Mary Did You Know?

Mary, Did You Know? has to be my all-time favorite Christian Christmas song. Every time I hear it I get "choked up" thinking about a major player in the Christmas story that most of my life I forgot about or looked at as a minor role. In truth, she is probably the second most important character of that night, second only to her child, Jesus.

The song questions Mary as to if she really realized who this child was & what it would mean not only to her but the whole world throughout all time. Really, who could understand that? Even knowing what we know now, we have a difficult time comprehending it. The complexity & the simplicity that it is at the same time. We are human & will probably never understand until we are in the physical presence of our Holy Father.

So, do you think Mary really understood what was happening? I think she had a pretty good idea. The Jewish people had been studying the prophecies of the coming Messiah for centuries. This religion was not a Sunday morning type commitment like many "religious" people live their spiritual lives now-a-days. This was a daily, hourly, constant commitment. This was a lifestyle. People immersed themselves in the scripture & considered the messages constantly. They had been taught about The Messiah. There were different theories on what He would do & be like, but all the same, this was not some new idea. So, in a way, I think Mary & Joseph had some sort of idea as to what might be happening. I don't think either one of them had any idea of the things He would do or what would happen to him.

I imagine they were more than a little nervous as to how they should raise such a child. Should they reprimand him? If they do will he "strike them down?" Can you imagine the stress? Most parents wonder if they will completely screw up their kids, can you imagine if your child was the Son of God, the one sent to save all man-kind from their sins? Yikes. There aren't enough antacids on the planet.

Anyway, this was meant to be a short post sending you to another blog entry in which the author, Linda Williams, gives the lyrics to the song & discusses what she gets from the song. I totally agree with what she says. Don't worry, her entry is much shorter than mine. :)

Weigh In #37

Weekly loss: -2.25 lbs
Total loss: -59.75 lbs


Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional
glance towards the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful
scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point.

-- Harold B. Melchart


One Pound Journey
ActionWords (aka Danny)

Great Video: Uncle Jay -- 12/22: The Musical

Weather Report: Prediction for tomorrow (12/21/08)

Tomorrow it is supposed to be 26 degrees F by 6am. The high for tomorrow it 37. Ouch.

But get this. It is supposed to be in the 50's on Christmas day.

I don't mind the cold weather but I wish it would get to a temp & stick for a bit. I do kind of hope, though, that it is warm over Christmas & New Years so I can jog outside without dying or getting sick. If it is really cold I won't run. I just don't have the gear for that & I don't want to get sick.

Little Rock & the Fayetteville area are supposed to be getting ice either tomorrow or Tuesday. They said the roads may be bad.

Movie Review: The Librian: Quest for the Spear

I cannot believe this movie actually made it to "the big screen." It is so much more like a made-for-TV movie for the Sci-Fi Channel. The acting was painfully awkward & so silly it's audience had to be children. I can't believe so many well known actors would stoop so low to do such crap. The one liners could have been the cheesiest ever.

Apparently this is a film about magic & not even close to being like Indiana Jones like it tried to convince people in the previews. I just love being duped. Every scene keeps getting cheesier & stupider.

Why am I sitting here torturing myself? Am I really going to watch the two sequels, too? Did they actually make two more of these jokes? How did they get funding & sponsorship? What I can't believe even more is that my co-worker loves this movie. Is she kidding me? Has she never seen a quality film? Really?

The one redeeming quality was Bob Newhart. He is such a good actor & so funny.

Oh, jeez, can this get any worse?

I get that it was trying to poke fun at movies like Indian Jones & Romancing the Stone, but, really, this was your best shot? Please, please, please, don't waste your time. Find something more fun, like cleaning your toilets or having your teeth cleaned or anything like that. Ugh.

You don't believe God is in the details?

I was watching an episode of Seconds From Disaster covering the 9/11 attack on The Pentagon last night. During the research of what happened the investigators were baffled as to why the building didn't collapse for 19 min after being hit by the plane. The structural engineers couldn't figure it out, it just didn't make sense to them. All the supporting beams had been blown out. So, they went back to the original plans of the building.

Construction began on the building on 9/11/1941 (pretty ironic, huh?). War officials didn't believe there would be a need for such a large war headquarters after WWII, so they planed on using it as a warehouse for their files. For this use they installed extra beams & columns with extra steal reinforcements to handle such a huge amount of extra weight.

This was just one of the many miracles that happened that day. This one stood out to me, in particular. God is in the details, even to the precision of exactly 60 years prior. A simple decision made that later seemed unnecessary saved many lives.

If you ever get the chance to see this episode of Seconds From Disaster, take it. You won't regret it.

Great Video: 40 Inspirational Speaches in 2 Min.