The Nativity Story
New Line Cinema is releasing
"The Nativity Story" today nationwide. I had heard that this movie was coming out, but this past weekend I saw the trailer for the film. The 60 second preview literally took my breath away and left me fighting tears.
The story of Christ's birth is so rich, and there are so many aspects to study: the symbolism, the prophesy, the sheer wonder...and I very easily get so caught up in such things (and rightly so) that I forget about Mary and Joseph. Their story is absolutely incredible. I never really thought much about them in anything other than a logistical sense...as Jesus' mother and father...until I was a student at the Bible Institute, and we had an instructor come in for a week to speak almost exclusively about Mary. I won't lie, I don't remember many of the lecturers we had at WOLBI, but this particular week I remember like it was yesterday. He put everything into a cultural context and explained in great detail what she must have encountered as a result of her pregnancy.
Mary was the most common and most pure of Jewish girls, and she spent her pregnancy (and probably a significant amount of time thereafter) treated as an outcast (or, to be blunt, as a whore). But when she was first told the news that she, a virgin, would bear a child, her response to the angel was:
I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true. Luke 1:38 NLT. I can't imagine that my own response would have been half as gracious, obedient or selfless. She literally gave up her honor (in man's eyes), any social status she had (which was likely very little anyways), and any semblance of a normal future, in blind obedience and true child-like faith.
I could pretty much go on and on about how beautiful this picture is, God selecting someone who thinks themself "unworthy" for the task he chooses them for, God doing something that is beyond our human comprehension, God asking someone to trust Him even though what He's proposing makes little to no sense in human terms...sounds familiar doesn't it? And look at the reward Mary was blessed with. The same goes for Joseph. Granted he didn't have to carry and give birth to Jesus, but he did go through much of the same ridicule and exercised the same faith and obedience Mary did.
Suffice it to say I am very anxious to see this movie. From what I've seen, the producers don't seem to be advertising any religious agenda, but have made every effort to preserve the cultural and historical accuracy of the account in the movie. That alone pretty much guarantees that it will be a powerful film. I'll let you know what I think when I see it!
Procrastination
School is torture, as is school work. Exhibit A = me, having procrastinated my research proposal, now exploring the wonders of
myheritage.com. You should try it if you haven't already. I can't testify to it's accuracy (one of my photos apparently bore a striking resemblance to Vanna White) but I can assure at least 15 minutes of entertainment. Although I am not proud to say I look like Paula Abdul and Sally Struthers, well, the machine doesn't lie. Ok, back to work now....soooo painful.
Quick Update
"Reunited and it feels so good..."
Thanksgiving was a huge success...pretty much the most perfect Thanksgiving ever :) No seriously, we had a great time, we relaxed, we had a roaring fire going and lots of laughs...it was a good day! To top it all off, TBS aired 4 of the Friends Thanksgiving episodes from 8-10. What more could I ask?
I'll tell you what I could ask for - a very productive Black Friday! And I got it! Brian and I have just about finished our Christmas shopping. I was up at 5 but since I had worn myself out the day before, I was back down by 2 pm...watching Elf and napping with Kaylee in my lap. I was exhausted after just a few hours but fortunately I got just about everything done that morning. I've always thought Black Friday was absolutely crazy, and if you were at Kohls on Friday, you probably think so too. But it has become kind of a tradition and not only do I enjoy it, I truly do think it's worth the deals. I do not think it's worth saving $5 at Kohl's to wait in their hour long line, but other stores hosted much more moderate chaos and some great deals to boot.
I'm going to be preoccupied for about the next week with a research proposal for school. You will be able to judge my productivity by seeing how often I blog while trying to focus on the representation of gender in commercials airing during children's prime time television. Fun times, good times. So anyways, in the meantime,
check out pictures from Thanksgiving (including our new mantel-shout out to cousin Dan, who happens to be a contractor and was kind enough to build it for us).
Lastly, get ready to change your bookmarks b/c this blog will be moving soon. As of last week, we are the proud owners of brianandlibby.com (don't go there yet, nothing to see) and everything will be moved over to the new site before Christmas. We will have been with blogger for a year this coming January, and while it has served us well, I have found myself very impressed with Wordpress while managing multiple other blogs on it. Brianandlibby.com will reside on
Jon Wise's personal server and be hosted on Wordpress. Not that you care (surprising that I kind of do care) but it will. So that's what's up. Peace out.
Who put Santa’s head on my door?
