A few odds and ends. 

One, a great article by my friend Lori Smith on C.S. Lewis and the baptized imagination over at BreakPoint online.  Check it out

Two, a few other ideas for Christmas gifts.  Land of a Thousand Hills coffee goes to support efforts of Gospel-centered reconciliation in genocide-torn Rwanda.  You can buy it online here for $10 a bag.  It makes a great gift and supports a great cause.  Also, you could consider sponsoring a child at the Sonrise orphanage, an orphanage run by Christians for children who lost parents in the genocide.  If sponsorship, is too expensive you could consider buying shoes or a uniform for a child in the name of your loved one this Christmas. Find out about opportunities and needs here.

Three, each year I write a poem reflecting on Christmas.  A poem I wrote a few years back is being featured this month in Dallas Theological Seminary's magazine.  And since Glenn is such a poetry nut and thinks poetry and blogs mix really, really well, (sarcastic sigh and smile) I thought I'd post it here also.  Keep in mind, the same word for grace in Greek is the word used here in this passage for favor.  Pretty cool. Hope this is encouraging to meditate on.  Have a blessed and Merry Christmas ya'll.

Then the angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”  Mary was greatly troubled by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.” (Luke 1:28-31)

Mary’s Musings

“Favored,” they call me.

But I know what it means.

They hear, “favor” and think

Pious, noble sounds like saint

Or sinless or worthy.

I hear the word and know

that it means, “Grace.”

Grace, a word that arrests me

Each time I hear it,

Each time I embrace it.

At times it feels

Heavy as Jericho’s falling wall,

Sharp as Abraham’s raised knife,

Its weightiness and my unworthiness,

Sometimes felling me in humility,

Sometimes stabbing me with wonder.

At other times it feels,

Light as Gabriel’s glancing wing,

Soft as my son’s sleeping sighs,

The undeserved glory it boundlessly bestows

Sometimes lifting me in adoration,

Sometimes soothing me in surety.

If I cup the word in my hands

It pulses and squirms, and feels

Like the beating heart, fluttering life,

Once living inside of me,

Growing inside me.

But if I cup the word in my heart

I know that life lives inside me once again;

Now not as flesh, but as Word,

As life divine; now not as mother,

But as true daughter of the Son.

“Favored,” they call you, but believers,

Do you know what it means?

Do you understand that if

You embrace the Word,

You are not so unlike me?

Inside of you His life grows,

Not as flesh but as Word,

Not as mothers, but as true daughters

And true sons.  His life alive

Inside of you.

Clutch the word closely,

Say it to yourself softly,

And realize favored ones,

The word, that word they call you

Means grace.  Live by it alone.

                                                                                                                       ©Catherine Claire 2003