Thursday, December 04, 2008

Advent, Art, Music & Justice (not necessarily in that order)

There are tons of things going on in my head, as usual, and I wish I had more time to post but I don't. I'd like to post about each of them individually (the first one I already have) but I'm up to my eyeballs in making peanut brittle and painting marbles boards, not to mention trying to fit the other things that go along with being a mom and a wife. So, I've just decided to combine them all into this post.


First
A reminder about the Taft Street Art Market. Art, gifts, coffee, music. It's going to be cool and it's this Saturday from 10-5. See this post.


Second
This past Monday was the beginning of Advent. Our curiosity about Advent has increased over the past couple of years but we still have alot to discover. For many years, we've bought the cheap chocolate calendars for our kids where you eat one chocolate each day leading up to Christmas Eve then you know tomorrow is Christmas. I'm pretty sure there's more to it than opening door number 1 to see what shape your chocolate is going to be. In fact, here is a link to an Advent Guide from Buckner International (an agency for orphans) that you can read daily if you want to. I haven't actually started it yet but I'm going to try to catch up and keep it up. You can even sign up to have it emailed to you each day. How convenient!


Third


Tonight begins a Christmas concert tour called "Gloria". Cindy Morgan and Shawn Groves are a few that will be taking the stage. The concert tonight is in Nashville but they are going to try to show it live on Shawn's blog tonight at 7 CST. Here's Shawn Grove's blog link. I'm pretty excited about this and wish I would have found out about it sooner. Tommy and I went to Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb" tour last year and it was incredible. If you ever get a chance to go to it, you have to! I hope this concert is like Andrew's (yes, we're on a first name basis). I hope it's more of a story concert with really good music as opposed to another singer's rendition of Silent Night. I may be wrong, but we'll see. I love Cindy Morgan and Shawn Groves.



Fourth


This coming Sunday, Dec. 7th at 6:30pm, our church is hosting a benefit concert for IJM. Tickets are $20 and you get a tshirt. Go check it out here.


Fifth
Sara Groves' Christmas CD is really great. I bought it yesterday along with Shane & Shane's Christmas cd. That brings me to five this year so far. If RSB or Alisa come out with one, I'm in trouble.... See this post. Anyway, Track 2, "It's True", has Sara's little boy, Toby, reading from a children's book telling the story of Jesus' birth in words kids understand. In the song, Sara talks about baby Jesus coming and she says that "the play begins with Baby God" and says that He was "the God who came down to find you". He came down to find me. I'm so glad He did! Little Toby also reads that God was like a proud dad who had been waiting for "all these years" to show Him off. It's Christmas time! The time when we celebrate that "Baby God" came to earth in a barn and God set out a bright star to show us The Way to Him. He knew where I was. The star was super bright, it made the other stars pale in comparison. There were only a few shepherds around to show Him off to. No high fives, no blue bubble gum cigars that say, "It's A Boy" on the wrapper. Just a silent bright star, some hay and a bunch of stinky animals and a proud and tired mom and dad. I hope that I, in some way, can help our "Father God" show our "Baby God" off to the world and lead others to find Him.

OH! One more thing, I know our economy stinks right now and thinks are tight for a lot of us but if you happen to find some extra cash laying around or feel compelled to give something that's not extra but may have even been planned for something else that you really don't need, consider giving to Advent Conspiracy. Check this previous post out for more of why this means something to us. "It costs us an average of $.98 to provide clean, safe water to one person for one year: every dollar makes a difference." http://www.water.cc/

Well, this has been a pretty long and random post and probably not even all that well-written but like I said, I'm a little preoccupied with other stuff but I had all of this in my head and it had to come out or it might have exploded. There's more, but this is all I have time for. I know you're bummed about that.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post, gee your making me way tired.

I'm out to buy Sara Groves soon...
Got to buy one for me and Jessica, since her son will soon be 4 that will be a good CD for them!

Andrea said...

Ha! I love when night time comes... :)

Sonshine has the Sara Groves cd right now for 13.99 and it's not a sale price so if you have the flyer you can get the coupon and use it.

On the cd inside cover it says the story bible that Toby Groves was reading from. It might be worth checking into as well. It's so cute to hear him read it on the cd.