No, it’s not a morbid question. It is, rather, the question that has plagued my days and nights since last Saturday. Let me explain. Saturday morning we were helping some friends move to a house conveniently located just a few miles from us. After a long morning, I came home and as I pulled into the garage, it seemed like something was different. I backed up and looked at the front door. My suspicions were confirmed: The fall wreath that had previously occupied my door had been placed on the chair, and REplaced with a hanging Santa head (with a remarkably sparkly beard).
My first thought was that it was Brian – finally succumbing to the pressure of the Christmas music I’d been playing in the house since October. When he got home I greeted him with a hug and kiss and said “thank you!” but his eyes gazed past me and he said “What the heck is that Santa head doing on our house?” When I told him I assumed he had placed it there in support of my seasonal enthusiasm, he said something to the effect of “Why would I support your craziness” (most recently he has been accusing me of being on “Christmas crack”).
I immediately called my friend Debbie. She lives close by and knows I am a little bit of a Christmas enthusiast. But it wasn’t her. Nor was it Chad and Leah, or our friends the Williamsons. We thought maybe it was Jon and Nic. Nope, not them either. We narrowed it down a bit…it had to be someone who knew I loved Christmas, possibly someone who read my blog, and most definitely someone who lived near us. Most of our friends who live near us go to our church, so we figured whoever it was would identify his/herself at church that weekend, but the weekend came and went and no suspects had been brought in. My curiosity heightened.
I made a few more phone calls this week, but no one seemed to know anything about it (and in the meantime I think I confirmed a lot of people’s suspicions that I was crazy). I approached my last hope on Sunday but she said it wasn’t her, so I just figured I would have to go through life never knowing who the kind soul was who reciprocated my Christmas-cheer-spreading.
So after services on Sunday, our friend Steve came up to me. He and his wife Jen do share my affinity for Christmas decorations and they are also in a new home this winter so we’re kind of sharing our excitement for the whole “deck the halls” thing. In typical Steve-O fashion he asked my if I had gotten any decorations up outside yet, and I said no (Brian has made it crystal clear that although he can’t stop me from making the interior of our house a premature winter wonderland, he will see to it that we don’t put up anything outside until it’s socially acceptable). Steve got a little militant, and said “Nothing? Really? NOTHING? Not even on your DOOR?!?!”
A whole string of Christmas light bulbs pretty much went on in my head and I realized that they had been trying to ask me about it all week (I thought they just genuinely wanted to hear about my Christmas décor, oh well). As it turns out, they had purchased it about 2 weeks ago (fortunately they chose the Santa instead of the “Christmas Gnome” lawn art) and since they were also there helping our friends move that Saturday and left before us, they know they could put it up without us knowing. They live about 30 minutes away…very clever. We never suspected them. Very clever, Steve and Jenn, very clever. Watch your back...we can buy lawn art too...
Thanksgiving
For the past three years Brian and I have, in typical married fashion, split our holidays between each of our families. Because we spend Christmas Eve at home so we can be at all of Northway’s services, we always do Christmas at my mom’s…three hours driving after 6+ Christmas Eve services is much better than 8. Thanksgiving, therefore, has become a tradition we spend with the Howe family.
Howe-style Thanksgiving was a complete shock to me, I won’t lie. My Thanksgivings growing up always held surprises, but there were a few staples I could rely on: like my Uncle Sol’s chicken curry, the thanksgiving song (don’t ask), 4 video cameras, a fitted bed sheet on a concrete floor (again, don’t ask, only the cousins will appreciate that one), and at least 30 Pakistanis, give or take some non-English speaking international students my dad would find at Syracuse University and load into his Mazda MPV. None of these things were present at my in-laws’ and instead, they had stuff like turkey and mashed potatoes. What’s that about?
The first year was sheer culture shock. No one playing the harmonium, no one speaking Urdu, no one showing up two hours late. To be quite frank, I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I just sort of followed the crowd. I woke up, ate breakfast and watched the parade. No one rushed me to shower and get ready, no one made me clean the house in anticipation for company…I just laid on the floor by the fireplace and snuggled with Kaylee (my dog who Brian’s parents adopted a few years ago). Then I helped make Thanksgiving dinner. Should I rush? No, not at all—why rush? It’s just the 6 of us having a leisurely family Thanksgiving. No wonder everyone loves this holiday! After dinner, I joined Kaylee (again) near the the Libby-shaped impression in the carpet and fell asleep (again) while watching a movie. It was glorious.
