It occurs to me that most of my favorite Christmas music is old.  Like hundreds of years old. The universally loved “Silent Night,” has been around for almost 200 years, as have most of the carols we find in our church hymnals. Even the newer favorite “Mary Did You Know” is thirtysomething.

Even the secular music I enjoy the most is getting on in years: “White Christmas,” 1940; “The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), 1945; and “Santa Claus In Coming to Town”, 1934.

It’s just not easy to come up with a new song that says it as well as the old ones do. My sentiment, at least. Though Michael W. Smith gave us a very nice, “Welcome to Our World,” in 1997 (words and music by Chris Rice).

One day this week I heard a song about a little donkey who was scrawny, had long ears, and the other little donkeys all made fun of him. I didn’t hear all the song as I arrived at work and didn’t stay in the car to listen, but I think I know where it was going. Kind of like the reindeer with the shiny nose, maybe?

A song published last year but I heard it for the first time recently is “I Wonder What God Wants for Christmas.”  When I heard the title, I was thinking that a similar question was asked by Christina Rosetti in 1872, “What Can I Give Him?”

But as a friend shared Darius Rucker’s video of “I Wonder What God Wants…” on YouTube, a bit of the lyrics struck me. The melody is nice and the montage beautiful. Several items are listed that God might want: no empty pews in church, peace on earth, no Bibles covered with dust, and so on. The most amazing line of this song comes somewhere in the middle: “What if we believed in Him like he believes in us?”

Wow. God must believe in us. He trusts us to take care of the poor. He planned for us to love and comfort and encourage one another. He expects us to take care of the world He created.

“What Can I GIve Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb
If I were a wiseman, I would do my part.
Yet what I can, I’ll give him. Give my heart.”
Christina Rosetti, 1872

“More sister, more brother, more lovin’ one another
By now we oughta know what God wants for Christmas.”
Darius Rucker, 2014

Along my back fence, near my green mini-Dumpster, a different-looking weed appeared a few weeks ago. My BFF Pat — the plant whisperer — told me it was a mum.

“What should I do with it?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t suggest anything too difficult or horticultural.

“Leave it alone,” said she, “maybe it will bloom.”

And as you see, it has.

But all this is a mystery to me. How did it get there – out of its comfort zone? Did a friendly bird give it transportation, taking it places it would never think to go?

Did it crawl under the fence from the neighbor’s lovely yard of well-tended flowers? Why would it do that? Unless it mistakenly thought the grass was greener on my side of the fence.

Surely this is a little allegory. Sometimes in life we find ourselves, through no fault of our own, in unfamiliar surroundings. While we would not have chosen to be there, we must make the best of it and “bloom where we’re planted.” If we’re able to do that, we can do what God meant for us to do and bring some beauty into the world.

Sometimes we deliberately look for greener pastures. There is actually a diagnosis called GIGS, Grass Is Greener Syndrome, for those who are never quite happy with our present situation. We feel we need to relocate. But when we do, often we find things are not as good as we hoped.

We look for greener pastures and find a trash heap. But when we allow it, God can still enable us to be the best we can be.

I believe this and I have left the mum where it is to remind me.

One morning, after a really bad night, Ebenezer Scrooge said, “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year through.”

That means that while hunting Easter eggs, popping firecrackers, trick or treating, or yes, even during Thanksgiving dinner, he would experience the joy, love, and wonder that is Christmas.

He would look at the cross at sunrise on Easter morning and think, “yes, this is what it’s all about.” He would celebrate the birth of our country knowing that God alone gives us real freedom. He would enjoy the happiness and excitement of the children on All Hallow’s Eve, remembering the saints who have gone before us.

I doubt he would be so determined to celebrate Thanksgiving Day before having anything to do with Christmas that he would stomp into the holiday season with a chip on his shoulder.

He might love it that the merchants in town began early in the season to remind us to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child.

Keeping Christmas all year long. That is really a good idea.

Can you just imagine what a sweet little old church lady, in 1938, might think about a traveling family band who brought guitars and mandolins right into the sanctuary and proceeded to sing worldly up-tempo tunes?

Of course you can! Think back a few years to when your church organized or invited in a Praise Band with their songs that sounded for all the world like Rock and Roll!

Well, this is the premise of Smoke on the Mountain, a delightful musical that opened at Center on the Square in Searcy this weekend.

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, somewhere in Georgia, is hosting its first ever Saturday Night Sing and the Sanders Family Singers have come to share their Southern Gospel music and their testimonies.

