Advent 2

Passage: lyrics to hymn The King Shall Come
(As they appear in my hymnal)
The King shall come when morning dawns/And light triumphant breaks,/When beauty gilds the eastern hills/And life to joy awakes.
Not as of old a little child,/To bear and fight and die,/But crowned with glory like the sun/That lights the morning sky.
Oh, brighter than the rising morn/When Christ, victorious, rose/And left the lonesome place of death/Despite the rage of foes.
Oh, brighter than that glorious morn/Shall dawn upon our race/The day when Christ in splendour comes/And we shall see His face.
The Kind shall come when morning dawns/And light and beauty brings./Hail, Christ the Lord! Your people pray:/Come quickly, King of kings!

Words: John Bronlie, 1859-1925, alt.

self-giv·ing (sělf'gĭv'ĭng): adj. Characterized by self-sacrificing behavior; unselfish.

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The Skit Guys are a comedy duo that I have discovered and love to watch. This particular video warmed my heart, so please watch it before reading any further.


Below the video on Youtube was this comment by "skitguyt" (Thomas, one of the members of the skit guys and the one in this video):
"Those are my real kids & wife. It is also a true story. The greatest morning of my life! I love my family! "

I think the video itself is enough of a story, but I still feel obliged to make more of one. As Sola Fide can testify, that is the way I am.
I have said before on this blog how the simplest things can mean so insanely much, and lately I have been blessed by quite a few of them. Here's two.

At my church, we have this thing called "Secret Prayer Pals". It's really neat, involving someone praying for someone else without the other's knowledge. Sometimes that person will give their prayer pal a card on their birthday, Christmas, and Easter.
To explain my situation: I'm so much better than how I was a couple of months ago, but I still have periods where I feel tired and sad and just generally 'not good'. For most of those times, I feel like I really need a hug or a wink or something from someone I care about-- but not if I ask for it. I need one just offered up for no reason in particular.
I was having one of those days today, and after Church my mom came up to me and handed me a card that was in her mail slot. It had the handwriting I recognize as my secret prayer pal's on it ---they spelt my name wrong. For those who know me: they left out the H. Just to tease me. They spelt it right on the inside...--- and I opened it curiously. There was no occasion to be celebrated, it's the Second Sunday of Advent after all not the first or last, yet they were sending me a card.
I pulled it out. It's pink and green with a cute little pattern on it. In a small script in the middle of the front, it says "You are fabulous . . ." I looked at my best friend curiously then opened it up. The inside has white polka dots on a pink fill as the background, and on top of a white slip it reads: "If you ever forget that, please read this again." They include a Tim's card for ten dollars.
Just cause.
They have no idea how much that meant to me at that moment, and they couldn't have seen the tears that sprung to my eyes as I blinked them back before even my mom could see them.
The second special occasion occurred on another of my bad days, though this one was worse. I had been home alone all day and just felt miserable, there was no one I could talk to, and I opened up my laptop and pulled up MSN. No one was online and I sighed. I saw that I had received instant messages while I was offline and I clicked the link almost reluctantly (I hate having to pick through six different "Goodnights!" that I missed). Up sprang a conversation with my friend way over in Calgary. She addressed me with my pet name and gave me this message: "i gotta bounce but jes wanted to send a lil note of love and a big HUGE hug yer way :) blessings my friend. i miss you " Below that, she had sent, "God bless you. much love."
I hadn't gone online at all the night before (too tired), so she had just sent this message randomly as she is apt to do. How ... touching that I saw it at that moment.

I like the notion that Thomas applies in his video. If a little touch like that feels so good to us, why don't we give God some? I'm sure he would appreciate it.
Here's the link to the video if, for some reason, you can't watch in on the site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Pju_bjlWo

~Godspede