Faith holds wide the door*

by chuckofish

Well, we were warned about the blizzard conditions that were coming all last week and so were prepared to be home for several days. In fact, I did not leave the house all weekend, but stayed holed up in my cozy domicile. I had plenty of wine and nibblies, so I was not overly concerned. We were lucky and largely dodged the bullet, unlike Kansas City where conditions were pretty dicey. But we did experience “thunder snow” which sent our weatherpeople into paroxysms of delight. Flyover weather–par for the course.

Church was cancelled and so I watched (on YouTube) the service from last week when we were in Mahomet. It was interesting to watch from the virtual balcony and good to see all those familiar communicants. They sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem” which was nice to hear, since we had not sung it earlier during the Christmas season. The lyrics* by Phillips Brooks are so good.

I took down all the Christmas decorations (and two trees) which is quite a job and takes hours and hours. Daughter #1 came over on Friday and helped me, but it is a multiple-day event. I’m sure I will continue to find Xmas items that have escaped my attention for weeks to come.

Today is Epiphany, so don’t forget to watch 3 Godfathers (1948). I watched it over the weekend and it is just a great, great movie. You will recall that it is a loose retelling of the biblical Three Wise Men story in an American Western context, starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey, Jr. It is also the birthday of our lovely daughter-in-law (daughter #3). We will celebrate as soon as the roads are cleared and we can synchronize our calendars!

Here’s Sinclair Ferguson’s resolution for the Christian life. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

It is very frustrating not to be able to include photos on my blog and daughter #1 and I are working on figuring out what to do. I probably will be starting a new blog, perhaps on Substack, very soon, so keep checking in and I’ll let you know.