Beach Hut Advent Calendar

Throughout December, beach huts along Hove seafront will be opening their doors to reveal a festive display as part of a giant seafront advent calendar

Even though, like me, you can't travel to the south of England to experience this first hand - you can 'visit' each hut by going to their blog:-  http://www.beyondchurch.blogspot.com (Doors can be opened via the blog link on My Blog List on the right of my blog page).

What is BEYOND?

BEYOND is an opportunity for people to explore spirituality through a variety of creative approaches.

The aims of BEYOND are:
• To help people to a deeper understanding of spirituality
through the arts and other creative activities.
• To explore non-traditional ways of being Christian.
• To be a resource for church people who wish to further
explore their relationship with God.

Using art, poetry, philosophy and theology, BEYOND curates provocative spaces in order to inspire and =stimulate discussion.The installations and events create environments for questions and grappling with ideas about God without signing up to an established line of dogmatic thought.

BEYOND creates around 10 events a year and everyone is welcome to any event. 

http://www.beyondchurch.co.uk/

Candles are burning

ADVENT

Out in the woods the leaves are falling

silent; and soft on the forest floor

the flowers are gone, the colours have faded;

and the butterflies come no more.

Out in the fields the hedgehogs are hiding

under the hedgerows they’re falling asleep.

And the robin comes searching for food in the garden

where grubs are scarce and the frost is deep.

Out in the sky wild geese are calling,

flying south from the ice and snow,

seeking the safety of lakes and marshes

on England’s wet-lands far below.

Out in the streets people are shouting;

the angry people who don’t believe.

No Advent for them; no Jesus to wait for;

no chapel to go to on Christmas Eve.

But out in the churches the candles are burning

counting the days to the Saviour’s birth.

And our hearts are burning with joy and amazement

the High King of Heaven is coming –

To Earth!

© Sandra Birch 2011

First door of the Advent Calendar

We didn’t have a lot of entertainment when I was a young girl. Hence, the business of opening the door on the advent calendar each morning brought great excitement. (And this was in the days before hidden chocolates were even thought of). I would then happily head off to school knowing that today was the day of the ‘lantern’ or the ‘bell’ or the ‘reindeer’ or whatever picture had magically appeared at the peeling back of the advent door.

So here I am today - an adult, sure, but the anticipation of opening a door is still with me. Yesterday, I looked at the introduction of Margaret Silf’s book ‘Lighted Windows’ – so what will I discover behind my advent door today – or rather the1 December chapter of Margaret’s book?

Advent Day 1 is called ‘Risk’.

Here we find the story of Zechariah learning that his wife Elizabeth is to have a son. His disbelief at hearing this news renders him speechless until the day he came to name his new-born – John. Silf writes “ ‘If only God would write his instructions across the sky,’ we might often be tempted to think. If only it were obvious what we should do, which direction we should choose, how we should react to a particular person or situation. But life rarely gives us that kind of certainty. More often our choices and decisions are full of ambiguity and mixed motivation, and the best we can hope for is to do a minimum of harm – a goal so far removed from the desire that burns in our hearts to live true to the very best of our visions.” Margaret taps into the idea that we can get stuck in our comfort zones and stop expecting God to impact on our lives – a bit like Zechariah!

But, like Zechariah we are given time respond. God is patient and waits for us. Silf says ‘God invites us to take a chance on life too, without knowing where his guidance will lead us. To the extent that we can say ‘Yes’, we will discover the next step along the way.

She ends with this prayer:-

“Lord, I can’t see the bright sunlight of your leading, because my eyes are focused on the little candle of my own thinking. Blow out the candle if you must, and give me the grace to see your light in my darkness. Amen”

Now, here we are back at coincidences again. Earlier this evening I came across another blog that had quotes down the side (more on quotes another time). Well, I am quite into quotes and figured out how to add them. Then came the decision – what quote to post first. After a bit of deliberation I decided on the one from Aquinas.

"If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever."

Thomas Aquinas

And that brings me full circle back to risks!

