Merry Christmas!

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In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came
into being through Him, and apart from
Him nothing came into being that has
come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. The
Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it.
…And the Word became flesh, and
dwelt among us, and we saw His
glory, glory as of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth.
-John 1:1-5,14

Oh wondrous words!!! I couldn’t think of any words more fitting for remembering the birth of Christ our Lord and Savior than these. Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, peace among men with whom He is pleased! Remember the birth of the King!!

Glory

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My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!
Awake, my glory!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, O
Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among
the nations.
For Your lovingkindness is great
to the heavens
And Your truth to the clouds.
Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
-Psalm 57:7-11

Raging starfire

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So, at work a bit early this morning…despite the continued onslaught of snow against my fair city of Aberdeen! I woke up this morning and looked outside to see that not too much snow had fallen during the night. Relieved, I went to make my coffee and sandwiches and then sat down and read for a while. Before I left my flat, I looked outside again…to see it snowing furiously outside, with an additional few inches of snow on the ground!! Knowing that every second I delayed inside would mean more snow on the roads, I hurried outside to my car, quickly warming it up and scraping it off before undertaking the treacherous six mile journey in to work(which took an hour last night, ugh). You may ask why I’d drive to work in the snow, with a very reasonable probability of not being able to get back home tonight? Well honestly, I don’t know either. But driving convoy style on the dual carriageway(er, that’d be highway for us Americans), we all made it through the snow safely, each of us following through the tire tracks of the car before. And by the way, Rhapsody of Fire is pretty much the most intensely awesome music to listen to while driving through the snow, just saying. “The embrace of ice and snow could stop the bravest warrior, but the thirst for justice still and more will warm our soul.” What now?!! Finally made it in to work just to find that the lights were off in our Drilling office…yes, I was the first one in. That did give me just a bit of pride at first, being the Floridian and all in the land of Scotland, before I realized it might just mean that I was the only one silly enough daring to brave the snow. I’ve sat here for a while now, sipping my hazelnut-tinged coffee(props to Deanna for bringing over wondrous proper American coffee creamer from the States!!! You will be my bestest friend forever and ever for that, Deanna. Mmmmmm…and now you all know the way to my heart. Oops) and writing this snow filled entry.

And now, there are actually people in the office besides me and it’s about time for work to begin. Have a lovely day!! Hopefully there’s far less snow wherever you all are at..

Oh and I really will end this entry after this sentence, but Romans 8 is awesome, y’all; you should read it right now, that’s how awesome it is(I have been abundantly reminded of the glorious love of God our Father and of Jesus Christ our Saviour and of the Spirit our Comforter these past few days through this chapter) and I would be negligent indeed to not point you all to such an amazing wealth of words and storehouse of grace and fountain of truth that is contained therein.

All we, like sheep

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Lunch time here at work! Actually, it’s about over but thought I’d post a quick update, seeing as this last week has been most full of awesomeness! Hopefully I’ll get around to a longer post later detailling my adventures with Deanna throughout Scotland(and yes, it was an amazing few days!!) but for now, suffice it to say that…yeah, Scotland’s a pretty beautiful country. It’s true.

And last night, went with Rosemary to see Handel’s Messiah at the Music Hall here in Aberdeen – my first time ever seeing this performed! Listening to it on my laptop is most definitely not the same thing. So amazingly lovely and gorgeous and our-Lord-glorifying and beautiful and powerful and majestic. And He shall reign forever and ever! My only regret…that I couldn’t sing with them! Ahh, one day. One day.

And now it’s time to get back to work, but know this: tonight will be my first night to myself in quite some time, so I will most definitely enjoy the time to relax and read and SLEEP. Oh the sleep will be welcome! I may or may not have a satisfying dinner of delicious hamburgers, baked potatoes and crispy green beans too. Mmmm. If I don’t fall asleep first.

Have a simply lovely day, y’all! Love you guys!!

