Angels bending near the earth

I enjoyed singing Christmas carols so much this year.

I decided my favourite one is It Came upon a Midnight Clear ... "that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold..."

Singing it, I had a picture of a massive angel, hovering over the world, head bent down towards it, seeing and mourning at the wrongdoing and sorrow, but also full of peace that all will be well. Peace that God is in control. Knowing that God sees all, but believing that He also knows the bigger picture, and that there will be justice, and recompense, and a setting right, in the end.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

These pictures are artwork to illustrate this same carol, by Erik Christenson, taken from his blog - I hope he would not mind. I love them.

This photo is of a tomb in the Protestant cemetery in Rome. I resonate with it because it shows how God and the angels grieve with us, even whilst knowing more than us. 

Because we live in a fallen world, that needs the God who came at Christmas, and who will come again.

2012 Best Reads

As I really love finding out what other people have read and getting their book recommendations, I thought I'd add my own list of 2012 best reads -  although I have written about a few of the books already, so I won't say much about each one here.

To make it easier for me (!) I'm going to do categories. 

Africa books: Blood River by Tim Butcher. The author is a journalist, who travels by motorbike, foot and canoe across Congo, including a long stretch on the Congo River. He writes so evocatively about Congo, and respectfully about the people he met and who helped him. And a fascinating history, without getting boring, once. 

Non-fiction: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. This book is so so interesting! It is the story of a black American woman who died of a very virulent form of cancer, and cells from her tumour were removed and reproduced successfully (which was a first) in the lab - and then used and its descendants used in many major steps forward in cancer cures and discoveries, right up to the present - ie for over fifty years. The book also tracks the story of the Lacks family, who whilst knowing the impact of Henrietta's cells on medical science, have lived in relative poverty. It makes for a really good read, on several levels.

Christian books: Honestly, I don't read many "Christian books"... ahem. But this one, I loved, and I have gone on about it quite a bit so I won't again here: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

Historical Fiction: This is my favourite genre and I have read loads. But my favourite of the year was Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. The main character is Thomas Cromwell, who rose up through the court of Henry VIII, and the book is mainly about his perspective on the rise of Ann Boleyn up until her marriage to Henry. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, Bringing Up The Bodies. Wolf Hall is clever and quite funny, and with lots of historical detail and great character development - a bit slow - but I loved it.

Other fiction: The Fear Index by Robert Harris. This is a little bit future dystopia/ science fictiony, which I also seem to enjoy for some bizarre reason. Why I like reading about the disasters we are heading towards beats me. Maybe because I dislike the unknown so much, this makes me feel as though I have a glimpse of where we might be going, and how humans will cope with it, at least. Anyway, this one is about a company which runs entirely without paper, and how they develop a process to predict the markets and so manipulate them, and how the computers making this happen become more clever than anyone ever expected... it is a very good read.

Another kind of fiction: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. This is an epic book that tells the story of the childhood and young adulthood of Edgar Sawtelle. His family are breeders of a unique type of dog, and much of the book centres around the relationship between humans and dogs. I must say, until I became a dog-lover, thanks to Frodo (!), I could not read this book. I was given it ages ago, and I tried, twice. But once I understood how a dog and a person can bond, I loved reading it. It is based on the story of Hamlet, so, yes there is a ghost, and intrigue, and a brother, and rivalry, and Edgar has to leave home and trek through the wilderness... The ending is dramatic and poignant and satisfying all at once. It has a slow beginning, but it is worth persevering as it becomes a very worthwhile, even a wonderful, read.

I have read lots of other good ones, including the first couple of the Corduoroy Mansions series by Alexander McCall Smith, which I had missed before - but they were as enjoyable as all his others -  funny and gentle.

I am always glad of recommendations, so please let me know of any books you think I'd like. or that you have relished. (Thanks Gwyn for writing about yours, which gave me the idea to do the same.)

Joy to.... us!

As you know, I have been on a quest (oh yes, good word), for joy, and peace. I think I have been asking God for those two things, for some years. I feel as though I used to have more of them. As a student I had a reputation for laughing a lot. More than other people. If you have only got to know me since I was older you probably wouldn't even believe that. I think I thought when my thyroid was fixed, my laughing would come back - some of you might remember me talking about that. It did some, but not as much as before - but then, I had young children and a husband and a mortgage and a house that flooded and lived in a place with power cuts and heat and bad roads... and was just less carefree, I suppose. I guess partly, that is just Life.

