The world was dark. The silence between God and man was deafening. It had been going on for four hundred years.
Religious rituals, mind-numbing customs, and a sense of abandonment. The emperor even sought truth, because it seemed no where to be found.
This time, this was the right time. God came crashing into our world.
The world light up as angels filled the air. This was not a silent night. The silence between God and man was broken. The sound of music pierced the air as angels declared God's entrance into our world. Cries from the God-man gasping for his first breath sliced through the quiet of a stable. Religious rituals were shown to be futile. The customs were now given a meaning, and the world now knew of it's purpose. Truth had entered the world.
No amount of silly Christmas songs can do this situation justice. The night was not silent. Mary knew that her child was to be the Messiah, and there was no little drummer boy. There were the cries of an infant, the decelerations of an angel, and the applause of none.
All this. For what? To show us the light. To declare to a severely warped world that there was still hope. The world began with light. "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the ace of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light." and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness." The world was the same in those days. It was without form. It had no meaning. When God came to earth as a child, God declared "Let there be light" .............
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who
dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. "
Uhoh, better hide. Now that I'm off of school my mind is ready for some hearty meat spiritually/mentally. That means contemplative blogposts.Don't know how many of them will actually get published... but, hey doesn't matter.
Christmas is in like eight days, and I have to say that I have not felt very excited, joyful, etc. My emotions just aren't lining up like they usually do this time of year. Don't get me wrong, the excitement I get from the lights at night makes me sooooo happy that I want do the Snoopy dance. Christmas parties make me laugh and enjoy life... but I'm not talking just about the season.
I'm talking a little bit more about the reality of my Savior coming to earth. THAT hasn't quite hit me yet. Sometimes Christmas seems a little over-rated to me... I know, that sounds terrible... but to be honest, shouldn't we be thrilled the rest of the year? But. I understand that we're stupid humans and we forgot the realities of life a lot. Just like I am right now. So I thought, I'd post something Christmas-ie... I know you guys are probably overloaded on Christmas, but I kinda wanna hit the meat. Sometimes we get so overloaded on the candy in our stockings that the Christmas turkey doesn't sound good anymore. I know, weird way to think about it... but I think that's the way we get with Christ sometimes. So I wanna look at the meat of things.
Meaning of Christmas: God. Entering our world as a child. Too often I think his birth is glorified, so much that we miss the reality of it. This God, entered the world he created, and we messed up. The world which we rant about that our hands have wreaked havoc upon. This world where the cruelty we impose on our fellow humans is something we fall asleep with tears streaking our face---this is the world the God of the universe entered.
He entered this world as an infant, his parents waiting to see if he would take his first gasp of air. The God of the universe, that holds our lungs together, was born, gasping for breath, screaming into our darkness, crying out for life as he experienced oxygen for the 'first' time. He created the molecules that make-up oxygen, yet had to learn how to breathe it just like we do. When he was born, there was no fanfare. We too often forget that the angels didn't sing to Mary and Joseph. The angels declared a savior to the shepherds. The wisemen probably didn't come till he was a tad older, I've heard three... but I'm no historian.
After birthing a child for the first time, Mary wraps her infant in what she has. "Swaddling clothes" I think is often glorified as well... however, I've always had an image of Mary tearing the bottom of her tunic to wrap her child in. She had nothing else in my mind, but again, I'm no historian. I did go to the trouble of looking up "Swaddling Clothes" and even though wikepedia isn't the most reliable source, I found some interesting information. It's said that swaddling a child was very common, however it's been known to cause SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and DDH (Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip) basically it's a chronic dislocation of the hip.... So, I wouldn't be at all surprised if from being swaddled Jesus walked with a limp... it would fit in with the scripture from Isaiah saying;
"For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted withgrief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
I am by no means saying this is fact, but I AM saying that it's possible... in fact if you google "Swaddle" there are instructions on how to snuggly wrap your child without dislocating his hip.
So our Lord entered the world, the Lord that could at any moment cease to keep our hearts beating, the Lord that feeds all the animals in the forest was no incapable of taking care of himself. He had to rely on his parents to feed him, clothe him, and wash him. This BLOWS my mind. He was an infant, yet fully God. Was he aware of it at that time? I don't know... but you have to imagine.. as Mary, it's obvious she believed that this was the Christ. She had SOME inkling. (She DID know.. so stop singing that song please.Kthanx) that the child in her arms was going to rescue them, but I'm not sure she fully understood what that meant. Imagine feeding the infant that you believe to be God incarnate... a little intimidating, no?
But it was also her first child. She had never had a child before, what do you DO with them? "Am I worthy? Am I doing this right?" Probably ran through her mind a thousand times.
The Lord probably wasn't always treated fairly when it came to disicipline. ;) But even as an infant, I don't know... it just blows my mind. He came as a baby. A smelly, stinky, dirty, baby.
So today was really fun. ... and tiring, and I really am sick of Christmas music. OHHH and that dumb bass riff. Serriously. Plus the attempt to make it better by switching up a key. "OH LOOK. WE ARE GOOD MUSICIAN. WE PLAY TWO KEY. NO THREE CHORD FOR US. WE PLAY SAME CHORD HIGHER."
Okay. Yeah.. maybe I need sleep.
Tomorrow I gotta get up early again. (Yet I'm still up, why is that?) I'm teching for the highschoolers :)
Sad part.
I have no cyc lights.
THEY STOLE THEM FOR THE SWEETIES.
Cruelty.
tsktsk.
Which means I should probably get there double early to patch them.....
OOO Something else to talk about:
I want a bass amp like the one that I got to use today ^_^
It's probably worth more than my left eye. But I still want one. It makes the bass guitar rattle the room mwhahahahahahaha <--- laugh of musicianal joy.
