“A Great and Mighty Wonder”, St. Germanicus (634-734

Dec 25 2016

We have guests to help us with the December holidays between terms, the Wetches from Bismarck, ND! They come well prepared to provide a lot of help keeping our kids busy and entertained. Plus they have brought along a selected book, matched for each one of the children as a gift. One of the most exciting activities has been making Christmas cookies and then postponing eating them until after a separate multi-colored frosting session. Last night at the Charley Brown Christmas movie they had their first taste of these creations (to make the cookie dough multiply the fun someone thought of just adding more and more and more flour!). Anyway, everyone was so excited when the movie started that we overlooked one important precaution. All the kids were not seated on the floor mats as is usually required in case of falling asleep. Our youngest either fell asleep while sitting on a chair or tipped too far back and feel over backwards. I saw the back of his head hit the concrete floor but he hardly uttered a whimper and finished off his cookie without anything obviously wrong-it was scary and reminded us of how great fun and merriment can turn into a disaster like a skull fracture.
             The episode reminds us of the Christmas story in an indirect way. A mysterious light very obviously illuminated the night sky over Bethlehem (the word means house of bread) the night God became a man as a helpless child and rested in an animal feeding trough. Micah had foretold that He would be born there in the tiny village around 700 BC. The meaning of that enigmatic prophecy speaking of his “goings forth from long ago, from the days of eternity” remained uninterpretable until Jesus revealed that He had come from the bosom of the Father where He had been from eternity. This was the basis for His rejection in making claims which clearly made “Himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18)! Not all bright lights suddenly and unexpectedly appearing in the night are benign. Some bring the certainty of destruction and judgment instead of mercy and grace. Neither the characters of that wonderful story or most of mankind until recently had the slightest idea that there are objects scattered about the cosmos at various distances from the earth which explode suddenly producing bright transient lights. They are called supernovas and the brightest, most energetic are called hypernovas (exploding stars which are about 100 times the mass of the sun). They can be seen even in the daytime. If they are close enough to the earth, within light years, their radiation could sterilize the planet. Some people think this mechanism explains early great extinctions on the prehistoric earth. A remarkable star is lurking now in the southern sky near the Southern Cross in the constellation of Carina.  I see it on clear night walks to secure the village gate. When it blows it will out shine all the stars in our galaxy and become brighter than even the galaxy itself. Those of you who are interested can read about it on the internet. It has been warning us since about 1840’s when it was transiently nearly the brightest star in the night, Eta Carinae. Then it will produce a burst of gamma rays which will be seen clear across the visible universe. Gamma rays are the means by which irradiated foods are rendered absolutely sterile through exposure to cobalt 60, a radiation source used to treat certain types of cancer.
            Paul teaches us in Ephesians that God is presently hosting heavenly intelligences (he means the various orders of angels including Gabriel) to the grandest display of the “manifold wisdom of God” that the universe has ever seen (Eph 3:10). It had been kept secret from ages past although hinted in prophecies like the one in Micah. This wisdom far exceeds the wisdom passages of the Old Testament like the seven pillars of wisdom (Prov 8:12-14 and 9:1). Most of the great and mighty of the earth have missed it. God would become a man and our Savior through a terrible execution as a common criminal. He would head a new race in the greatest story that has ever or will ever be told. This is our Christmas destiny. Let us celebrate again with boundless joy in every act of our worship, obedience and service. We have seen “A Great and Mighty Wonder”, St. Germanicus (634-734)!

Christmas in Tanzania is indeed magical. Kent and the Wetches and Elisabeth took the children to the River on the 23^rd of December and as they were just entering gate to return, up drove a coca cola truck with a nice skinny Santa. The truck was delivering rice, flour, and orange soda for the children for Christmas. They had a sound system with Christmas music and the children were so excited!!

We miss Anna and our families but Christmas here has a different dynamic. A lot of work and a lot of fun is had by all. Today we all went to church and the children all had new Christmas clothes. We attended the Swahili church with the children so we enjoyed the day together. We are tired but happy after cooking 3 meals for everyone (about 32 in all) and cleaning up afterwards. Everyone will sleep well tonight.