Echoes From the Campfire

I’ll be home for Christmas,
     If only in my dreams.”
              –Kim Gannon and Walter Kent

    “I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.”
              –Ezekiel 22:30 (NASB)
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I thought about not writing an Echo this week, but I would be remiss if I forgot those men and women who serve faithfully.  Those who are deployed and away from their families at Christmas.  I was fortunate that in the six years I served in the Air Force that I was stateside, never away from family.  I knew of those in Vietnam, Korea, Turkey, and other places in the world that would be missing something special.  Something that we often take for granted until it is gone–being with family at Christmas.
    My Dad was away from home for two Christmases during World War II.  I know he spent the Christmas of 1945 in Japan during the Occupation.  The year 1944 saw him in the Philippines.
They look at the same sky–those who are deployed.  Pappy, Annie’s Dad, was in Europe for Christmas 1944.  What were their thoughts and feelings?
    Think about it, there are those who are standing in the gap.  Those who have sacrificed time with family during the Christmas season to protect our freedom to celebrate Christmas.  There are many who would take it away, and we are beginning to see a host of them at home trying to do the same.  
    But if you know someone who is deployed or will not be able to be home for Christmas go outside and look up.  Those who are deployed will look at the same sky.  Oh, if they are south of the equator there will be some differences, but it will still be similar.  Come to think of it, when the Baby came from heaven and the angels appeared in the sky it was very similar to what it is today.  Now we have a few more objects made my man floating around in space, but overall the stars are the same, the moon hasn’t changed much.  The planets are moving in the same orbit.  Isn’t God a wonder?
    Most likely this is the last Echo for the week.  Miles may show up tomorrow.  Next week, I’m not sure; I’ll just take it one day at a time.  Here’s to you and your family–have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Be thankful for those who stand in the gap for you:  our military, law enforcement officers and other first responders.

Coffee Percs

I smell the hot coffee;
    It floats on the wind.”
               –Red Steagall

Mornin’ to yuh, Pard.  Git yurself in this kitchen, but mind yur spurs; yuh don’t want to be tearin’ up the missus’ floor.  I kept the coffee ready for yuh.  
    Shore has been a crazy, idiotic week.  I never have much good to say ’bout bureaucrats, and this week shore does show why!  My mercy…and let’s leave it at that.
    Drink down that coffee; be careful yuh don’t want to burn all the hair off yur tongue especially with all the Christmas goodies layin’ around.  I was a-listenin’ the other day to one of the good guys, Curly Musgrave (he’s gone on to be with the Lord) sing his song, “Can’t get enough of them Christmas cookies…”
    Makes me wish we had a dozen or so and allow our coffee to wash them down.  It’d make the gizzard smile for shore.  I’ve been doin’ some ponderin’ about the times–the times in which we live.  Why, I read the other day, and I reckon it’s true since it was on the internet.  The headline read:  “Iowa man sentenced to 16 years”.  It seems he confiscated a gay-pride flag and burned it.  It was regarded as a hate crime.  My mercy, a person burns Old Glory and they are honored for showin’ free speech.  Shouldn’t that be considered a hate crime?  
    Yep, the world sure is turned upside-down.  It’s time we begin prayin’ more and lookin’ up.  On our lips should be the last prayer mentioned in the Bible.  “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
    You be havin’ a good week, be on the watch for the next thing yuh know those bureaucrats will be tryin’ to convince yuh that yuh needn’t tighten yur cinch.

Echoes From the Campfire

Therefore, as we grow older, let us be more thankful that the circle of our Christmas association and of the lessons that they bring, expands!  Let us welcome every one of them, and summon them to take their places by the Christmas hearth.”
       –Charles Dickens  (“What Christmas Is”)

    “Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child.
              –Luke 2:1, 4-5 (NASB)
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It is reported that Martin Luther was the first to bring the “Christmas Tree” into his house during the festive Christmas season.  Some cry “pagan” and want to denounce the tree.  But what is it actually?  A piece of wood, needles that fall to the floor when they dry out, something to hold ornaments, or is it more?
    Jesus spoke often of trees.  He cursed the fig tree, He spoke of the birds building nests in the tree, He mentioned that good fruit comes from a good tree, He even spoke of the branches of the tree.  However, there was one more aspect regarding the tree; the person who was hung on one and died was cursed.

         “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’–.”
                   –Galatians 3:13(NASB)

Jesus was cursed because He became sin, He took the sins of the world upon Himself so that we might know salvation.
    Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to disregard the tree or to think of it only as something to take up space in the living room at Christmas.  Maybe we should take another glance at it, see the presents under it, feel the warmth it gives the room, wonder in the light it gives off when decorated.  Maybe we should see it in the way Charles Dickens did,

         “Now, the tree is decorated with bright merriment, and song, and dance and cheerfulness.  And they are welcome.  Innocent and welcome be they ever held, beneath the branches of the Christmas Tree, which cast no gloomy shadow!  But, as it sinks into the ground, I hear a whisper going through the leaves.  ‘This, in commemoration of the law of love and kindness, mercy and compassion.  This, in remembrance of Me!'”

Look at that tree one more time, be still, get quiet and think.  Think of the Child who was born to eventually die upon a tree for our redemption.  Wonder of wonders!

Echoes From the Campfire

No, it wasn’t like the Christmas like the folks have nowadays—
     They are livin’ more in comfort, and they’ve sorter changed their ways—
     But I sorter wish, old pardner, we could brush the years away,
     And be jest as young and happy, as we was that Christmas Day.”
              –Bruce Kiskaddon

    “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people.”  
              –Luke 2:29-31 (NIV)
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Brrr, I can remember some cold days around Christmas.  Of course, the days when I was a kid didn’t seem so cold.  I could get out and play, sled, have snowball fights, but as I got older the work came along.  There were many a day out working in the cold where the temperature was below zero.  Boy, oh howdy, my toes are curling just thinking about it now.
    Most of the time in Colorado the wind came from the west, but I can remember those times when Old Man Winter sent his wind down from the north.  Texans talk about a Blue Norther, but when the cold sets in up in the high altitudes of the Rockies or a blizzard begins to howl, well, be ready for a cold spell.  Sure hope you have plenty of wood to feed the fire.
    A few years back I stumbled across a song, the lyrics by Michael Martin Murphy.  It set me to thinking about those who have to work out in the cold.  Those who have to work alone doing their daily chores.  

         CHRISTMAS ON THE LINE

         That old north wind, howling high up in the timber
         The only choir that I remember,
         I was riding on the line.
         One lone star, hanging over the horizon
         Like the one that led the wise men
         As they followed heaven’s sign.
         Snow-capped peaks
         Like the angels in their glory
         Seem to sing the ancient story
         As the wind blows through the pines.
         Drifting along to the sound of spurs jingling
         Like silver bells ringing
         Christmas on the line.

    I don’t know who wrote this, but someone referred to a line camp as a “cowboy monastery.”  He was alone in God’s great cathedral, listening to the sounds of nature sing the Christmas story, and who knows, if the angels didn’t join in with the sound of the wind.  Of course, there may those who would disagree and say that a line camp could cause a person to go stir crazy, but there are those who see the hand of God even in the bleakest winter.
    Take a walk this Christmas season, or at least sit for a spell out on the back porch.  Bundle up, grab a cup of coffee (or since it’s Christmas, a cup of real cocoa) and feel the touch of the Lord in the crisp breeze.  He is there, He will always be there.