St Nicholas. Medical Tests. And Other Miscellaneous Things.

We celebrated the feast of St Nicholas with an awful Christmas movie - don't watch it, save yourself the time and money! "Deck the Halls" with Matthew Broderick and Danny de Vito. Poor script, bad supporting actors...All in the name of Christmas.

However, Anthony's Christmas craft ( Fr Xmas Aussie style, on a surfboard) and our book on the dining table, near the wreath ( The Miracle of S Nicholas by Gloria Whelan) and our Stollen ( bread) made the celebration.

Happy Name Day, Nick! ( son number 3).

Luke and Greg ( two eldest sons) are here in Sydney - so we are back to our push up competitions and arm wrestling. The family that wrestles together stays together??

Had my medical tests - the cysts appear to be benign! Deo Gratias! See my doctor this week to see what further treatment may be needed.

What else?

Rifle shooting, a group outing I organized for Homeschool Teen Group.

Advent reading - we are all reading something - Anthony is reading 'The Screwtape Letters' by C. S. Lewis and Jonathon feels melancholy at the thought that his youngest brother is now old enough to read Screwtape!

Me? I am finishing off 'Jesus of Nazareth' and want to share some of last night's reading ~

" One last question remains: is God also mother? The Bible does compare God's love with the love of a mother: 'as one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.' (Is 66:13)...it is nonetheless also true that God is never named or addressed as mother, whether in the Old or in the New Testament. 'Mother' in the Bible is an image but not a title for God. Why not? We can only tentatively seek to understand. Of course, God is neither a man not a woman, but simply God, the creator of man and woman.....the image of the father was and is apt for expressing the otherness of creator and creature and the sovereignty of his creative act...the prayer language of the entire Bible remains normative for us, in which, as we have seen, while there are some fine images of maternal love, 'mother' is not used as a title or a form of address for God. We make our petitions in the way that Jesus, with Holy Scripture in the background, taught us to pray, and not as we happen to think or want." ( page 140)

And, from my light reading, a delicious quote from 'The Immaculate Deception' by Iain Pears ( in the Jonathon Argyll art mystery series, thank you Pam for the suggestion!) ~

a companionable quote on housework ~

'I have a vague image of tidiness I keep in my mind, rather like some people have a notion of eternity in paradise. You never approach it, but it's good to believe that you might get there one day.'