When we were engaged, we did spend one Thanksgiving with my family, and to be fair, I think the culture shock for Brian was much, much more jarring. Have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? You know the scene when Ian comes into the family’s Easter party at the restaurant and they all bombard him at once? I’m not joking, it was exactly like that. Except the Pakistanis are louder, more plentiful, and the foyer at my parents’ is smaller than that restaurant. You do the math. It wasn’t pretty. And yet he still married me...
Thanksgiving in the Massey Family is an international affair. For the first 10-15 years of the annual Massey Thanksgiving, my mom made all of the traditional foods. Then they started dying off – no stuffing in 1995, no turkey in 1997, and finally, around 1999, we saw our last bowl of mashed potatoes sit untouched in the buffet line, jealous of the attention the basmati rice was getting. And that was it, curry powder officially took over and the only semblance of traditional thanksgiving left was the pumpkin pie (we Pakis love our pumpkin pie – Americans got that one right).
This year we’ll be starting our own tradition. Last Thanksgiving we said that if we bought a house in ’06, we would host Thanksgiving in ’06. And we did, so we are! It should be interesting. First of all, we haven’t eaten meat, or cooked it for that matter, in about 4 months, so we will see how the bird comes out (we tried to convince Brian’s parents to go with a Tofurkey but the idea wasn’t exactly met with enthusiasm…can you blame them?). Also, we still have a small and rather wobbly round kitchen table, so we have officially decided to bring the patio table, yes, I said patio table, in for our feast. For some reason even though we can only eat outside like 2 days out of the year because of the weather in upstate New York, our patio table is about 3 times the size of our kitchen table. So that should be interesting too.
We’re excited to start to blend our families’ time-honored traditions, and make some of our own. We will definitely be making traditional food, and I will definitely be napping on the floor with Kaylee (if she survives the drive up here – sorry Caroline, but Kaylee’s like 25 years old and this may be her last Thanksgiving). We (me, Amber, and Mom Howe) will also go shopping around 5 am on Black Friday—yes, we’re “those people”—and meet the guys for breakfast around 9. As for the rest, we’ll have to see how it all unfolds – I will of course keep you posted.
Toothpaste for Dinner
If you have never checked out toothpaste for dinner,
do it now. Drew, the comic's author, updates it daily at midnight, and if you are running out of ways to waste time on the internet (aka if myspace is down), have no fear. Toothpaste for Dinner will keep you entertained for hours. It's gotten a bit less tasteful in the past year but if you can weed through all that, there are some real gems in there, mostly related to office politics. Check out the archives, happy laughing. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
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haha - especially funny b/c Brian and I often eat only a yam for lunch and/or dinner.
"Just commentary"
Brian and I had a good friend in town last night. He is a rare breed, in that he not only makes me laugh until I pee my pants, he's also a reliable source of thought-provoking conversation. Jamie’s been pursuing God for years, and is a true Truth seeker in that he never lets himself become satisfied with what he does; what he knows.
Last night we spent a lot of time talking about some stuff he has been reading…stuff that challenges a lot of the way we traditionally interpret Christianity. Stuff like, what is the “Gospel” really? What/where/when is heaven? What does it mean to be a “Christian” or “Christ-follower” or however you want to say it. Sometimes its scary when you get talking about things like that because you start to realize how much of your faith - we’re talking faith you would walk out on a ledge for - is based on things people have told you about God, not on what God has spoken. Jamie thinks that Rob Bell said it best:
“God spoke, the rest is just commentary.”
So now I’m going through the mental exhaustion of determining which parts of my faith and the things I consider Truth are based on what God really said, and which of them are based on commentary. Scary stuff. Pretty cool though, and I think, a worthy exercise.
Anyways, if you’re into church, and have interest in looking at how different people “do” church, you’ve probably noticed that they all do it differently. There are some that like to do it the way that people have always done it. There are some that just want to do it their own way, based on what they think God has said. There are some who will try to do things in a new way just for the sake of shaking things up. The good news is that all of these people realize that God loves the local church. He loves it so much that He calls it His bride. He cherishes it, has pride in it, and he made the ultimate sacrifice for it. They get that God is passionate about the church, and they should be too. The bad news is that they take this passion too far, and spend a lot of time arguing with eachother because they think their way is the only right way. Of all the unintelligent things people who call themselves Christians have done (present company included), I think the absolute most foolish is making this argument public. As a result, a lot of people who should be attracted to God through the local church have instead come to the conclusion that Christians just do church as a result of their own selfish agendas, and they don't want to be associated with the God of those people. Can't blame them, really.
