It's Advent: Be on the Lookout for Angels

 

 

picture by Shana Dines of Elkhart 2014
You can find out more about Shana at:
https://ealonline.org/featured-artist-shana-dines/

Luke 2: 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Some things to consider…

1.     Angels told shepherds about the birth before priests, before kings, before  anyone else.

2.     The shepherds, in humility and joy, recognized the angels as messengers of the Lord.

3.     Upon receiving this divine revelation they were eager to respond and go on the adventure.

As we continue through Advent and approach Christmas, as we prepare our hearts, not only for the family get-togethers and gifts, but also for some sacred impact upon our souls, let’s be like shepherds.

    Let’s accept that wherever we are angels visit us. During Covid 19 we may feel much like the shepherds…some kind of outcasts in fields of loneliness. Know that you are valued highly.

  Like the shepherds let us be sensitive to the angels speaking to us. We do this by prayer and taking time to “Be still and know God”.

Let us eagerly respond in our souls to take a new and fresh spiritual adventure.

I know we have experienced many years of Christmas. Sometimes in all the hustle and bustle we become “bah, humbug” about it.

But as we listen to Christmas music, gaze upon ornaments, remember our loved ones who have gone on, let’s know that we are not left behind…not really. We are visited by angels of divine proclamation, grace, and encouragement.

Let us then anticipate something wonderful!

Eric Settles, Proud Pilot

 

 

first solo flight 12/17/2019

 

I am particularly proud to announce that as of Thursday, December 3. 2020, my son, Eric Settles, gained his pilot’s license at Goshen Municipal Airport- GSH. His FAA Examiner wrote on his report “nice touch…beautiful flying.”

   Eric was surely pleased. This has been a goal of his since his first airplane flight when he was 8 or 9 years old.

   Since his childhood he has been passionately interested in flight, airplanes, and the airline industry. I believe he told me that while in college one of his business class reports was of an airline industry incident.

    On December 17, 2019 he experienced his first solo flight.

    You know how it is when you set goals for yourself and life has a way of trying to sabotage your steps toward those goals. We have work to attend to, college, family concerns that interrupt our plans.

          Congratulations to my son, Eric, for sticking with it and making a dream come true.

   As a gesture of celebration, my wife, Sherry Borglum, found this 1974 vintage belt buckle to present as a gift in celebration.

vintage belt buckle

   Now we wonder what may be the next step…?

 

My favorite part of the Christmas story is found in Matthew 2: 1-12.

We are told that wise men, or kings, or star-gazers, came from the East to worship the new born King.

   We celebrate the arrival of these wise men on January 6, 2020. We call it Epiphany.

   Now personally, I think these “wise men” were indeed astrologers of their day who came from the land where the Israelites had been carried off to generations ago. I imagine the astrologers (priests) having coffee with the scribes and priests of the Israelites and discussing theology and other such things.

Perhaps this is how the wise men knew to be anticipating a king or Messiah.

But wherever from they came, the story mentions a plural “wise men”. It does not say three. There could have been two, there could have been many more.

It does say they brought gifts and three are named. It is likely they brought other gifts as well.

   But the thing I want to affirm here is that perhaps your church, like many, over time has lost one of the wise men set. Maybe you have only two left.

You are still faithful to the story because the story merely says “wise men”…not a specific “three”.

So relax, be not embarrassed. If anyone says anything, just tell them Mike claims only two wise men!

And, by the way…it is perfectly fine to keep your Christmas decorations up until Epiphany which is the conclusion of the twelve days of Christmas!