So what advent image lies behind my door today? What have I gleaned from today’s coincidences and Silf’s reflections?
What do I see through the lighted window?

For me, I see a pair of wings and I hear my mother’s voice:-

“Linda, you have to jump off of the cliff and grow your wings on the way down.”

That is how I take my risks of faith. I jump. This blog is a risk. I have jumped. But, I just know that the wings will grow. So, as I head into another day - I will take the image of growing wings with me.

The Little Matchgirl

As Advent is a time for pausing and reflecting I thought I would do it by reading through a book. This year I have chosen 'Lighted Windows' by Margaret Silf. It starts on the 1st of December - tomorrow.

But, this evening I thought I would start by reading the introduction. I was amazed to discover that Margaret writes about 'The Little Matchgirl'. Amazed because when I was out with friends this evening we were talking about just this story.

Let me share what Margaret has written:-

'The 'Little Matchgirl' wasn't a story I was familiar with, but as she [a friend] retold it, it came to life in a way that reflects, for me, something of the spirit of this Advent journey. The little matchgirl was a young child, undernourished and very poor. She earned her daily bread by selling matches, but the earnings were sparse and at home a cruel father was waiting to punish her if she failed to bring home enough money. One dark winter night she was standing in her usual place, shivering and gazing at the lighted windows of the big houses all around her, catching fleeting glimpses of all that was going on inside those rooms - the preparations for Christmas, the lovely gifts, the bright decorations, the happy faces, the smell of Christmas puddings and roasting goose.

All she had was a box of matches and there were no customers tonight - they all had other things on their minds. 'Dare I strike one?' she wondered. She took out a match, and struck it, gazing for a few brief moments into its blaze of light. As she did so, she imagined that it was one of those lighted windows. She looked inside, in her imagination, and entered into a warm room where loving friends might welcome her. Another match; another scene. Another window to look into. Perhaps a fine dinner set out for a family. The crackling of the goose, the aroma of mince pies. Food and shelter. And so she continued, until she came to the last match in the box.

The story has a bittersweet ending. As she strikes her last match, the little matchgirl sees a shooting star falling across the night sky and her granny is standing there, smiling, waiting to gather the child into her arms and carry her home to heaven. The frozen child is discovered the next morning, with an empty matchbox in her hands and a deep, contented smile across her white face.'

[Note from Linda:- Here is another summary of the story - "On a cold New Year’s Eve, a poor girl tries to sell matches in the street. She is freezing badly, but she is afraid to go home because her father will beat her for not selling any matches. She takes shelter in a nook and lights the matches to warm herself. In their glow, she sees several lovely visions including a Christmas tree and a holiday feast. The girl looks skyward, sees a shooting star, and remembers her deceased grandmother saying that such a falling star means someone died and is going into Heaven. As she lights her next match, she sees a vision of her grandmother, the only person to have treated her with love and kindness. She strikes one match after another to keep the vision of her grandmother nearby for as long as she can. The child dies and her grandmother carries her soul to Heaven. The next morning, passers-by find the dead child in the nook."]

Back to 'Lighted Windows':-

'The Advent journey invites you to share something of the magic and the mystery of what it means to look into some of your own 'lighted windows'. But these are not the windows of fantasy. They are the windows of our common quest to discover 'God-with-Us' - Emmanuel, God incarnate in the world of everyday reality with all its shame and its glory. They are like 'windows' of an Advent Calendar, leading us ever closer to the mystery that is born in Bethelehem.'
.
Looking forward to opening the first window tomorrow.

Advent Remembering

First Sunday in Advent 2011
Taking time today as we approach Christmas, to remember absent loved ones and holding those memories in God's peace, love and hope through faith. Reminding ourselves to live lives that matter.

Live A Life That Matters

(Author unknown)

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from,

or on what side of the tracks you lived.

At the end, whether you were beautiful or brilliant, male or female,

even your skin colour won't matter.

So what will matter?

How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew,

but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories,

but the memories that live in those who loved you.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.

It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.