Across the ocean

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Alright, I was going to post a long, EPIC entry, but alas, I took too long eating lunch and now lunch is about over and I need to work. But I still must at least write something! Hopefully the quality makes up for the quantity. Actually, it probably won’t, but shh. And now that I’m done talking about why I’m not writing more(and thus wasting precious time that I could have written a longer entry!), I shall just say a few words…

Firstly, Deanna is in town! What!!! Yes, you heard that right – Deanna’s in Aberdeen as of last night and that is just so much awesome, y’all. She’s staying with a family here in the church(Eleanor’s parents) currently and today she’s recovering from her flight adventure yesterday(which included a 4 hour “visit” with immigration officials. Ugh) and exploring around Aberdeen while I work. But tonight, going to go downtown and celebrate Rosemary’s birthday(hurrah!!) and then tomorrow, we go up to Inverness! As long as we don’t get blizzard-ed in the face, that is. We’ll spend a night in Inverness(of course exploring Loch Ness while we’re at it) and then taking the train down to Edinburgh on Friday(again, God willing) and spending a couple days there! It shall be sweet and epic and awesome and fantastically fabulous and perfectly lovely, I so declare.

Of course, I’m also a little exhuasted right now, because while I told myself ahead of time I’d get lots of sleep over the weekend in preparation for impending Deanna-visit, did I? Of course not. Instead I had a gorgeous weekend hanging out with people and enjoying amazingly encouraging and refreshing times at church and shopping(the worst part of the weekend!) and seeing random movies and staying up FAR too late every night and not getting any sleep at all(most of this is your fault, Aiysha!). But…what do I always say? Sleep is unnecessary.

And now it’s work time(for the last time until next Monday!) and then it’s epic Scotland with Deanna Adventure time! Peace out, y’all!!

Snowglobe

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I don’t quite know why I’m posting twice in one day, but it is lunchtime and I’m enjoying a nice lunch of cheese sandwiches and chips(that’s fries to you people back home!). Nice hot chips with salt and vinegar, mmm…

Ok, maybe that’s the purpose of my post, to make you all hungry. Because I don’t really have anything else to say…other than that it is STILL SNOWING. It looks like a violently shaken snowglobe outside. At this rate, we’ll be buried by Christmas. Of course, I’ll in Florida for Christmas(hurrah!!) where it’s nice and warm and sunny. Yes. The only good thing about the snow is that I’ve not yet gotten stuck again like my adventure on Saturday night…and that it’s not really that cold yet. Only about 5 below(23 degrees or so, for all you back home).

And now, I think I will enjoy the rest of my lunch before my chips go cold. To everyone now waking up in the States, g’morning! Have an absolutely lovely day!!

Royal blue

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Well, at work early on a Thursday morning – I’m the first one in, and so before work begins, enjoying a bit of coffee and warming up after being out in the snowy cold!

And as I drove in this morning, rolling behind the cautiously glowing red lights of the cars before me that beckoned me on in a slow dance with the icy roads, I looked up and saw the piercing sickle of the moon shine bright against the inky blue sky and above the silent witness stood the proud morning star, a jewel in the heavens and knowing well that it stood alone of all the stars in majesty this day. And as the sky slowly began to bleed light, the clouds shot through with glory, I sighed with pleasure at the beauty of the skies, the creation of the Almighty that is but a pale reflection of the magnificence I will one day witness in His presence. All glory to the Lord of hosts. All glory to the Lamb that was slain! All glory to our God!!

Honey in the tea

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Ok, well remember my last entry how I said how I loved the snow, but was sure I’d get sick of it someday? Well, that may not have been yesterday. But it IS THIS DAY. I want it to GO AWAY right now. And actually it is quite lovely outside, now that I’m inside my nice warm cozy flat! Had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner(YES) at Rosemary’s tonight – me and Uche picked up Aiysha on the way…after being quite lost, finally made it to Rosemary’s – mmm, delicious roast turkey and potatoes and vegetables and yorkshire puddings and stuffing(made by yours truly)….oh yes. But, as always, the best part was just chilling with good friends and talking and talking and talking…

Of course eventually we had to go home. But upon walking out of Rosemary’s flat, we found out that it was snowing. A LOT. Our car already had about 3-4 inches piled on it. Yeah. After warming up the car, we made our way slowly down the road…successfully dropping off Aiysha before we got to very treacherous grounds. Cars were stopped and we were stuck and it was not nice at all. Some awesome guys helped Uche push our car a ways and another cool guy shoveled out the snow that was accumulating in front of my tires. My nice little Peugeot is most definitely *not* made for snow. Eventually we got mostly unstuck…and then made it home following in the tracks of a big car(I may or may not have gone through a couple reds to stay on his tail and not get permanently frozen in the middle of Anderson Drive). And eventually, after much much prayer and Uche’s encouragement, we made it home and swung into Headland Ct and pulled straight into an open parking space in front of our flat. Oh, all praise to the Lord!!!!!!! And so now, dear snow, I would really like it if you stayed away while I need to drive. Please?