But part of what prompted me to start writing the list of a thousand gifts, was because I had a conversation with a friend, about how Jonah could find peace even in the stomach of the fish, and so how could I stop getting buffeted and blown around emotionally by my circumstances - and her answer was, to be thankful. Soon after that I read the book One Thousand Gifts, which, among other things said, that to be thankful is the key to joy. So, I started writing my list, and I also started praying for God to place his hedge of protection around me as he had done for Job (at the very beginning of the book) - and I began to feel a difference...

I do feel more peaceful these days, and happy too. But isn't it typical how, on a morning when you are driving along to have lunch with a friend, humming carols, on holiday for the Christmas period now, actually feeling JOY-ful - on that morning, I drove past my turning on the motorway, had to drive about 20 miles out of my way, finally got back on track and followed the Google Maps directions, to find myself on a different Ducie Road - several miles from the one my friends live on, lost, hungry, annoyed, and seething. Ugh.

Now, I heard a very good thing yesterday at work from one of my friends there, who passed on a tip from her training at Hillsong. She said, If you feel overwhelmed and grumpy, it is most likely because you are either tired, or hungry. So try solving those problems first. Great tip. And once I did get to my destination, and had some lunch,  the negative feelings evaporated completely and then I kind of wished I hadn't rung Dan and had a good grumble when I was lost. (Perhaps another tip should be, when you feel overwhelmed and grumpy, don't ring someone.)

I loved the video that went along with the song, "Mary Did You Know" that I posted on here yesterday, because it showed Jesus living so joyfully. At Christmas we often seem to be reminded that Jesus was born among us, born to die. But this video reminded me so strongly that Jesus was also born to live. And he lived joyfully, it seems. Hmm. Great!

Last night at Abigail's wonderful carol service in Gloucester Cathedral, the choir sang Benjamin Britten's song (which was based on some 15th century words) "This Little Babe" - which is amazing. But the last two lines struck me the most:
"If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this heavenly Boy!"

Another great tip for joyful living!

Celebrating Jesus, Born to Live

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Last year I didn't give much thought to Christmas ahead of time, and it just kind of happened to me.

But this year, I am LOVING the build-up to Christmas. We were given a beautiful Christmas tree and we have decorated it and the whole house. I've already done our Christmas cards, sent off a couple of presents, bought stuff for the children's stockings and for Dan's stocking. We've invited people for a carol-singing evening next Saturday... I've even bought most of the food for Christmas lunch. Now what shall I do?!!

OK I haven't actually done all that much reflecting and repenting yet... maybe I should make some time for that.

We have been given the most lovely gift this year. On 1st December, Alex opened the door to go out and said, "Mum, why's there a chicken outside the door?" "A chicken? A live one?" "No, a plucked one." Sure enough, there was an oven-ready chicken on the doorstep, along with a branch on which were hanging two pears. And a note that said, "On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..."

Then every day after that we have been given another gift in keeping with the song. Day two - two bottles of Dove handsoap with turtle pictures stuck on them. Day three - three packs of chicken kiev. Day four - a CD of a four girl band, Little Mix. Day five - a bag with five bars of chocolate in, and the olympic rings stuck on it in gold paper. Day six - six eggs. Day seven - seven boxes of Swan Vesta matches on a blue tissue "pond". Day eight - 8 bars of milk chocolate called "Milka". Day nine - nine narrow white candles with holders. Day ten - ten chocolate frogs. Day eleven - a set of piping nozzles for decorating a cake. Day twelve - we left out a card to say Thank You and Happy Christmas and some cookies in a box - and nothing came!!! Oh no!! Not sure what has happened...!

But the gifts have been so fun, creative, and generous. We have loved it. And, we have no idea who it is all from. We have asked various suspects, but everyone denies it. To me, as well as being so fun, it has been a sign to me of God's love - somebody being so kind and generous to us and not telling us even who they are, just wanting us to feel loved, I guess - and it has done exactly that for me. Whoever you are... Thank You So Much!!!

Missing Uganda...

I don't know whether it was seeing the Africa Children's Choir last week, which didn't make me cry but it did make me feel very nostalgic... or whether it was eating chapatis last night at our neighbour John Itumu's induction as vicar at St Catherines church... or because at the service, we sat with two Ugandan students and several African ladies, who ululated and clapped and carried on like Ugandans do at all the exciting points of the service (while the Brits sat formally and politely)...

But late in the evening, Alex came down looking very sad, and actually cried, for the first time since we left Uganda, saying that he missed Uganda and when could we go back?

