Currently Listening Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia By Various Artists Turkish Delight see related

My thoughts in this post were inspired by the  journal entry of www.xanga.com/holeabove ...

I was just walking and talking with my man Todd the other day talking about how funny it is to watch boys play "war" and "cars" and hear their "vvvvvvvvrrrrr!" and "ttddtttddddddtttt!" as they shoot, and steer, and launch plastic things at other things. My favorite part is that they get so into making machine gun and bomb noises that their spit and saliva flies everywhere and bubbles around their mouth but they care not. They're at war. I love imagination doubled with sound effects...I especially love when kids are practicing it because the world around them disapears and they never notice me getting a kick out of them. I also discussed the reality that I am not a boy and thus never made machine gun sounds when I was a kid...wasn't in my childhood vocabulary. (I then tried to do it and spit all over myself). But on the other hand, in my girl-hood adventures Barbie's conversation with Ken was often longer than an afternoon of Soaps, and I could pick them up a day later and finish right where I left the drama the day before. Amazing!

Reflection: now Todd is a man and is pursing his dream of being an Explosive Technician with the U.S. Navy (he blows up bad-guy bombs), and I am thick in the middle of love with this man of mine and registering items for our Dream House...but I don't have a pink Barbie Corvette...yet.

It's easy to sing a Christmas carol and be unaffected by it's lyrics, only because we've heard it since childhood...but this morning at Oso Creek, the song "O Come Emmanuel" ripped though my heart's hard surface and pierced me like never before.  I guess it's because I've been under a cloud lately, just disturbed by how dark my heart really can be and has been.  But today as the song played and communion was given, my soul cried this song in amazingly more meaningful ways than just a traditional Christmas Carol.  You may already know that "Emmanuel" means, "God with us," so to sing it was, for me, to pray, God be with me, come into this dark heart and ransom a life captive to sin!  I love the ancient but refreshing promise: "Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel."  And my heart lept when I heard, "O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer, our spirits by Thine advent here; Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight..." God's love never fails me...

O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of Might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law,
In cloud, and majesty, and awe. Refrain

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave. Refrain

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight. Refrain

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery. Refrain

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
And order all things, far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And cause us in her ways to go. Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of peace. Refrain