Have you ever been out wandering in the back country with no trail and just a vague sense of direction and no real destination? That describes yesterday's blog thoughts. But since it is unlikely that these thoughts will enlighten any brain cells, heart strings or screen pixels other than this one, that's OK!
When we are wandering as noted above, sometimes we need to find some game trail, path, or stream to follow. One could always backtrack, but who wants to do that? If all else fails, what's the advice-head downhill and you should find water which should lead to some track, trail, path, road.
So that's what I'm doing tonight-heading downhill and seeing where I end up.
So I promised thoughts on the "Nu ar det Jul Igen" lyrics. Did you look them up? Then you know that the first (and repeating verse) translates as something like "now it's Christmas again, and now it's Christmas again and Christmas lasts until Easter". When I first heard this it made little sense to me. Perhaps that's due to the fact that I focused on the feasting that would occur on Christmas Eve. And Christmas. And Second Day Christmas (yes, that's a real holiday). I couldn't see past the marzipan pigs, smoked salmon, Christmas sausage, delectable baked goods, and lutefisk to note the connection that Christmas and Easter have as expressed in our little song. Other than holiday food. We could plan on being fed at both holidays. It was just a fun song and tune that gave us an excuse to romp around the Christmas tree, always on the lookout for the next treat.
Sometimes we look past the Mark searching for the next marzipan pig...
The verse on our Advent calendar today is the one following yesterday's (convenient, don't you think?) about shepherds abiding in the fields watching over their flocks. So today and angel comes to them and the shepherds-out in the fields with no lights other than heavenly ones-are "sore afraid". I don't recall being so frightened that I got sore but Grandma has told me she gets a pain deep in her gut when she sees you kids/grandkids near the edge of high places, so maybe being "sore afraid" is a real phenomenon. But I can easily imagine these good people tasked with caring for their flocks of sheep, lambs and kids (both kinds) being frightened by a gloriously bright being coming toward them. Perhaps they thought it was a ghost, as in a real ghost or something supernatural. My guess is that they hadn't ever experienced something like this before. I know that when we are out in the backcountry at night and I hear a sound, imagine a light, sense unexpected movement-I get the chill up my back and my lizard brain kicks in and it feels like flight or fight time. We were on an Oregon beach at 4 AM a few years ago when I saw a line of bright lights moving across the ink black sky. I knew it had to be an alien invasion and my body was gearing up to run! Until Megan told me it was just Elon's starlink satellites! Yeah, I felt a bit dumb.
And I think that all of us can be frightened by things that are new to us.
Tomorrow-the good council from this frightening angelic messenger.
OK?- I covered some about "Nu ar det Jul Igen" lyrics, mentioned food a time or two and did a little pontificating about scary angels. Good enough for today? Good Night!
No comments:
Post a Comment