the vinyl.
Decorate your jar with stickers.
Tie a ribbon around the top of the jar.
Cut out the Advent in a jar ideas,
Place them in the jar and enjoy.
by Lilly Lewin
We knew when we bought our house at the end of 2015, that someday, someone would build on the lot next to us. It was just a matter of time. When you live in a “boom town,” things get built, and lots don’t stay vacant very long. But our hope was that we would keep our sunset vista view. The vista was why I bought the house in the first place, (my husband bought the house because of the garage). Sadly, the builder constructing the house next door, didn’t take into consideration how his design would change our view. Right now, in our town, money is the motivating factor, not care for the land or concern for the neighbors or the neighborhood. It’s about square-footage more than design. Thankfully, the house next door was delayed all summer and the view didn’t get lost until the last of October. But the loss of the vista has been extremely depressing. I’ve been very sad about not being able to look out the windows and see the view I’d come to expect and love. It’s change, and I really don’t like this kind of change!
In the whole scheme of life, it’s not that tragic. It’s really a first world problem. I still have a nice house. I still love the location and I can still walk outside to see some of the view, and the sunset in the evening. As I was moaning and complaining to Jesus the other day, I had to face that he is using the construction next door to force me to look at myself. I too am under construction. I am having to process a lot of emotions and expectations, and I’ve had to ask some questions about my heart and my life.
Do I take into consideration the views of other people? Or just my own?
Do I care about my neighbors or just myself?
How do I BLOCK their view?
How am I blocking the way of others?
Do I BLOCK the view of others by my wanting my own way, or by seeking my own needs first, or by believing that my way is better?
How do I let GREED get in the way of living life for Jesus?
And what about Construction?
Construction is loud.
It’s messy.
It’s rarely on time.
It’s filled with delays due to weather, design or finances.
Often one cannot find enough skilled workers or ones with the skills needed for the job at hand.
The process of building is long and hard and requires planning.
If I’m honest, I am not always excited about planning.
I just want to “get it done”
I want the finished product, not the mess of process.
I’m asking “Lord what are you up to in all of this?”
What are you building in my life? What are you desiring to build in me in this next season? “
Do I need a fresh coat of paint or an entire remodel?
Do I need extra help for this season? Experts? New Tools?
How’s the foundation?
What new things do I need Jesus to build in my life right now?
What do I need him to construct so I have an even better VIEW of his love for me and his Kingdom?
So, maybe you are in a new season of life too.
Maybe you are facing a block in your view.
Perhaps the noise and mess of the process of change is getting to you.
Maybe you and I both need to take time to sit with the changes and grieve the loss of our view.
You might pick up a nail, a hammer or a piece of wood and let them be a symbols of new construction in your life.
Watch for new construction or building around your town or neighborhood.
What is God building in your life right now? Ask God to show you!
If you have blocks in your house, or even Legos, build with the blocks. As you build, talk to Jesus about the building and constructing process.
Ask Jesus to show you what he is longing to build into your heart in this next season.
Today we celebrate All Saints Day! We encourage you to also check out these great posts written a few years ago – One Protestant’s Reflection on All Saints Day by Kathy Hempel and All Saint’s Day: An Opportunity to Remember Every Day Saints by Lynne Baab.
Below is a beautiful poem written by Ana Lisa De Jong –
THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS
He who sits outside time
wraps us in light.
We, a globe suspended in the sky,
are circled by the saints.
We circle the centre
of our solar systems place,
in an ancient universe
growing every day.
Yet we are still firmly
and tenderly held.
Secured by laws of gravity,
and grace.
We, who sit inside time
live tied yet to the ground
He, outside us where all is clear,
reigns in community.
We cannot know,
but sometimes have the strangest view
of a world beyond our grasp.
We sense a smile, we feel the robes
of ones gone long before.
It does not matter if we are yet to know,
enough we feel their presence.
The love of those who hold us close
in the communion of heaven.
By Jan Blencowe —
All Hallows marks an important turn on the wheel of the year. From now until the winter solstice the darkness grows.