Also, walking to church tomorrow will be fun. Truly! Walking in snow, I do not mind(I do sort of need better boots though..) It’s the driving and being totally stuck that is not so much fun. Grr.

But now, nice hot tea and book…mmm, yes.

And it comes down

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Driving home today in lovely snowfall, I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of the white blankets of snow gently draping roads, grass and buildings alike. Oh I’m sure that someday(probably soon) I’ll be tired of the snow and ready for it to go away. But it is not this day!! So beautiful and clean and fine, powdered sugar on the grass, and the crunch of my boots in the unspoiled snow, and now the trees gracefully hold up the snow to frame the cloudy sky, that sky both tempestuous and amazingly gorgeous, snow pouring forth from the storehouses of heaven. Beauty.

Oh and for some reason, catching a snowflake on my tongue never seems to lose its wonder.

Tonight(after I finish my yummy shepherd’s pie and take a nap because I am exhausted, yo), I’ll be walking downtown to Aiysha’s birthday party – it will be a sweet snow walking adventure, I so declare!

Now to finish dinner(hmm, why has writing distracted me from food? That seems wrong somehow). Peace!

A glimmer, nay, a star

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And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins, in which you
formerly walked according to the
course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the
spirit that is now working in the sons
of disobedience. Among them we too
all formerly lived in the lusts of our
flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh
and of the mind, and were by nature
children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because
of His great love with which He
loved us, even when we were dead
in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ(by grace you have
been saved), and raised us up with
Him, and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so
that in the ages to come He might show
the surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
-Ephesians 2:1-7

I was going to end that sooner, but two things prevented me. Firstly, it’s just so beautiful I couldn’t find a good stopping place…and secondly, because the sentence itself didn’t stop. Oh Pauline sentences, how I love thee.

Seriously, such a gorgeous passage, is it not? And two of the most amazing and heart-stopping and enlivening and lovely and starkly beautiful words of all time…”But God.” And hope bursts into glorious bloom, life eternal. This passage is one of my favorites, so I don’t know why I’m trying to unnecessarily validate these verses with my pitiful words, but I just can’t help marveling at the amazingness of God’s most gracious love and compassion towards such desperately wicked men and women…oh what a joy that springs from my heart, abounding towards the God whose love abounds still more! And I think this passage may (subconsciously) be the pattern towards which all my gasps of poetry tend to slip into –

darkness, expanding and vicious and cold blackness and
the depths of deepest despair and when all is lost and
man is
lost in a storm of whirling shadows and
torn in pieces by the knife that was his own and
rotting in the grave so eagerly dug and
drinking the depths of the debt that is owed and
wavering in glazed reality and
on his knees in hopeless emptiness and
on his face in stark weariness and
letting go of the last that could be done and then
light.
Light forever.
Glorious Almighty God.
Light and love and God Himself,
the pinnacle of infinity that the universe strains to grasp.
Oh glorious Lord!
And overwhelmed in joy and overcome by love
and soaking in the blood of the Lamb that was slain,
she is
dancing in the spotless grace,
singing in the newborn praise,
seeing with adoring gaze,
feeling the more perfect rays,
and now she quivers and says,
Oh I love how can I not?
When by His blood I am bought?
He loved me first,
oh those glorious words,
He loves me!

…and that’s what happens when I let my mind stray and wander and ponder the incomprehensible fact that…the Almighty God of the Universe loved me. How else can I respond but by saying…’Oh I love how can I not?’ I love my Father so. Oh I love Him!!!! If my tears could but grace His feet, I would weep for being so close to Him…my Lord and my God, I love Him so!!!!