Love is a baby sleeping in the straw

 

LOVE – for the 2021 Holiday Photography Challenge (See sidebar for full list.).

 

I have always adored the nativity story. When I was a child, I think I was mostly drawn to the sweet scene. I loved setting up our family’s nativity scene (which we called a crèche). There’s something so wonderful and fairy tale-like about a special baby being born in a cozy stable with soothing ambient lighting and peaceful animals peeking in.

 Only it wasn’t a fairy tale. It wasn’t cozy. It wasn’t really even a stable. It was more like a cave or grotto. It was probably cold and damp and dark and messy. And the animals were probably noisy and stinky.

 

Most of all, the baby was much more than special.

 The King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Son of God squished His divinity into a tiny baby to join mankind on this planet. He was born into the most humble of settings. There was no room for His expectant mother and her betrothed to settle into more comfortable and (Dare I say it?) respectable accommodations for His birth. 

And He was born to a young teenager, who was still a Virgin – even though most of the folks in her tiny hometown probably suspected something much more scandalous was afoot.

 

What a story. HIS story.

 This was the night that divided history into BC and AD. Our entire system of historical timekeeping hinges on His arrival.

 And this was the night that changed the world forever. God became man. And He was born to die, so we might live.

 That’s love.

Image/s: Personal photo/s. All rights reserved.

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Can you remember the first car you ever drove?

Think back. Can you recall the first car you ever drove? Are you able to remember how it felt to turn that ignition key and grip that steering wheel?

I surely can.

My family had a 1970s-era Ford Country Squire station wagon, all decked out with the wood panels. That was pretty popular back then. Ours was navy blue, but it looked a lot like the green one in the photo here. That’s the closest picture I could find to the old dog (I mean car).

(I know. It looks like something out of a John Hughes movie.)

I remember my first test ride. My mom took me to a giant parking lot for my first try. Before long, we were tooling through neighborhoods and our own downtown.

At first, I felt pretty spiffy, just because I was driving. It was cool to walk around jingling a set of car keys. It was an adventure to climb behind the wheel and roll around town without adult supervision.

Soon, however, I grew somewhat embarrassed to pilot such a dowdy-looking set of wheels. It was sort of the same feeling a teen or young adult might have these days, if she were caught wearing a pair of high-waisted, baggy-butt, stonewashed mom jeans.

And that big ole' machine consumed gas like there was no tomorrow. Good thing fuel was under a dollar a gallon back then! (Yes, it was a while ago.)

You get the picture.  Although I was grateful to have access to any vehicle as a beginning driver, I could hardly wait to buy my own car.

But that big and clunky car taught me to parallel park like nobody’s business.

What did you drive, when you first took the wheel?

Image:

Adapted from public domain photo

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Happy birthday to the Stars and Stripes Forever

John Philip Sousa’s famous American patriotic composition, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” made its public debut on May 14, 1897. The popular composer (1854-1932), later known as the March King, led his Sousa Band for the number, performing it in a Philadelphia concert.

From that point on, Sousa’s Band never completed a performance without playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

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In 1987, a full century later, U.S. President Ronald Reagan officially declared the rousing and rhythmic song as America’s National March.

“The Stars and Stripes Forever” is an American parade and patriotic performance staple.

Image/s:

Patriotic Image

Public Domain

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