Anyways, the more we talked last night, the more I noticed Jamie’s genuine appreciation for our church and the way we do things. No church is perfect – no church is God’s favorite. And if Jamie had to choose, ours might not be his favorite, but he is so supportive of what we do and why we do it. Not to mention, he is as excited as we are about what God is obviously doing, and the fruit that is being produced in both individual and corporate ways. His personal preferences make him no less excited about what God is doing through Northway as he is excited about what God does through churches that are more his “cup of tea.”
You know how God talks about the church as his body? You know how every limb on the body plays a distinct role, and God says that each of those roles is critical to the healthy function of the complete body? Maybe every church in the world is part of the bigger body, God’s Bride, the global body of Christ. Maybe every church has a different role to play, and God loves, values, and uses them all equally; despite the lessons they learn, their personal preferences, their quirks and uniqueness, their methodology.
When I was 19 I got this ridiculous disease which I still don’t completely understand called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I can not explain to you the etiology or its course, but I remember the doctor explaining it to me. “Your body is attacking your thyroid. It is recognizing your thyroid as an ‘alien’ that isn’t part of you. Not only is your thyroid unable to function, your whole body is suffering because it’s using so many resources to fight off your thyroid.” I couldn’t get over how extremely absurd this was. Because I was appalled by the prospect of having my thyroid surgically removed, and have a very nerd-like but earnest belief that communication really can solve the world’s problems, I racked my brain trying to think of ways to just explain to my body that my thyroid was not in fact an intruder, but a valid organ – one that I needed pretty desperately in fact!
Because my physiology reacts better to modern medicine than to my own reasoning, it was surgically removed, and I now rely on a pill every day to regulate my metabolism rather than my dearly departed thyroid.
Conclusion you probably have already come to: Maybe each organ in Christ’s Body would be able to function more effectively and in the best interest of the collective Body if they were spending more time pursuing God, obeying Him, and doing what he tells them too. God did a pretty superb job creating man to sustain himself physically, creating the earth to sustain itself, and generally conceiving the idea of every single thing in the universe to work together to continue sustaining itself, much like it has done for the past (insert very large number) of years. If we say we trust God, we can trust that if we are truly seeking him as individuals, and as churches, He will orchestrate the objectives He accomplishes through each individual body to collectively accomplish his purpose for the global Body of Christ.
Thanks Jamie for getting my wheels turning. Now I have to go back and deconstruct this entire post, considering whether my assumptions are based on what God said, or on someone’s commentary. :)
Don't fear the cheer
I have been learning a strange and interesting lesson over the past several days. Although it deeply disturbs me, I would like to share it with you.
As
previously explained, I love Christmas. No special reason, I don’t have like a whole room with little miniature Santa Claus figurines in my house all year or anything (just for you MEOB), but around Christmastime, I get pretty excited and I have decided to embrace this excitement fully, and share it with those around me. I will admit, my definition of Christmastime is somewhat more broad than others’…pretty much anything after Halloween and before Martin Luther King Day encompasses “Christmas-time” in my mind. No, I do not wear jingle bell earrings or light-up Rudolph sweaters, but I have been listening to some of my favorite Christmas CD’s just to help, you know, get me in the spirit. So I dusted them off on October 28th, what’s it to you?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, Brian and I were out shopping and I found the perfect Christmas tree. It was just like those childhood memories, when you all get bundled into your snow suits, trample through 2 feet of snow in your boots, find that glorious tree in all of its pine needle glory, cut it down, strap it to the top of your station wagon and bring it home…except that we trampled through the crowds in the Home Depot parking lot, and when we found it, we listened to a demo by the voice of Santa Claus about how if one light goes out the whole string won’t be shot (ummm, hello, when you celebrate Christmas for 8+ weeks you can’t get a real tree). It was a glorious 9.5 foot slim Caroline pine with three, count them, THREE different kinds of branches. Because I have set aside a Christmas decoration budget for myself, it was a no-brainer – we will have this tree. We will put it in our foyer, decorate it, drink hot cocoa while gazing up at it, and sing “Fa – whoo – foraze” around it in a circle holding hands with all of our friends. Ok maybe not, but the tree was off the hizzook.
