Yesterday, Today, Forever-

Since we no longer have a real wood burning fireplace or gas fireplace,  I'm enjoying the fireplace our Shaw TV has to offer.  Benefits - there's no clean-up - no creosote, no soot, no ashes!  Enjoy! Have a fabulous 1. Advent!  HE is coming! "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,  though you are small among the clans of Judah ,  out of you will come for me  one who will be ruler over Israel ,  whose origins are from of old,  from ancient times.”   (Micah 5:2)

May your grateful heart this day last throughout the whole year!  Blessings!!

Before the month of Remembering draws to a close, I want to do some reminiscing and remembering of my own.  I remember my Sunday School teacher from before I even went to school, all the way back in Germany ~ Esther Laser – she was my aunt. My uncle was the Sunday School Superintendent. They had no children of their own but they loved other people's children as their own. The pastor I had in my youth after we had moved to Canada and settled in Winnipeg, MB was Rev. Waldemar Laser. I remember a lot of his sermons, which were foundational to my faith. He and his wonderful wife Else Laser were excellent role models for us all. They were another uncle and aunt. When I was about 17, I stayed all summer with an older couple to take care of them after they had a car accident and needed help. They were real saints - sincere, dedicated, committed Christians who had a special way of reaching out to others. Always joy and laughter in their house! People of influence I remember ...

 Our daughter's clock collection! Whenever a friend of mine went to visit her daughter she'd always come back exhausted! She would tell us her long list of duties ~ how many jars of peaches, pickles, pumpkins she canned, how many pies she baked, how many hundreds of cookies were packed away in the freezer, and so on and so on! It can be fun to work together and stock up for the winter, but this sounded like the drudgery of an assembly line! I never asked, but I always sensed that just once my friend would have loved to just be able to visit and not work so hard. She was not the youngest any more either! But this was their mother-daughter dynamic and I just listened, offering no advice. It gave me food for thought. Even though our daughters didn't want or need me to do all that stuff - they are very capable wives, mothers and career women, in their own right - somehow the daily stuff all got done anyway! Our main focus, however, during my visits was always more on enjoy...

Far as the straining eye could hope to see Poppies! Such delicate and filmy blooms! A sea of red - just as the pulsing blood That coursed the veins of soldiers, now in tombs. They died heroically to keep our rights and freedoms; The right to life, to liberty, security. Their valiant deaths must never be in vain; Though flawed and blemished our democracy. Pay tribute to the ranks of soldiers brave Whose acts, courageous, daring, bold Snuffed out their very breath! Gone was their chance to love, grow old. Their sacrifice none must forget! From seasoned saint to hopeful youth, We still proclaim what’s right, what’s wrong! We must not fear to speak God’s truth. For if we’re silenced, then will God our Judge Call forth the stones to shout out loud. Lord, for your Kingdom may we be willing to endure And suffer taunts and jeers among the crowd. Let us stand firm in faith and fortitude. A sea of red flows from the Cross of Calvary. For Christ’s own blood was sacri...

Have a blessed Lord's Day!