Hey friends....It's Christmas Card time....
Last year I asked to exchange Christmas cards with those readers that wanted too...
It was alot of fun!
If you replied last year...Your card is on it's way as I will now haunt you forever with my card (smile)!
If you want to participate...please email me your snail mail address and I will send you a card :) If you want to send me one I'd love to receive it!
I think exchanging Christmas cards is a beautiful tradition that helps us feel more 'connected' in this easy-to-disconnect world we live within...
My email address is: andrea cockrum at yahoo dot com (remove spaces :)
Happy Christmas Card Week !!
Andrea
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Hi there. I commented on your post regarding the Jewish roots of Christianity. Thought you might want to know about the special festival that begins tonight (Tuesday). Hannukah is called the Festival of Lights, or the Feast of Dedication. You can google the story. Jesus celebrated this feast. In fact, it was during this feast Jesus spoke in the Temple John 8:12. We are believers who celebrate the Jewish feasts because Jesus did. We have been doing this for years and these feasts have added to our understanding of Scripture and our faith. Because this is the Feast of Dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, we light the candles and have a short study each night of one aspect of what it means to dedicate ourselves to God. We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit according to Scripture. We talk about how to grow closer to Him, we repent and clean out our earthly temples of sins we have been convicted of. In the past we have set spiritual goals of reading through the Bible as a family, increasing our prayer time, commiting to an outreach ministry, etc. We have a Hannukiah ( a nine branched candle stand), but we prefer the homemade one on the mantle - eight cut class votives and one crystal candlestick in the center. The center candle, called the Shamash, is the servant candle and is a picture of Jesus, the Servant of All. It lights all the other candles. Each night the shamash lights one more candle from far right to left, until they are all lit on the eighth night. After doing a short study on the topic of the night, we exchange small token gifts - bookmark or highlighters for our bibles, chocolate for a sweet disposition, a coupon for a service from one peron to another, etc. It is a sweet counterpart to the busy-ness of this time of year. It causes us to slow down for eight evenings and savor the time. We have hot cocoa, turn off the lights, light the candles and it is holy and special. It causes the wonder of this time to be extended. If this is something you would like to try, line up some votives, google the story, and for the next eight nights read the Word and talk about miracles, the personal and the public ones. Dedicate your Temples anew and experience the shalom (true peace) of this time of year. If you would like, I will comment again just before the next feast to tell you about it and how to incorporate it into your celebration. Be Blessed.
What a blessing you have given me through your words!
We have attempted "Advent" this year but my health (I am in the midst of conquering Post Traumatic Syndrome) has prevented us from doing this with excellence this year.
Are the bible stories you pick each night simply ones you chose or are there specific ones for Hannukah.
With Advent, we are working our way from Genesis to Luke, highlighting the 'major' stories.
Beware..here comes a stupid Gentile question: Do you leave the candles lit all day? If so, then the non-servant candles would need to be large to last eight days (at least the first one lit would need to last eight days)
Another question...8 days takes us to the 27th. Do you celebrate the 25th as Christ's birthday? (I cannot tell if you are a Christian incorporating beautiful Jewish traditions into your faith or a practicing Jewish individual who is helping me with my questions :)
PLEASE let me a note here for the Jewish festivals.
We are going to attend the Orthodox Christmas service on Jan 6th .... as I am exceptionally drawn to the Orthodox church but and, our oldest son is adopted from Russia, so this is a way to honor his birth culture.
Andrea
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