Recently Robert and I were driving back from a day adventure at the fascinating Webb Wildlife Management Area in Garnett, SC when we looked off to the right and saw this …
Yes, I know, the scene is difficult to see clearly. So HR pulled to the side of the road, and we walked nearer.
But the brush was SO thick, and we couldn’t get very close.
Two old cars hidden in the woods.
There has to be a story here somewhere.
And that’s my hidden-story Saturday Evening Post.
Living in Savannah, with water all around, we love us Some Seafood!
Tonight Robert had leftover Low Country Boil (from our Christmas Day “New Traditional” Supper) …
While I was a bit more classy — Mussels with tomato, garlic and white wine sauce (ridiculously easy and quick to prepare) …
Beyond delicious!
It takes muscles to eat mussels!
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What a Joyful Meal.
And a few of Robert’s more artsy shell photos …
Interesting that HR will not eat them, but he has no problem taking photos of them.
Recently Robert and I visited Southern Belle Farms in McDonough GA. Walking to the side of their fabulous country market, HR yelled, “Neal, look! Baby Jesus on a truck!”
And sure enough, as I got closer, I saw them—all the stars of the traditional crèche: Mary, Joseph and the Baby. The Three Wise Men. An Angel. A Shepherd and his Sheep.
All mounted on an old school farm truck!
Robert started pointing and giving a little impromptu lecture about the various Nativity personnel, as if I were a toddler new to Sunday School.
Mentally asleep for a while in his mansplaining words, I finally woke up and asked, “What do you think happened to Mary’s left arm?”
“Neal, you’re missing the whole point of the display!” he sputtered as he huffed off toward the Kettle Corn stand.
I stood there for a while, pondering about what was missing. Until I finally followed the buttery scent to the Kettle Corn and to Robert.
And that’s My Saturday Evening Post.
A blog category of photos I’ve taken of HR (Hubby Robert) and … well, just about anything.
Robert and … the Salvation Army fellow, dancing at Rockefeller Center near the skating rink.
So Robert and I were in Manhattan recently on a little Amtrak day trip from our anniversary sojourn to Philadelphia.
After our incredible anniversary lunch at Del Frisco’s …
… we walked out the door to the iconic skating rink and saw him … dancing …
And of course, Robert had to join him.
🎶 From the bottom of my heart. 🎶
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We end today’s Advent Journey with one of Paul’s beautifully eloquent writings on LOVE, found in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
Love is patient
Love is kind
It does not envy
It does not boast
It is not proud
It does not dishonor others
It is not self-seeking
It is not easily angered
It keeps no record of wrongs
Love does not delight in evil
But rejoices with the truth
It always protects
Always trusts
Always hopes
Always perseveres
Robert and I send our Love to you on this Christmas Morn.
Marveling!
So the other evening Robert and I drove over to daughter Amy‘s house on Skidaway Island (Savannah) to walk doggy Coastal while her fam was out of town.
When Coastal, HR and I started meandering toward the next-door neighbor’s house, we saw this …
Wait, you need it in color. So let’s send Robert closer.
Either very cute or terrifying! This Rudolph has to be the biggest reindeer in the history of the world.
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I was so startled that a few of my photos came out quirky because of my nervously, shaking hands …
Or did that Holiday Giant have special Holiday Powers?
We urged Coastal to finish her business quickly and hastened our way back to the safe house.
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We left Coastal and her brother-from-another-mother Little Kitty at peace and watching the chimney with care.
From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.
An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.
Today, Fugelsang writes:
“Jesus was a nonprofit prophet, but was he really a socialist? The short answer’s no, because socialism didn’t exist yet. But let’s point out:
He never owned property.
He said, ‘It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’
He told people to pay their taxes.
He never healed the blind and then billed them.
He never gave anyone a mandatory drug test before dispensing some loaves and fishes.
I’ll never say Jesus was a socialist. But I will say if he were alive now and preaching the exact same message, right-wing Christians would call him one.” p. 190
From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.
An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.
I love this humorous point the author makes at the beginning of his preface:
From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.
An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.
In the same chapter from yesterday, “Thou Shalt Not Take All of This Too Literally,” Fugelsang examines the fallacy of folks who want to take the Bible (or any “holy” book) as God-breathed, literal instructions on how to live:
“Faith does not require literalism; many Christians [and non-Christians] find profound meaning in the Bible without taking every word as fact. As author and theologian Keith Giles reminds us, ‘Many things are Biblical, like genocide, patriarchy, slavery, polygamy. When I say these things are Biblical, I mean that people have in the past-and even today-used the Bible to justify all of those things. So, yes, those things are Biblical. But none of those things are Christlike.’”
“’And that’s the point. We’re called to follow Christ, not the Bible. In fact, please understand this: the Bible does not tell us to follow the Bible. The Bible tells us to follow Christ’” p. 77
Fugelsang continues;
“The Bible often uses figurative language to express truth. Jesus described himself as the ‘bread of life’ in John 6:35, but it’s not interpreted literally. The man was a poet; he wasn’t actually made of flour and yeast.” p.72
The author then quotes one of today’s most intelligent and insightful clergy, Pastor John Pavlovitz.
“The people who most stridently contend they believe in a literal application of the Bible have simply not read the majority of it. They have been selectively armed with the verses that seem to reflect their prejudices, confirm their theology, ratify their politics, and echo the story they believe about God. The moment you give them a verse or a section that confronts their worldview, you take the pressure off of yourself by having them argue with God and not you?” p. 75
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My understanding of today’s post: What’s most important in any faith’s “book” or any person’s “core belief” is the Love it directs us toward. The kindness, the compassion, the inclusion, the joy. Not the dogma and sense of exclusive superiority.
Happy 15th Day of Advent.
NealEnJoy 