"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointedme to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me tobind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedomfor the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaimthe year of the LORD's favorand the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."~fromISAIAH 61 Bible verse for this Blog
APOLOGY to READERS who followed a SEARCH to HERE & didn't find it
On July 18, 2017, I drafted almost 3000 blog posts that I had published since 2008 when I began blogging, rather than edit each one. So if you clicked here from somewhere else and ended up with the post unavailable or error, I am sorry but this is why. It'd be too much work for me to go back and fix them. There's an explanation on7/19/17as I'm still learning.
... as I shared last week with "The Sweetest Gift". Then, right after I posted that song, our local Christian radio station played this one, which fits a little better. Yet somehow Christmas fills me with many mixed emotions - joyful and sad, so I especially like the part in this song on the variety of 'tears' ...
"Tears of faithfulness, tears of hope, I cry tears of joy"
{tears of thanks too}
I guess by now you can tell that I am kind of in a season of melancholy for this time of the year (but I'm not really depressed) ... In years past, on my blog, I would share songs leading up to Christmas, a countdown to Christmas with carols or some of the new songs of the season. Perhaps doing this in past years allowed me to reminisce good times and the joy of Jesus, so sharing those songs was somewhat therapeutic, as I wrote last week that music usually 'does the trick', 'brings the magic' and fills the heart with melodies that soothe and help a heart to keep rhythm with the beat of the 'rum pa pum pum' of the 'little drummer boy' or 'the night wind to the little Lamb' so you get beyond the doldrums and enter into the peace and hope that Our Savior came to bring. And you can smile as a tear drop fills the corner of your eye with a misty memory of times gone by, and the ones that touched your life, as well as those who still do.
{sorry neither photo is very good}
Silly as it may be for some of you, I happen to be holding precious thoughts of a sweet fur baby that left us this year in August, so my tree has an ornament on top with a special silver frame holding a photo of Chiminito, then other photos of him are scattered here and there between the branches, and the twinkle of the lights (and nothing more). Chimi brought many twinkles and tinkles to my life. Yes, because in the 15 years that Chimi was here ... he touched me and he made me laugh (besides bringing 6 others into this world, 3 remaining), he was a simple, small delight of mine that God allowed in my life to teach me a few things, even about Christmas! Yes, so much in such a small friend! It's hard to imagine how something so small can make such a difference in ones' life. I even sing "Chim, chimini, chim, chimini, chim, chim, cheri ... " and "Chiminito, Chiminito, tiny little thing ... Chiminito dance, Chiminito sing, oh Chiminito, what's the difference, if you're very small, when your heart is full of love, you're ten feet tall"
So this song above, didn't make me think of Chimi, of course, but I did end up writing about him, so you can see who's in my heart this Christmas, and what happens when I sit down and simply share, those tiny pawprints made a deeper impression on me than I had thought - but without tears, just a partial smile thinking of all his many antics since he became my pup and missing him this Christmas. So you can imagine how I must feel about people that are loved ones gone, who have journeyed on from here. Some year, I will get this grieving and lamenting right, but meanwhile I'll keep holding on to the Miracles ... like the Miracle of Christmas. I sure wish others would grab hold of this Gift and realize Jesus is so much more than a 'babe in a manger' ... or a closet of 6 puppies that came into this world because of Chimi (and the stray mommy Toby), one of which who didn't know any better - my mischievious little Chimi found out the hard way and I became responsible for a few more fur babies to care for in this world, born on Day of the 3 Kings ... the Magi - and what a gift Chimi and those pups have been. The Joy of Christmas and the Magi ... Jesus brings the best gift - Himself (and so did Chimi)!
