Advent......Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. It celebrates the anticipation and the waiting over the centuries in the past for the coming of the Christ child to save our world. It also celebrates the waiting and anticipation of the second coming of our Savior. I love Advent in the church.
So today our church was busy decorating, getting some of the Christmas decorations up in the sanctuary and the fellowship hall in anticipation of the season. We were working together on several projects; everyone running around getting their part done. It was snowing out. Jon walked through the front door of the church. He and two other men had been decorating the huge outside Engelmann Spruce with lights. He had on his stocking cap and his heavy winter coat. He was covered in snow! I just had to laugh!
"Did you get the lights on!?" I was just like a little child! He told me that they had accomplished the task. So of course I ran out the door to see. When I opened the doors of the church it was a snowy, Christmassy wonderland. Snow was swirling and flying about. It was cold and the world seemed transformed in its new snow. Jon plugged in the lights so that I could see the tree. Of course the tree had snow on the branches enhancing the lights. I was filled with joy and I felt Advent stirring in my heart!
"Rejoice, rejoice Emanuel, shall come to thee O Israel!" My prayer is that I always watch and wait with anticipation like a child for the coming of our Messiah in my heart and in our world!

Great cloud of witnesses.......In the early hours of this morning, my sister-in-law's mother, Mary, went to her eternal home. It is a great loss for Monica and the family because we lost Megan not quite two years ago. But Mary left with us a great hope in her last hours.
AB, my brother, said that she kept saying I love Jesus, Jesus loves me and I love my Mama. At one point she said that she saw the people. Monica asked if they were saints and she said yes. Off and on she spoke in a Heavenly language. Then in the dark morning hours she gently stepped from this world to the eternal world.
We who love Hebrews in the Bible, know that the writer speaks of the "great cloud of witnesses." The writer uses the analogy of the Christian running a race to finish the course here on earth and that we are cheered on by this cloud of witnesses. He goes on to explain that these witnesses are the saints who have gone on before us. I believe that Saint Mary saw this crowd and has now joined them. So it is my prayer that I will finish the race here in this earthly realm and will hear Saint Mary along with the other witnesses cheering me on and welcoming me to the finish line which will be my true "forever" home!
Let us not forget that we truly are just passing through this earthly place. It is not our home. Our home has always meant to be with Jesus. Let Saint Mary's final day here among us be hope to us in what she spoke and in what she saw. Christian let us "comfort one another with these words....."

Back in Marble......this afternoon one of our younger churchgoers had a Birthday party in the fellowship hall of the church. They were running around the church laughing and playing games of imagination and having the time of their lives. The parents of the birthday boy planed original games and crafts. The fellowship hall was filled with laughter and Joy!
We live at the end of the road here in Marble. There are no McDonalds or arcade pizza places to have celebrations. We have no grocery stores or even a gas station. We do have the glory and majesty of God's creation, our small historical church, our small charter school and children who still enjoy games that are formed from their own ripe imaginations. There is Marble's heartbeat, a community church, a community school and children that still run and play freely in the great outdoors!
"......Suffer the little children to come unto me. For such is the kingdom of Heaven..." Jesus Christ.