What is Ash Wednesday? I grew up in the church and had often heard about the 40 days of Lent in which Christians would give up something for Lent, but I had never heard of Ash Wednesday until my last move when I joined my present church. The Ash Wednesday service serves as a reminder to the congregation that we came from dust and that we will return to dust. This message is personally delivered to each participant as they
The question I dread being asked the most every year has always been, “What did you get for Christmas?” As a child I was always embarrassed because my friends would rattle off a long list of things they got and I would try my best to make my single gift sound exciting too. Even as an adult I’ve never been privileged to receive extravagant Christmas gifts. Writing this post is embarrassing. Thankfully, I’m less likely to be asked what I got
The rushing and hubbub of Christmas is behind us and we are left with a major clean-up job. For most of the world, Christmas is over until next year. But on the Christian calendar, Christmas isn’t over for another twelve days culminating on January 6 representing the time the wise men brought their gifts to Jesus. I considered writing a twelve-day devotional book for reading over these twelve days, but I still haven’t written it. I also thought I would write
Advent is a special time of year as we each look forward to Christmas in our own ways. Some decorate with gusto while other shop ’til they drop. Some bake cookies, fruitcakes, and candy to give to friends. Some will use Advent calendars to count the days. Many attempt to do several or all of the above. I’m afraid that would wear me out! I believe it is beneficial to analyse our activities to see which honor the Christ
The Donkey’s First Christmas by S. T. Schroder is a fun tale about a stubborn donkey that carried baby Jesus’ mother to Bethlehem the night Jesus was born. The rebel donkey is easy to love because he is portrayed so well, both in the text and in the illustrations. On the cover the illustrations portray a winter scene with falling snow, though this is not carried out throughout the story. I am a little confused as to whether the illustrator intended