I haven't gotten to do a whole lot of musical things since I started college. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I had actually stuck with the plans for Music Therapy. But the truth is, I'm too much of a coward when it comes to playing in front of people to actually go through with the idea.
Unfortunately I'm missing the oppurtunity to be a gaffer for the Raleigh Ringers Concert so that I can study for a math test.
Just one more reason to hate math I suppose.
The good news is, if I get a 60 on the test, I'll still pass the class... with two points to spare. So. Let's hope I get more than a sixty. This is my first time ever taking finals.
Plus, I can't wait to get back to enjoying my family. They've been complaining about me not being around. When I get home apparently I "Hide in your room." ... but they know it's cuz I have homework that I can't ignore :(
The other thing I can't wait to do is be able to call a friend and say "hey, wanna hang out?" and not have to think about how I have to get up in the morning and function and do homework and...
Yeah. So much for homeschoolers being unsocialized. WHAT IS THIS. WHY YOU HAVE THINGS CALLED SCHOOL DAY? WHY YOU NO HAVE FREE TIME? WHY YOU STILL NOT AS SMART AS US? DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
;)
-walks around in a jumper-
Best part of being a homeschooler? When someone asks you if you are unsocialized.
There are so many ways to answer this one.
"Why am I talking to you? I'm not allowed to talk to people. I'm sorry. Please stop talking to me. My parents will ground me and make me work the farm the whole week without help. THEY MIGHT EVEN KILL BESSIE. Great. Thanks for talking to me. Now my best friend is going to turn into a hamburger. MURDERER."
Then when they realize you're joking being like "yeah, pssht. We totally walk around in jumpers all day."
Then they look at you and say, "What's a jumper?"
.....
-facepalm-
I don't have a picture for you today. Instead I have a thought. Well, rather two thoughts... And maybe my thoughts are a little blunt. But I believe they are worth posting.
I've been reading a young friends facebook wall, and it just makes me want to cry. I guess I don't understand the point of young girls looking to intimacy with a guy for love. Why keep going back to something that just doesn't satisfy?
My other thought is this.... There's a difference between innocence and purity.
Innocence is something a young four year old girl has, sure she has a flesh that one day she's going to have to give to God, but she's naive, new, and innocent to the world. Innocence iss something that is admired, but something she loses as she gets older. Not because she has been evil, but because life has been evil to her. As she turns to 14, and even 24 .. she may still be a virgin, but she's no longer innocent. She's seen the reality's of life.
The thing about purity, is that it's a renewal of innocence. It doesn't mean that she doesn't know about the crudeness of life, instead she chooses not to be a part of it.
Purity is a CHOICE. Innocence is a STATE OF BEING
No matter what happens to a girl who's pure, she'll always be pure. Purity is something God provides her the ability to have.
Innocence--- the state of being completely oblivious to sin (and or the evils of the world)... can only be regained in heaven. See.. in the Garden, the thing lost was this "innocence". Once Eve at the fruit she had the knowledge of goodAND evil.
No one can handle that knowledge, and not sin, except God.
One day, purity won't be scorned, and innocence will not even be abnormal. But until then, I'm going to strive to be pure. No one can change that.
Alrighty my beloved stalke---er I mean, blogger friends. ;)
Now is the moment you've all been waiting for!!!
I AM PUTTING UP PICTURES.
I'm not putting them in any particular days order, because well, lets be
honest. You do the same show all week... the pictures get kind of
boring... so I'm going to put up the interesting pictures, and call it
good. Is that fair?
Good. Cuz I'm doing it anyways.
Our church has an amaaazzinggg bell choir. They're just fantastic.
This was my view every night. We had a hazer, and I was running spot. NOW. You tell me.. Would you be able to aim YOUR spotlight properly in that?!?!
I guess you could say you lost the forest for the trees.. .(or however that dumb saying goes)
This is our sound board. He's pretty. He's completely digital. I'm not 100% positive how many channels he has, but he's amazing.
AHHHHHHH I LIVE OFF THIS STUFF DURING PERFORMANCE WEEKS.
This is what you see as your setting up XD
We have this joke. See, okay... We had our church raided by dear this summer. NO LIE. So we made a joke on it during Christmas Sweet. We had the deer running through the building during the performance. It was great.
Dearest followers of my blog. I have failed you. I have not been able to post pictures, and missed taking a picture on Tuesday. HOWEVER. I have a TON of pictures that I'm intending to put up at some point in time... I've just been insanely swamped with school and Sweet.
In fact, I've run on so little sleep that I accidentally missed a quiz on Tuesday. :/ I serriously am debating not going back in the fall. But my parents say I'm just exhausted and after break I'll feel differently. My response? Maybe. I guess I just don't see the point when I could be doing an internship and accomplishing the same goals. But then again, if I really am planning on going to Full Sail... then I need school. But since I'm young for college anyways, taking a semester off to work.. probably isn't as terrible as it sounds. I have my whole LIFE ahead of me... I'm just tired of wasting it in a classroom all day, and when I get home, sitting on my butt to do homework. I can't sit still that long. I have to be *doing* something... S:LDKFHSDL:GH Anyways. That was my rant. I'll probably rant some more when I'm not so tired.... But I will get those pictures to you guys. .. .Just give me some patience :) Every time the Holidays roll around, I think of a line in a song by Switchfoot: "Stars looking at the planet, watching entropy and pain. Maybe start to wonder how the chaos in our lives could pass as sane." I'll leave with that. Because if I don't go to bed now, I'll try to wax eloquently and look back on it in the morning and think "wow, that's a caffeine post." Anyways. I WILL POST PICTURES SOON
