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WITandWISDOM(tm) - December 22, 2000 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Live without pretending, Love without depending, Listen without defending, Speak without offending, Give without ending, Build without rending. - By, Nina Roberta Baker, 1994 Source: Thought for Your Day, thoughtfortoday-subscribe@egroups.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: "I Almost Missed A Christmas Miracle" by David Langerfeld Bethlehem - 2000 AD - The excitement was building. We were standing in the Shepherd's Fields just outside of Bethlehem. We were ready to go into the Shepherd's Caves and sing Christmas Carols. Some members of the tour group had done it with me on previous trips. For others, it was their first time - but everyone was excited. Bethlehem... Christmas Carols... Shepherd's Caves... Who wouldn't be excited? We had always done it. We had always sung carols in the caves. Why? Because once you do it, you're never the same. After my first time, I was never the same. So, I had planned it so that everyone else could experience it, too. My plans were about to be fulfilled. We would sing Christmas Carols inside the Shepherd's Caves in the hills of Bethlehem. There was a problem. It was crowded. The year 2000 had bought more groups than ever to Israel. The Shepherd's Caves were full! We waited... and waited... No groups were leaving the caves. Our time was growing short. We were about to miss out on the chance to sing Christmas carols in those caves. I was disappointed. I knew what a blessing our group was about to miss. I expressed my disappointment to God. "God, we've always sung in the caves. No one is ever the same after they do! We have to do it, Lord. We've always done it that way. If we don't, our group will miss out on the blessing of Bethlehem. Can't you work it out to open one of the caves for us?" None of the other groups left the caves. We didn't get to sing carols in the Shepherd's Caves. Disappointed, I led the group to the top of the hill - to a small chapel called "The Chapel of the Angels". We would sing there - but I knew it wouldn't been the same. It couldn't be, because we had always done it only one way. Once inside the "Chapel of the Angels", we started singing carols. Most of the group had tears in their eyes as we sang "Silent Night". For them, Christmas already had a new meaning. A MIRACLE - Then, it happened. A group from Germany entered the chapel. While we were singing "Silent Night" in English, they started singing it in German. Two other groups entered as well. There were now four groups singing Christmas Carols. Every time I started our group in a song, we were joined by an "International Choir" singing in German, French and Spanish!!! There was not a dry eye in the chapel. Everyone called it a "Christmas" miracle. I almost missed out on that "Christmas Miracle" - me, the "spiritual leader" of the group. Why? Because I was so intent on doing it the way we'd always done it. If we didn't follow the same traditions of Bethlehem that we'd always done, I just knew that we wouldn't be blessed. What about you? Does God have a special blessing or a miracle for you this Christmas? If you're so intent on making sure that you follow the same traditions, that you do exactly the same things that you always do each Christmas, you may miss out on a special blessing or a Christmas miracle. Two thousand years ago, the people of Bethlehem were doing things the way they'd always done them. People were working, shopping, visiting and worshiping. Due to the census, extended families from far-away places had returned home and were visiting with their friends and families - swapping gifts and memories. In the midst of their traditional way of doing things, God preformed the greatest miracle of all - the birth of his Son, Jesus Christ. With the exception of some shepherds, the introduction of God's Son almost went unnoticed. Don't miss out on a miracle this Christmas just because "We've never done it that way before". By David Langerfeld dlangerfeld@HarrisburgBaptist.org (c) Copyright December, 2000. Used by permission. ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO MEN'S GIFTS Part 1 of 2 [Dec 22 & 25] With Christmas coming, this is surely going to be a big help! Rule #1: When in doubt - buy him a cordless drill. It does not matter if he already has one. I have a friend who owns 17 and he has yet to complain. As a man, you can never have too many cordless drills. No one knows why. Rule #2: If you cannot afford a cordless drill, buy him anything with the word ratchet or socket in it. Men love saying those two words. "Hey George, can I borrow your ratchet?" "OK. "By-the-way, are you through with my 3/8-inch socket yet?" Again, no one knows why. Rule #3: If you are really, really broke, buy him anything for his car. A 99-cent ice scraper, a small bottle of deicer or something to hang from his rear view mirror. Men love gifts for their cars. No one knows why. Rule #4: Do not buy men socks. Do not buy men ties. And never buy men bathrobes. I was told that if God had wanted men to wear bathrobes, he wouldn't have invented Jockey shorts. Rule #5: You can buy men new remote controls to replace the ones they have worn out. If you have a lot of money buy your man a big-screen TV with the little picture in the corner. Watch him go wild as he flips, and flips, and flips. Rule #6: Rope. Men love rope. It takes us back to our cowboy origins, or at least The Boy Scouts. Nothing says love like a hundred feet of 3/8" manila rope. No one knows why. Rule #7: Do not buy any man industrial-sized canisters of after shave or deodorant. I'm told they do not stink - they are earthy. Source: The Funnies, andychaps_the-funnies-subscribe@egroups.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org Submitted by John Hoh www.geocities.com/brandedhand/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A family was preparing to do some separate Christmas shopping at the mall. Before they split up, the father said, "Let's synchronize our watches and agree to meet in the parking lot at five o'clock sharp." The four adjusted their respective watches. Then the mother turned to the father, and with hand outstretched said, "O.K. Now let's all synchronize our wallets!" Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright 2000, www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Why don't raisins end up at the bottom of the cereal box? While this is not one of the great questions of this or any other time, and there is no record of Plato or Einstein agonizing over it, it's still pretty curious. Take a look the next time you open a box of cereal with raisins: the raisins are evenly distributed throughout the box. Given all the shaking that box receives from the factory to your table, doesn't it figure that the raisins would have settled to the bottom? All things being equal, they probably would have. But the cereal gets a head start: half the box is filled with cereal before the first raisin makes an appearance. Then, in the upper half of the box, raisins and cereal are mixed. The raisins eventually do settle, but this clever packing method insures that they do not end up clumped together on the bottom. From: "Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?" By David Feldman Source: MailBits.com Copyright (c) 1998-2000. All rights reserved. Trivia-subscribe@mailbits.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org |