by Terri Main
Cindy Ella Marquez stared at the computer screen. Her eyes flicked down the lines of code searching for that one line, expression, or typo that keeps crashing the program. She is so close. If she can debug the program, maybe she could convince Ms. Helstrom to present it at TechAngel Con. But she had to work fast. The conference was just a week away.
It’s Christmas Eve.
In spite of so many Christmas songs that celebrate how this is the “most wonderful time of the year,” it is, for many people in fact, one of the most terrible times of the year. Good feelings are harder to come by than you might think. Feelings of want, of loss, and of failed expectations run deeper at this time than most other times when day-to-day living has a way of covering them up. And because Christmas is such an important family time, all those feelings of being around those who know us best, and those who think they know us but don’t, are heightened.
by David French
Opinion Columnist: The New York Times
I am republishing this article as a Catch because I believe we all should read it and take it to heart. If I were to re-title this article, I would name it “The Upside-down Kingdom of God.” It is also a fitting reflection at this time of year on the meaning of the birth and life of Christ. David French is a regular columnist with the New York Times and an outspoken Christian.
Here’s a question I hear everywhere I go, including from fellow Christians: Why are so many Christians so cruel?
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard someone say something like: I’ve experienced blowback in the secular world, but nothing prepared me for church hate. Christian believers can be especially angry and even sometimes vicious.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men!
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
What unexpected words to use for the Christmas Eve message of the angels. What is wild and sweet about the birth of Christ — the coming of the savior? Plenty.
It was three o’clock in the morning and a bitter, January wind was blowing hard off a frozen Lake Michigan. No one should have been out at this time in this weather, but I was. I was bundled up against the elements because I couldn’t stay in my room any longer. It was the end of the first semester of my senior year in college, and I was cramming for a final in my major field of study. I was not ready. I had whole books yet to read to be ready for this test.
In the town of Bethlehem
A king and ruler, child was born
Not too many people noticed
Just some shepherds on their farm
Plus a few hundred thousand angels
Breaking the heavens with their song
And the rocks and the mountains joined them
For their time had come
– from “Angels’ Song” by John Fischer
It’s Hospitality Night in December. That means our little town swings into Christmas mode tonight in a big way. At 5:00 p.m. the main street in the center of town will be blocked off and stages will be set up, tables in most of the shops will be stocked with wine, cheese, hot cocoa and other treats, and Santa’s house will be brought in for his arrival. Then, in the following couple of hours, choirs will sing, bands will play, speeches will be made, the big tree in front of Town Hall will be lit, and Santa will ride into town on a vintage 1920s fire truck blaring its horn, and set up shop in his house, ready to meet with the children already lined up and waiting to see him.
I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die,
For poor orn’ry people like you and like I,
I wonder as I wander … out under the sky.
I sometimes think that wonder is like an endangered species – we don’t have enough of it and are in danger of losing it altogether. You lose wonder when you try to explain everything. Wonder is wasted in seminars, and “how-to” books, and manuals for living, and steps to a more victorious Christian life.
Away in a manger no crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head
The stars in the sky look down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay
What if God was one of us? What would that mean?
It would mean that God had two little feet and ten little toes. It would mean He played with those toes and realized they were His.
As the saying goes, There is a method to our madness. We skipped over Catches last week because we have been working on a subject neither of us have dealt with before. We hope it will be worth the wait as we are excited to bring you the results of our work in a new series of Catches and podcasts. Today’s Catch reminds us of the preeminence of the heart.
Here is something you can know about every human being regardless of faith, religion, or none, even if they say something to the contrary: They are searching for God.
John Fischer The Catch 