So this past weekend my mom and I purchased the tree (which had, along with several other Christmas trees, been on display for at least 2 weeks at Home Depot, much like various Holiday items in just about every other major North American retailer I’ve visited this week). As I approached the register, the woman who would check me out developed a sizeable scowl on her face, turning to her friend and proclaiming loudly “Now THIS depresses me.” She wasn’t even talking about the fact that she was wearing an orange vest, no, she was criticizing the tree I was buying. Both of these employees went on to explain to me how much they hated the fact that I was buying a Christmas tree even though they had just checked out someone buying a Halloween decoration, and how much they didn’t like Christmas in general.
Although this is by far the most extreme example, I have found that people who do not share my affection for Christmas are somehow propelled to the opposite end of the continuum when I’m around. Does my love for Christmas compel others to hate it more in order to find balance in their worlds? I can’t comprehend this. So I will have my tree up at least one week before Thanksgiving…What’s it to you?
Instead of letting this increasingly apparent trend put a damper on my
cheer factor (def. hypothetical meter on which I measure the amount of Christmas cheer I am overwhelmed with at the moment), I have decided to spread my cheer to whoever will accept it. Last week I let a friend borrow a Christmas CD. Although at first she thought it absurd that I even had it out so early, she is now addicted to it and can’t seem to listen to much else…cheer spread, mission accomplished.
In my second attempt, I encourage you to
visit this website as often as your schedule permits, to remind you that Christmas, like life, is fleeting. You should enjoy it while you can. If I’ve learned anything through this, it’s that you look less stupid celebrating Christmas absurdly early, than dragging out absurdly late. So get your fill now people, before it’s too late. And for those of you who can’t help but vomit up a Bah Humbug! in response to this post, look out, because the cheer factor is steadily increasing, and I’m coming your way.
If you would like to be as cool as me and have that webpage display as your desktop background (I know, WOW! Does it get any better?) just open the web page, hit View > Source. Then save that notepad document with the extension .html to your desktop. Right click anywhere on your desktop, then choose Properties > Desktop > Browse, and select the file you just created...good stuff :)
Food for Thought
In a recent commentary from Ben Stein:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. (emphasis added)
Fall Party Cakes
The Howe who saved Halloweena short story by Libby HoweTwas the night of Halloween and all through Deer Run
The children were preparing for a night of fun
Mrs. Howe was excited to hand out sweet treats
To all of the children who came down the streets.
She'd shopped for the candy, and was anxious (you could tell)
Then waited to hear it...the ringing doorbell.
A half an hour passed but no children came by
Then finally at six her first visitor arrived!
In overexcitement she rushed to the door
to see not one child, but alas, there were four!
Brian laughed at her when she spilled all the candy
He said she was nervous but she said "shut up! I'm just overexcited".....?
anyways...
They kept on arriving, in a steady flow
and around 6:30 Libby said, "Oh no!
We're almost out of candy, how could this be?
Brian, go to the store and get more candy for me!"
Ten minutes passed, but Brian was no where in sight
The candy was low, and she feared there'd be a fight.
Then the door opened to Brian's loud shout
"There is no more candy! All of the stores are out."
"No worries," he said, "I thought long and hard
before putting 50 candy bars on our credit card.
On the gas station shelves next to drugs for headaches
there were boxes of Little Debbie Fall Party Cakes!"
She stared at this man, in wonder and fear
Would he really bring those Little Debbie Cakes here?
But his story was true and this was the only option
Would trick or treaters accept this strange cooking concoction?
When the first children came, she offered the treat
And what a surprise her fall snack cakes did meet.
Their eyes lit up and they all screamed "Hooray!
Mr. Howe has done it! He saved the day!"
And over and over they came to the door
saying"We love these cakes, can we please have some more?"
We began to run low and I turned to Brian,
"I need another solution, you must keep on tryin!"
He stood up victoriously and said "do not fear"
To the garage he went, saying "I think we have cans of pepsi in here"
She wanted to question but had already learned.
I tried to question him once, but it seems I got burned.
When they came once again, we shyly made the offer.
Would the Pepsi be met with thanks, or with a scoffer?
They loved the Pepsi! It was quenching their thirst!
The Howes were so happy they thought they would burst.
So kids, don't forget that on Halloween Night
Even when you run out of candy, have no fright.
Just give what you can, because all that matters.
Is that next year,
all the kids know that the Howes are the best halloween candy/cake/soda giver-outers.The End.Click here to watch the short independent film entitled "
Fall Party Cakes."
New Line Cinema is releasing "The Nativity Story" today nationwide. I had heard that this movie was coming out, but this past weekend I saw the trailer for the film. The 60 second preview literally took my breath away and left me fighting tears.