Daughter June (played by Sofia Fuller) is not a singer, but she comes along with the rest of the family. She doesn’t sing, she signs. And her signing is nowhere near American Sign Language, believe me.

Through it all, two little church ladies, Miss Myrtle and Miss Maude, view the proceedings with surprise, shock, and disdain. Playing the church ladies is a wonderful opportunity for an aged actor and her not-so-aged friend to perform without having to learn lines!

Each evening features a different pair of church ladies. My friend, Rhonda Roberts and I are pleased to sit on that front pew during one of the performances. We are pictured above, demonstrating our disapproval.

Remaining dates for Smoke on the Mountain are the next two weekends: August 21, 22, 23 and August 28,29, 30.  August 23 and 30 are matinees. Call the theater 501-368-0111 for further information or visit the website: www,centeronthesquare.org. 

Thanks to Ddh-Photo for the picture of Dot and the Roberts Family for the picture of Rhonda.

When we think of significant July dates, Independence Day, July 4th, comes to mind first. This year we celebrated our country’s 239th birthday. And we did it up big with family gatherings, picnics, concerts, and fireworks.

Here are some other important happenings that took place in July.

Sixty years ago this month, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California and changed the American family’s idea of the perfect vacation.

In July 1965, the Medicare Act was developed by Congress, under the direction of Lyndon B. Johnson. Providing insurance 50 years later to 50 million Americans.

Casey Kasem debuted his long-running radio show America’s Top 40 in July 1970.

In 1995 (was that 20 years ago!) George H.W. Bush signed the American With Disabilities Act into law.

All these events brought change to our lives. Feel free to recognize them in whatever way you feel appropriate.

Don’t forget Parents’ Day on July 26 and honor those who gave us life.

Or July 24, which is National Tell an Old Joke Day.

But be careful. Most old jokes are politically incorrect. Do not offend. Do not offend anyone who is blonde, or Polish, or a senior citizen, or lawyers . . . or Pete Rose . . . or Queen Elizabeth . . . or Donald Trump’s hair . . .  or . . .

Easter Sunday shouldn’t be a once-a-year celebration. Everything Christians believe rests on it.

However, in my church home (United Methodist denomination) each year at a special time we do celebrate the resurrection event that is a tenet of our faith.

We begin with Lent, 40 days before Easter. We are encouraged to make a (comparatively) small sacrifice or to adopt a new spiritual discipline to get in touch the tiniest bit with Jesus’ sacrifice and his last days on earth.

On Maundy Thursday, we gather to observe Holy Communion together, in remembrance of the Last Supper Jesus ate with his disciples. Recently, many churches have incorporated a Tennebrae service into this night. The young confirmands assist the pastor in stripping the altar area. The congregation watches soberly as the cross, the candles, the paraments, the Bible — even the offering plates —  are carried out of the sanctuary and hidden. We leave in darkness and silence.

On Friday, there is a huge egg hunt in Daniel Park. Saturday finds the soccer fields full of children. Life is back to normal. Almost. Those who gathered on Thursday may still feel a little sad, unsettled, as if something is lost.

ON Sunday, we quietly enter the still-darkened sanctuary and take our seats. The faint aroma of lilies fills the room. Suddenly —

“CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

The organ and piano burst forth in a joyous Easter song as the altar and chancel area are restored. We sing together, we greet our brothers and sisters in Christ and wish each one the peace of God.

Christ the Lord is risen today! Alleluia!

This week in Arkansas, a young girl left a baby on a neighbor’s doorstep. She said that she was ‘scared and didn’t know what to do.’ That breaks my heart.

Arkansas has a Safe Haven Law. This allows an infant to be left at any hospital emergency room or law enforcement agency anonymously, no questions asked.

I’m sorry this teenager didn’t know this. But she’s not alone. I mentioned the Safe Haven Law at church Wednesday night and no one in the group had ever heard of such a thing.

The late 1990s had a surge in infant abandonment, many resulting in death of the babies. In response to these incidents, a movement began to allow parents to relinquish custody of unharmed newborns to a safe place without fear of prosecution.

In 1999, Texas was the first state to enact such a law, led by then-governor George W. Bush. Since that time, all U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia have passed Safe Haven legislation.

This is a loving choice in the case of an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy — to give the child an opportunity to have a permanent home.

It is sad that the young girl felt she had nowhere to turn. I’m not joining the ones who cry about what she “shouda”. I’m just sorry she didn’t know there was a Safe Haven for her baby. .

For more information:  click here   or call 1-888-510-BABY.