Gabriel's Message

 

One of the Sunday School teachers at my church will be out of town this Sunday, so I have been asked to teach the middle school aged children.  The lesson is to be about the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would be bringing the Savior into the world.  So many beautiful works of art representing this, it was hard to choose just one to show you here.  I have been given a "search-for-word" type puzzle for the children after we have read the scripture from Luke.   You know, I will make them do more than just a puzzle, right? I wish I could show them all the works of art and also, I want to make sure that they know this very old hymn, "Gabriel's Message", thought to be 13th or 14th century,  which was translated from the Basque by Sabine Baring-Gould, the Englishman who also wrote "Onward Christian Soldiers".  You may read about him here.

(And we may thank him for the Victorian image of the "wings as drifted snow".)

Many artists have this song on Youtube but my favorite was this one by King's College Choir from Cambridge.  

1. The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow his eyes as flame
"All hail" said he "thou lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady," Gloria!

2. "For know a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee,
Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold
Most highly favored lady," Gloria!

3. Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said,
"My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name."
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!

4. Of her, Emanuel, the Christ was born
In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say:
"Most highly favored lady," Gloria!

It has been suggested that the song "Let It Be" by the Beatles, could be associated with the Virgin Mary.  ("Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it be") Paul McCartney has always denied this (his mother's name was Mary), but the fact is that his words echo scripture very closely here.  It's okay, Paul, this is a very good book to borrow from!

⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”^[c]
29 But when she saw him,^[d] she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”

³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Christopher, Singer AND Writer!

 

 

Thanks for all of your nice comments about Christopher's singing! He truly is talented in many areas. I found this newsletter from C.'s first grade class and I wanted to show you what C. wrote. (Each month the class had a featured author.)  Christopher always loved books and he still does!  I hope we got him some Eric Carle books for his birthday that year. Our brilliant son!  He has always been a very gifted writer.  In his college journalism class, just last month he got the highest grade on an assignment and he was given the "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night" Award.  This was done in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek kind of way, but C. was pleased to receive it since he has always loved those words.  We have a slip of paper with those same words in his first grade handwriting that stayed on my fridge for many years... 

 

Also, may I show you something else?  I have a letter that C. wrote the following year, a letter that he wrote to Santa Claus.  Nothing startling about that, children write to Santa every year.  However, since Christopher wrote his return address underneath "To Santa Claus, North Pole", it was returned to us within a few days after he posted it.  I placed it inside my "Southern Living Christmas Book".  So, since 1997, I have held on to this letter and I HAVE NEVER OPENED IT.  Christopher says that since fifteen years have passed, then he thinks he will open it this year. (He can't remember at all what he wrote, so it will be as much as a surprise for him as it will be for us.) So...look out for a post about this and I will let you in on the letter to Santa from 1997! (See, and you thought I couldn't be exciting!) That is, if Christopher will allow me to have it on my blog! United States Mail is private property!  

Merry Christmas, Darling and Blue Christmas

As promised, here is the video of our son singing this past week.  At one point, you can hear the baby, Esme, squealing in the background and it makes Christopher smile.  Hope you like his Elvis impression!

I think he could be a good Elvis impersonator myself. What do you think? And I truly enjoyed hearing my son sing this...that is me beside my cousin, Chris, singing together at the end.  JOY!

"Still Support And Comfort Me"

 

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing.

Wilt Thou not regard my call? Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall—Lo! on Thee I cast my care;
Reach me out Thy gracious hand! While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand, dying, and behold, I live.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; rise to all eternity.

 

The same man who wrote the words to "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" wrote the words to "Jesu, Lover Of My Soul."...Charles Wesley.   Aled Jones is the singer in the video and this video is one that I have been listening to all week, and today there is a special poignancy to it for me.

 

 "Our hearts are broken"...President Obama.

 

He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.  Psalm 147:3     Quoted by President Obama in his speech to the country.

                                                                       

 

Arabia Mountain Trail/ Silent Night Video

 

 

Thanks to all who left best wishes to Christopher on my last post.  The arrangements were not ideal (in a department store with people talking, buggies banging around, bad sound system,etc. ) but he did a really good job!  As soon as we can work it it out, I will try to get a video or two on here for you.  In the meantime, it's hard to believe that we had this much color on the trees as of November 18th, which is when we took these photos at the Arabia Mountain Trail and Arabia Lake.  Hope you can see why we enjoy this area so much. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Okay! Here is Christopher singing "Silent Night".  Remember, not ideal circumstances, but I think you can tell he has a nice singing voice.    The nice lady singing with him is very good and she seemed to enjoy herself.  You can hear Richard saying "That's good!" at the end, and you can see me holding the little baby. (That is my cousin's baby, Esme. Remember the diaper cake I made for a baby shower back in March?  It was for this baby!)

 

Walking In The Air

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christopher will be SINGING tomorrow at a local department store. (Belk in Conyers, GA at 6PM. Come and see him if you can!)  Wish him luck if you can't come!  One of the songs that he plans to sing is "Walking In The Air".  It is from "The Snowman".  If you haven't seen it, please watch it, it is an animated TV show from the 80's, based on a book by Raymond Briggs. The music is by Howard Blake and both of them are English.

 

  Can you understand why I love this video that I found for you?  The singer is Aled Jones and I am familiar with him as a child singer but it looks as if he has kept singing all these years and has been the host of one of my favorite TV shows (when I lived there in 1985), which was Songs of Praise. Let me know what you think of this video which was on a morning TV show in England from 2007.  This is Aled as an adult singing with a duet with himself as a child. (Sounds like something from Dr. Who, but it is really beautiful.)
Once again, be thinking of my son singing tomorrow, he will be singing songs of praise too!

The Shawshank Redemption

 

 

I love books and I love movies.  A few, like "To Kill A Mockingbird" are just as good as the book. I very rarely say that about a movie but some films are done so very well that they do great justice to the written word. And after all, even if a film is not based upon a book, there is still a screenplay involved, words behind the images that we see.   One of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption" and when I first saw it years ago,  I realized that I already knew the story behind it.  It was based on a short story by Stephen King called " Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption".   If you haven't seen it, I really don't want to spoil it for you but it is a very good film and I highly recommend it.  I was very pleased recently when I discovered The Inkspots.  After spending a great deal of time listening to all that I could find by them, I realized that I knew one of their songs but I couldn't think where I had heard it. After some research, I found that it was in "The Shawshank Redemption"!  I found it for you here and I hope you like it as much as I do.  It is called "If I Didn't Care"...

 

Blue Orchids

There is a pivotal scene in the movie and it also involves some beautiful music by Mozart.  What an incredible scene!  It is one of my favorites!  And I must tell you that the ending of this movie is also one that I can still see in my mind's eye, it is that perfectly done. 

The photo of the blue orchids is one that Richard took for me when we stopped off at a store  yesterday.  Richard has a good eye for color, don't you think?