“Learn to wait, because he has promised to come.”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Author: Allan (Page 137 of 492)
You haven’t lived until you’ve watched classic Christmas shows at a drive-in theater while it’s snowing. And it’s especially cool when the giant screen is on a tractor trailer and the theater is the church parking lot!
The outside temperature was right at freezing while it was snowing and sleeting all afternoon and into the evening. But that didn’t keep a whole bunch of us from showing up for the barbecue dinner and the frigid double feature here at Central. In fact, watching the shows through the snow added a great deal of novelty and excitement to the already special event.
All of us were treated to barbecue sandwiches from Fat Boys before we settled into our parking spaces, tuned our radios to 100.3-FM, and set our cars’ heaters on “medium.” We flashed our lights and honked our horns with glee when “A Charlie Brown Christmas” began — the little round-headed kid was more depressed than I remembered. We delighted during the intermission when Santa Claus and his helpers arrived with gourmet popcorn and candy bars for all the cars. And we quoted the lines and sang along with the songs during the main feature, the 1964 Claymation classic, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”
“Silver and Gold.” “Holly, Jolly Christmas.” Yukon Cornelius and the weird licking of his pickax. The Island of Misfit Toys with the Charlie-in-the-Box and the over-the-top dramatic psycho doll. And why were Santa and Donner and the head elf so grouchy? Clearly, all those elves were the first anti-dentites. And Santa had to be fat in order to be happy — Mrs. Claus knew it! There’s a lot going on there.
Everybody stayed in their cars and waved and honked at proper distances. Everybody seemed to have a really great time. And most everybody waited until this morning to clean the popcorn and potato chips up out of their vehicles.
We’re doing it again in two weeks, on December 16. I don’t know what we’re going to watch yet, but I’m rooting for the 1970 Claymation “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” I just want to say “Burgermeister, Meisterburger” from the pulpit.
Peace,
Allan
On Advent Sunday, November 28, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent a card to his parents from the Tegel Prison in Berlin. He had been arrested by the Gestapo and taken into custody eight months earlier, charged with denouncing Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, for repudiating the German Christians and German churches who were supporting Hitler, for running an illegal underground seminary at Finkenwalde, and for preaching, teaching, and writing for the Confessing Church movement. The front of the card pictured this nativity scene painted by Albrecht Altdorfer in 1511.
In the card, Bonhoeffer describes this painting as his favorite depiction of the nativity.
“One sees the holy family huddled around the manger amidst the rubble of a collapsed house. This is really contemporary.”
I imagine this 450-year-old painting reminded Bonhoeffer of the destruction throughout his home country, the bombed-out buildings in his old neighborhood. This scene could have been painted almost anywhere in Europe in the middle of World War 2. And what Bonhoeffer wrote about it on Advent Sunday 1943 could have been written on Advent Sunday 2020.
“One sees the holy family huddled around the manger amidst the rubble of a collapsed house. This is really contemporary. For the celebration of Advent is only possible to those troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come. We can and should celebrate Christmas despite the ruins around us. In fact, we must do this even more intensely now.”
May our God bless us as we faithfully wait and prepare and anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace,
Allan
Thanksgiving is a central part of Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
1:3 – We’re thankful for the faith and the hope of all the good people around us.
1:12 – You should be thankful for the salvation you share with all our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God.
2:7 – You should overflow with thankfulness because you have received the fullness of God in Christ.
3:15 – Be thankful for the peace of Christ inside you, the Word of Christ inside you.
3:17 – Be thankful for the name of Christ we all wear by the grace of God.
4:2 – Be thankful for the many redemptive ways God is breaking into our world.
Be thankful for the goodness of our God. Be thankful for the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has come to you and changed your whole life. Be thankful for the mercies of God and the mighty acts of God that belong to you. Be thankful that God has begun a good work in you and he is going to see it all the way to completion on that day when Christ appears and you appear with him in his eternal glory.
It’s good to be thankful around all the family, food, and football in late November. But be thankful every day – every waking moment – that, through Christ, you belong to God forever.
Peace,
Allan
Thirty-one years ago today, I got on a plane for the very first time and flew to Las Vegas with Carrie-Anne. I had asked her to marry me on that morning of November 25, 1989 and by 11:30 that night, we were husband and wife, hitched by a deputy sheriff in the basement of the Clark County courthouse. She said “yes” to me that day and she’s been saying “yes” to me ever since.
Carrie-Anne said “yes” to a radio career marked by slow upward mobility — emphasis on mobility. She said “yes” to Pampa, Marble Falls, Memphis, Wichita Falls, and, finally, Dallas. She said “yes” to the trials and tribulations that come with being a preacher’s wife. She said “yes” to Austin, North Richland Hills, and Amarillo. She’s said “yes” to Van Halen concerts and more Rangers games than we could count. She’s said “yes” to scary movies, political documentaries, and The Simpsons. She said “yes” to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Dr Pepper Museum. She’s said “yes” to trips to Ukraine, Peru, Brazil, Columbia, and Bolivia. (She continues to say “no” to Israel, but I’m still asking.)
I don’t know how it keeps happening. That first “yes,” maybe, came in a moment of weakness. However it happened, I feel very lucky and grateful. I thank God every single day that Carrie-Anne said “yes” that Friday after Thanksgiving in 1989. Today, we have a houseful together — three adult daughters, a new son-in-law, and Carley’s large dog. And more unknowns and adventures still to come. Together.
Carrie-Anne knows me better than anyone. We’ve been through a lot together in 31-years. She has seen and experienced the worst of me and the best of me. And, by the grace of God, she keeps saying “yes.” I feel so fortunate to be her husband, so blessed by the Lord that she is my wife.
Peace,
Allan
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