And then, I dreamed a long dream about being in Mukono... I dreamed that Abby bartels was showing me round all the new buildings that had gone up since we left, and strangely there was an inlet from the sea at one part of the campus, and huge wild waves were crashing in and splashing high up against the cliffs. It was scary watching them.

And in the dream I clearly, truly felt the hot Ugandan sunshine pouring onto my arms and face, and I stopped and held out my arms and soaked it in, telling Abby that this was what I felt the lack of the most in England... Maybe the duvet was covering my face!

And when I woke up I felt a bit sad and confused for a while, until the new day took over.

This, after a year and a half.

Rescued

I had a Uganda moment yesterday.

Late morning, I parked outside a small supermarket, the Co-op, went in to buy a few necessaries, came out - and found my car leaning ominously down on its back haunch. Flat tyre.

My immediate thought was, "Oh bother, I'm not in Uganda any more!" Because the numerous times I had punctures in Uganda (and in Zimbabwe), somebody always appeared at the roadside, walked over and offered to help, fixed it in very short shrift, accepted some small amount of money and disappeared again. In fact, once, I phoned Dan from beside the Kampala Road at 7.45 am, because I had had a puncture and I had two small children in the back of the car, and even though I know HOW to change a wheel, I couldn't even lift a Prado wheel off the ground. Dan's reply - "Don't worry-  somebody will show up and help you soon." Shocking as this show of unspousely lack of concern might well seem... and much as your husbands would probably have jumped in a neighbour's car and rushed to the scene to rescue you... of course he was right, and the minute I hung up the phone, two men sloped up and offered to help me.

Once when I hit a huge pothole and got a flat tyre literally in the middle of nowhere, when we hadn't seen a mud hut nor a village for miles and miles and miles, when we had been driving along a dirt road passing nothing but dried brown grass and tall red anthills for hours, not even seeing a person on a bike for ever - even then, three men appeared from the bush and changed the wheel for us.

But in England, that does not happen. Here you have to change your own tyre... I opened the back and poked around under the flooring thing, and managed to locate the spare and the jack. I pulled out the jack a bit pathetically, thinking, "Oh dear, it's a long time since I did this..." (twenty years?)

But then, up came a cheery-looking chap with a beanie on. "You look like you're struggling with that!"
It was one of our Redcliffe students, Graham, who is even in Dan's tutor group! I felt like an angel had just appeared! I could have kissed him!

In ten minutes he had changed the wheel and I was back on the road...

Another one for my list!! A big one.

Eucharisteo, tatenda, sankyo, webale nyo, thank you

Since I read One Thousand Gifts and started writing a list of a thousand thank yous, I keep coming across other people mentioning or elaborating on the art of gratitude. It is always true that when you come upon something once, you hear it mentioned again three times soon after. Your ears are more open to hear it, maybe. Obviously Ann Voskamp's theme of gratitude changing everything and being the key to joy, is not a new one, although her book is amazing and does seem to have triggered a new "movement of gratitude" among many. (She was listed recently in Christianity Today as one of the fifty most influential women presently in North America.)

But the theme goes back all the way to... Jesus himself.

You can always of course go back to the ancient chorus, "Count your blessings, name them one by one..."

More personally, my friend Abby mentioned in a recent post entitled "Grateful", a quote from George Herbert:

“Thou that hast given so much to me give me one thing more, a grateful heart: not thankful when it pleaseth me, as if Thy blessings had spare days, but such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.”
A heart whose pulse may be Thy praise. Am I getting there?? I would love to be there.

I read in Maryjane's blog that the Women's Fellowship in Mukono recently had an evening on gratitude.

Another friend put this quote on facebook:
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."-- Melody Beattie

Then someone else whose blog I read, Simon Guillebaud, who works in Burundi, blogged recently on "Grateful to be Hungry" - explaining that he was thankful to be well enough to make a fast, which he hasn't been able to do for a while. He went on to list eleven things he is also grateful for and ended with the words, 

"Oh, the list could go on, but just writing those few ones down makes me feel even more grateful. Give it a go!"

I am on number 173 of my list, and I enjoy writing it and also looking back at what I've written. Abby and Alex keep wanting to look at it, and today Alex asked if he could make his own list!

These are a couple of the things I have listed recently: 

- SO thankful that our house in Longford narrowly escaped flooding last week - the water lapped on the other side of the road...

- Playing Scrabble tonight with Alex! (He was really good and didn't need help. Help!)

- A fun evening making chilli jam with friends

- Our warm winter duvet

- Abby and Alex having friends who invite them to fun things like football matches and the ski slope.

Well, you probably don't want to read all 173!! But, I am grateful for all the good things in our lives.....