Advent - Week 2

Yesterday, both at church and home for lunch, we lit both the first prophecy candle and now the second candle. Dawson's girlfriend Splara (really Sarah) came home with us and we had a White Chili I had made the day before. It is so good and is another food I periodically crave.

So we were all together, which is going to dwindle down soon to three of us, and really just Monte and me, since Dawson's not home much. But Heather flies out Wednesday to meet her fiance coming home from Iraq and then getting married. So she's been on and off living at home over the last decade and now gone for good.

This second week's candle in the Advent wreath is the Bethlehem candle. The bedraggled Joseph and Mary searched for a place to sleep after traveling. "Love" was born in Bethlehem and Love asks us to be open.

I love the the song "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" written around 1868 by Phillip Brooks. During a sabbatical he traveled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem by horseback on Dec 24. He imagined Mary and Joseph on their journey and the field of the shepherds. He was overcome by the beauty and felt the peace. He then attended a five hour service at the Church of the Nativity. This experience never left him and he wrote the song for his church's children's choir to sing.

"How proper it is that Christmas should follow Advent. For him who looks toward the future, the manger is situated on Golgotha, and the cross has already been raised in Bethlehem."
- Dag Hammarskjold

This reminds me of a drawing a friend's son drew while doodling in church. He had the manger with a cross behind it and a crown hanging over the cross. I liked the image so much (I'm so visual and need images/icons to remind my heart) that I've drawn one for myself and added a lamb laying in front of the manger.