Author Archives: rosegarden892
Gifts from the Magi
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One of my early Christmas memories as a child is our family Nativity Set. The Stable was a hand-made, wooden stable with a built-in manger. It had a single, mounted Christmas light for a Star. The nativity set included an Angel, Joseph, Mary, Jesus, Three Magi with gifts, and Shepherds with a collection of farm animals. The family set it up every Christmas through Ephiphany, the Twelve Days of Christmas. Very inspiring.
About that time, I was 7 or 8 years old. I still believed there was a Santa Claus. But I also told my parents I wanted a gift that was advertised on TV. We had a Philco TV model black and white television set. We got an absolutely incredible three channels when using “rabbit ears” antenna. At the time it was amazing technology.
Since I had my first hearing aid, I was able to watch and understand Saturday morning cartoons and commercials. Including about Christmas toys. It was during the “Cold War” years with the Soviet Union, and a popular toy was a “Mobile Rocket Launcher with Searchlight”. The searchlight could light up a target display on a wall and you tried hitting it with the rubber-tipped dart launcher. It was a lot of fun until it broke within a week of play. It was a toy I wanted that year, but now I remember it mostly because it broke so soon. As a toy and thing it was very temporary. Continue reading
Love not Hate
Today is the day before our national Thanksgiving holiday. The day has a long history starting with the early Pilgrims who braved dangerous seas to arrive in a new land. They came to escape the religious persecutions of their home in England. In coming to what is now known as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, they realized they had made a mistake for they were really bound for Virginia. It was too late in the Fall season to doing anything else but try to survive the coming Winter where they landed. Over the years, the Pilgrims survived brutal Winters and ongoing war with the native people called Wampanoag. After being nearly wiped out by Western diseases and war with European immigrants, these native people are back in the news. Why? It’s Thanksgiving Season and descendants of the Wampanoags are bringing back their own language by teaching it in schools. Continue reading
Blind Date, Part 2
Walking under trees in the park during that hot Summer helped clear my mind about the world around me. I came to realize it was all a part of God’s Creation. Science could explain how it was made and how it works, but science has yet to actually create anything brand new. We’re good at taking what God made and changing it into something else. Like little boys, we break things or knock them down and then try to make something else of the pieces. Sometimes for bad, sometimes for good. But, we still do not make anything brand new under the Sun. Continue reading
Blind Date
My life was turned upside down by God when He used my then future wife to witness to me. At the time I was living as an atheist, minding my own business and working hard. I was physically active with tennis and ping pong, and I played chess. I was not actively dating anyone, but at my work place, the wife of a match-making couple “pestered” me about meeting a nice girl her husband knew at his work place. She said the girl was hearing-impaired like myself, loved cats, not a “religious fanatic”, and lived in a mobile home. Meanwhile, her husband told my future date that I was hearing impaired like herself, played tennis and chess. The reminders finally got to the point where I gave up all resistance and took the nice girl’s phone number. I was to call and make a date. Continue reading
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