Halloween in ancient Celtic times was known as Samhain, (pronounced sow-en, with sow rhyming with cow). It is a word that comes from two old Irish words meaning summer’s end. It is the final harvest festival of the year when pumpkins, gourds, turnips, parsnips and squash are gathered, and animals were brought back from summer pastures to the safety of barns and stables.
By Jan Blencoe
In pre-Christian times Samhain was celebrated in Ireland with great gatherings of clans and tribes. In Medieval times there were games, and feasting to celebrate the end of the growing and harvesting seasons. With the growing darkness there were stories of faerie folk, and goblins making mischief in the dark. Stories that echoed more ancient and more primitive fears.
Samhain’s association with death didn’t emerge until the church instituted the feast of All Saints on November 1, in the ninth century, and the the Feast of All Souls on November 2 in 998 AD. This is when Samhain became known as All Hallow’s Eve, the night before the feast of All Saints Day. From that point on there was a merging and mingling of celebrations around the final harvest festival, the preparations for winter, and the remembrance of the dead.
This is the time during the year when our fears of change, death, and darkness find a voice.
Why embrace a time for working with our deepest fears? Why not neutralize the fears of Halloween by designating it a children’s holiday, or skip right over it and and fast forward to All Saints and the comforting knowledge that a great cloud of witnesses has tread the path of death and entered into new life before you, and now upholds you in prayer.
By Jan Blencoe
To only focus on what comforts and soothes you is to miss the opportunity to deepen and expand your capacity to live and fully embrace all of life. It is in the dark that you begin to better understand the mysteries of life and death and to integrate with compassion those parts of yourself that seem undesirable and dark, parts that we call shadow.
Beyond the universal fears of change, death and darkness there is always the fear that you are unworthy of love. If that fear is left to itself, the uncertainty of what death might bring grows more menacing.
Carl Jung wrote “one does not become enlightened by imaginary figures of light but by making the darkness conscious”. As you pass through the gateway of Halloween into the darker half of the year it is important to allow the darkness to become conscious and instruct you.
The saints of All Saints that we remember, might be better thought of as Halloween heroes and heroines. Before being swept up into the eternal light when they were released from the body, these saints were ordinary people, not imaginary figures of light. They faced some of the deepest, darkest fears that can be known. Rejection, betrayal,, ridicule, poverty, persecution, hunger, oppression, torture, captivity, temptations and weakness, the dark night of the soul and martyrdom. It was in the darkness of fears, and the darkness of their own shadow and doubts that they were transformed.
Halloween revels in what is scary. What scares us is precisely what we need to face. The fears, doubts, betrayals, abandonments, wounds, and disappointments of life scare us. Yet, within these difficult feelings is the creative opportunity to reshape them and mold them into something new that strengthens and supports the growth and development of your soul.
Before the light of All Saints and the quiet rest of winter, during this tumultuous, dark time in the year when fruit, nut and leaf drop to the ground embracing decay and death to ensure new life, make some space to sit with what you fear. Learn what the fear has to teach you and learn how to use those lessons as part of the great cycle of life and growth that you are held within during your time on this earth. Let your descent into this place of darkness be a conscious one, so that what falls away makes space for transformation and new life to emerge. This is the gift the season of All Hallow’s Eve brings to you.
by Mary Harwell Sayler from poetry book, Faces in a Crowd
See, that’s why I don’t like to get close to you!
When least expected, your expression jades,
and your eyes reveal partially concealed blades
hinting a dagger glint. “So?” you say,
calling me out with unanswerable questions
about what I mean by this or that. If I don’t
defend myself, another point quickly comes
on which to gouge me like a pumpkin. If I
protest, a sudden scramble of barbed wire
covers you like your very best shawl. But that’s
not all! I feel as though you want to see me
squirm – or kept in line with what you find
true or good or right for you — and yet,
ironically, I want that too. So I concede:
a trick to treat myself with cooling
quiet – a way to conserve my energy
for when we meet again on All Saints Day.
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