O Come Let Us Adore Him
Our family tradition revolved around the music of the Christmas. We sang it at church, at school in the special Christmas program, and all around the house.
I took piano lessons so I learned to play all the Christmas carols. I was in chorus in school so I learned to sing all the Christmas carols, at least the alto part. Of course, to learn the alto you have to hear and learn the melody of the song.
The songs made up of sounds and words are the songs of the birth of Christ. They were written by men, empowered by the Holy Spirit, for people to sing.
We sing, “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, ….Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born.” What a proclamation of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
We sing, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” meaning Glory to God in the highest, and we are, in fact, giving God the highest praise.
We sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King,” and we are joining with the angels who sang to the shepherds on the hillside that night.
“O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels! O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”
Let me translate that into Okie English from Old English.
O come, all ye faithful. That means “Everyone who is full of faith in Christ Jesus, you come to Bethlehem. Come and see Him, the one who was born as the King of angels.”
O come, let us adore Him, let us love Him, let us sing give the glory and honor and praise to Christ the Lord, Savior, King of kings and Lord of lords, the majestic God of all creation.
O come, let us adore Him, let us praise Him, let us magnify His Holy Name, Jesus Christ the Lord.
Word Pictures
The last time Mama took a picture was using my iPhone camera to take a picture of me after I had taken a picture of her. Mom’s uncle gave her a box camera when she was 13 years old and she still had all of those pictures when she died.
When she was about 85 years old, she quit taking pictures. In fact, even before then, she often told us girls to take the pictures for her. I bought her at least two cameras that she gave back to me. Both were point-and-click 35mm film cameras that took great pictures, but she just “passed the torch” on to us.
I’ve been looking through lots of old pictures the last few months. I have most of her pictures, and every time I come home from her house, I bring more pictures. My dining table is full of shoe boxes and plastic bags full of photos.
Mom had one pet peeve. If she turned a photo over, she expected the names to be written on the back. And now I am so glad she did that, especially if the photo is someone I don’t know.
I have often wondered why our family is so attached to photos, but I’ve decided it’s because photos are memory joggers.
The authors of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—drew word pictures of the events in Jesus’ life. They were able to show us, in words, the way Jesus lived His life, from birth till death, involving the plan God laid out for our salvation. Even those Old Testament writers used word pictures to reveal God’s plans to us.
God knew that we would grow forgetful about the things in our life that were vitally important for us, so He made sure that those things were revealed to us in His word, and then He told us how to remember, since we couldn’t take a photograph of them.
“Always remember what is written in that book of law. Speak about that book and study it day and night. Then you can be sure to obey what is written there. If you do this, you will be wise and successful in everything you do.” Joshua 1:8 ERV.
The Best Thing
Lot’s Wife
She isn’t mentioned in Genesis until after Abram and Lot went their separate ways because they each had so many cattle that they were having a hard time feeding them all. Abram gave Lot his choice of the land and Lot chose the Jordan Valley, because it was well watered. So Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.
The next time we hear of Lot he had been taken captive by some foreign kings and Abram had to rescue him. But he went right back to Sodom because when we next read of him, Lot is there at the city gate, when the angels of the Lord show up.
By this time, Lot is married and has two virgin daughters and two sons-in-law who were engaged to the daughters. He must have married a woman from Sodom.
She was probably born in Sodom. Her mother and father, brothers and sisters, all her earthly possessions, were there in Sodom. I can hear her now. “Why are you making me leave my family? What about my mother’s china and crystal, and the embroidered tapestries that hang in my home? What about my lovely garden with roses and sweet vegetables?”
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?“ Mark 8:36 NIV.
She loved it all too much. She paid with her life.
No Monsters
This is the time of year that thoughts turn to monsters. For some people, Halloween is their favorite time of year. They love to decorate their house with fall leaves and pumpkins, fake spider webs and black paper bats. They set out bowls of candy for the children who come trick-or-treating.
I always have candy to give out and delight in seeing the trick-or-treaters in their costumes. When my children were little, my sister and I spent hours making costumes—angels, Superman, Chew Baca from Star Wars, Indian maidens, but we never dressed our kids up as monsters.
Sometimes when my grandsons used to spend the night, I had to tell them, “There are no monsters at Mimi’s house. No such things as monsters. No monsters under the bed, no monsters in the closet, and no monsters in the darkness.”
There are evil spirits and evil people in the world, but not monsters. And I pray away those evil spirits and evil people, by the power of the Holy (good) Spirit and the Word of God. Satan is no match for the goodness and power of God.
“No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.” Psalms 91:10-11 KJV.
My angels are always watching over me.