A CHRISTMAS STORY

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home.

A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet.

When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and could not go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It is warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and did not seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them.

The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. He went into the house and came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumbs trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.

"Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -- and one by one the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese -- blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he realized. As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood what Christmas was all about, why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:

"Thank You Jesus for coming in human form to show me the way out of the storm!"

By David L. Griffith

Thanks to Mark at Facebook and to Nij in the comments here for a shorter version.

TWO ELEPHANTS REUNITED AFTER MORE THAN 20 YEARS

Did your eyes stay dry as you watched the video? Mine didn't.

From britches1985, who posted the video:

Yes, they had horrific lives before retiring to The Elephant Sanctuary which is why they are so scarred and lame. It is indeed heartbreaking. Go to The Elephant Sanctuary and look up their stories. Jenny has sadly passed away since this video and so is in their In Memory section of Meet Our Elephants, Shirley is in the Asian Elephants section. (My emphasis)

The Elephant Sanctuary "operates on 2700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee. It costs $125,000 annually to provide sanctuary to one elephant and we want to rescue 100."

PRAYER FOR THE RIGHT USE OF TECHNOLOGY

For Our Facebook Group
By Josh Thomas

O God, thank you for new discoveries and technologies that strengthen our relationship with you by providing universal access in Word, song, art and prayer. Help us to use our Daily Office Facebook group, blogs and other internet tools and applications to glorify you and carry out your mission of justice, healing and peace, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you, Josh.

RICHES

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.

An angel hears his plea and appears to him. "Sorry, but you can't take your wealth with you." The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules just a little bit.

The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed.

Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, says, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!"

The man explains to St. Peter, however, that he has special permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checks and comes back saying, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through."

St. Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims: "You brought pavement?!!!"


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

"GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY" - LITTLE RICHARD

The video above, with good sound quality, shows a live performance by Richard for Muhammed Ali's 50th birthday. Richard is in his 50s, and he's still a fine performer.

The video below, with poorer sound quality, shows the young Richard with his incredible energy. Note that the audience is all white. Back in the day, blacks were allowed in the venues only if they were performing.



I heard the song on my Underground Garage radio station yesterday and today, so I figured someone was giving me a hint to post the video.

I dedicate the song to my grandniece, Miss Molly, who lives in Kansas City.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

If we believe in God Incarnate in Jesus Christ, that God came to be one with us as fully human with joys and sprrows just like ours, why is belief in the Virgin Birth a stumbling block for a good many Christians?

ACNA PARISH IN FORT WORTH WILL JOIN ROMAN CATHOLIC ORDINARIATE

From George Conger:

A Diocese of Fort Worth mission congregation will put to a vote of its members Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to enter into full communion with Rome through the Anglican Ordinariate.

On Dec 2, Bishop Jack Iker announced that the congregation of St Timothy’s Church in Fort Worth will hold a meeting on 11 Dec 2011 to discuss the petition of the vestry and its vicar, the Rev. Christopher Stainbrook, SSC to enter the ordinariate. The congregation will vote on the proposal the following Sunday.

Not all of the members of the Anglo-Catholic congregation are expected to support the decision to enter the Catholic Church, however. The 18 Dec 2011 vote will allow Bishop Iker the opportunity to gauge the degree of support the move has in the congregation, and permit him to plan for the pastoral and sacramental care of those not going over to Rome.

St Timothy's is presently part of the schismatic ACNA diocese in Fort Worth.

The photo from St Timothy's reminds me of my olden days in the pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church.

Godspeed to the folks at St Timothy's. In the comments at the church website are questions about property. As the property held by ACNA is still under litigation between the Episcopal Church and the schismatics, I doubt that the Roman Catholic Church will want to be involved with the court process, but we shall see.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link to George Conger's blog. H/T to Nicholas Knisely at The Lead for further information.

THE PARROT

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious, and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music, and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up, and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot, and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed the bird, and put him in the freezer.

For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, when the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

I hope my friend Cathy doesn't read this joke. Cathy, if you do, please don't blame me. Blame Doug.

A ROCKY ROAD AHEAD FOR AMIA?

An interesting post from George Conger via Jim Simons at Three Rivers Episcopal:

The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has denied speculation that its chairman, Bishop Chuck Murphy, has offered to step down in the wake its dispute with its parent church, the Province of Rwanda.

On 28 November 2011, a spokesman for the AMiA told The Church of England Newspaper that a report in the Christian Post that stated Bishop Murphy was going to retire was incomplete.

The resignation of AMiA Bishop Terrell Glenn coupled with a show of no confidence in Bishop Murphy over the planned reorganisation of the American church group by the Rwandan Church had led to speculation the American leader would step down. Sources in the AMiA told CEN they also had been briefed by senior leaders that Bishop Murphy was going to retire, however, the AMiA’s spokesman stated this was incorrect.

“While Bishop Murphy has indicated for quite some time that he plans to step down as Chairman of the Anglican Mission sometime around December 2013, he has not made any ‘formal announcement’ either internally or externally,” spokesman Cynthia Brust said.

Read the rest.

Somehow I doubted that the American bishops who placed themselves under the authority of African archbishops were likely to have an easy journey, and it appears that the road is, indeed, a bit rocky at the moment.

The story was first published in The Church of England Newspaper which requires a subscription to read the online version.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

Now there's another letter (pdf) to AMiA signed by all the Rawandan bishops, which seems rather ambiguous to me.

WHERE IS THE NEWS?

Tonight I kinda sorta watched/listened to Lawrence O'Donnell's 'news show', Last Word, and mostly did some stuff on my computer. Half the show (or so it seemed) was dedicated to an interview with Ginger White, the woman who claims she had a 14 year affair with Herman Cain. The story could have been covered in 2 minutes...okay...5 minutes, because it's about sex. Is there nothing else of interest happening in the world? Where is the news? Oh, that's right. I forgot. The news is on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with you know who.