New Year

We watch the numbers rise of those who have been taken by the tide and we pray that we will not look away.
Perhaps this year we should focus on sharing. That differs from giving. Sharing means mutuality. Sharing means I have some and want you to have some too. Giving somehow means I have a lot ...here is a little of it. We share with those we love, a little nibble of toast, a part of a cinnamon bun, extras.
Jesus said that we are all neighbors, no longer strangers, and that whatever we do the least of these we do to him. ...we do for him. Let's make this a year, a whole year of sharing what we have...our faith...our love... our acceptance...our joy... our promise... our surity...our Jesus and all of these things that he brings into the world and into our lives.
And here is the really really really good news. When we share we always have enough...and even more!
God abide and blessings to you this new year.

Share...be generous...be in prayer...
God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004
see you next year....

o GOD help

o god help
60,000 and more have gone
be with those who remain
help us not turn away
help us look and give and cry

help us not turn from disaster and other's pain
help us turn to your miracles of grace
help us look and cry and live

help us turn to peace with chaos left behind
but in the chaos let us pray
and know your glory abounds.
help us look and see and love

o God help
it would be easy to look away
and call those in pain and loss--them or 'other'
but they are your children and your pain O God
must be great.
help us pray and act

o God help
we whine about so many little things
forgive us our sin and help us to forgive those who sin against us
we pray and we change and grow

o God help
us not to look away from families with lost children
in wave or in war. but to bear a bit of their pain.
help us share the burdens.

o God help.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

Christmas Eve

The first noelle the angle did say...was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay...

Don't we all want to be 'certained'. To be made sure that what is real and good in the world will win. To believe that the love that we share means something. To believe that our lives have meaning and purpose. That we should have fun merely and especially because we are humans.

What would it take to Certain you right now? What is it in your life that keeps you from being certain? Is there anything? Well if God sent angels to certain poor shepherds when they were told of Jesus' birth--what do we need to certain to us that God abides, God Emmanuel.

And know that whatever it is...it is yours for the taking. That God enfolds you even now with the certainity of God's presencee and love and hope and peace and mercy and satisfaction and protection and _________ (you fill in the blank), and wants you to rest into that knowing.

Hear the angels, you will sometime today, be ready. They will come to certain you...
Noelle noelle noelle noelle why? because we already know...Born is the ruler of all the earth inviting all people to participate in God's magnificence and presence and love.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004
Happy Christmas

Snow in Oklahoma

I grew up in Ohio...snow was not such a surprise in December. I remember racing out of town to get to Virginia before a big storm came. We always had Christmas in Virginia...always...
Today I woke to find snow in Oklahoma. Yah it feels like Christmas now. Cold too...but I know that it will be in the 50's in a couple of days and that's ok with me too.
Ah but it was beautiful! My cousin Val who grew up in Michigan called, They live in Texas now, and we exchanged snowflake stories... She also loves a little snow in December and said the view of it from their new house was outstanding.
I should have know it would snow...we watched the movie, White Christmas, last night. It's not a big plot, and the dialogue makes Betsy and me laugh hard every time, but it is really a fun traditional Christmas movie..and it snows...
May you have in your life whatever it takes to make it Christmas...
May your memories of loved ones heal you and hold you...
May you feel that God's love for us all in Jesus is something we should give to everyone we meet as the most wonderful gift...
Snow in Oklahoma! What fun!
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

Solstice

Two years ago our son Johnny married our Molly! Wow now that wasn't a surprise but it was wonderful. I mean really wonderful. Now with three to call our own it is even better. Oh they are good together. That event is one of the best ever in my life. I mean really!
We had such a good time! All of us... and I think of it every day. But somehow the whole day got away and I didn't call them. We'd talked with Johnny the day before but missed them today...AHHHHHHHHHH

We will see them next week and celebrate! What fun what fun!

How blessed am I? OHHHH so very blessed. Thanks Be to God.

See...the days are getting longer already! Here comes the Light!
God abide with them and all people
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

Amazing

The child looked up
to watch the man
who played the trumpet
in the mall

Wonder
Amazement
Awe

The trumpet player
looked at the boy
and as he played
he smiled at him

he'll take up the trumpet someday I just know it.

What influence we have that we may not understand. What power to change the world through one life.

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

Something Beautiful for God

Today is my mother's birthday. Elizabeth McLendon Bane Giltz. She was born in 1915 in Timmonsville S.C. Her parents were Theo and Fuller Bane. She lived until she was 80.

You who have felt loss of someone close to you know what that feeling is like. We all describe it differently. But there are similar feelings of everything being ok and then it is as if something knocks you down out of the blue...and you find yourself saddened again.

What if we marked not the day of our loved one's passing but their Birthday with as much joy as we mark Christmas? Ok, I am not saying our loved ones are equal to the Savior of the World...but they share both Jesus' humanity and a place in the heat of God.

We go all out for Jesus' birthday and then sigh and say we are glad that's over. We should realize that the birth of Jesus is the START of something bigger than us all. It is the start of the world knowing that God abides. That God isn't out there 'watching us' but in the midst of it all. In our joys in our warm homes and our left-overs and in the refugee camps where thousands have nothing but nothing and are thankful for a handful of rice and a plastic sheet over their heads and perhaps a blanket... but life...as it is.

Let's celebrate all out Jesus' birthday this year as we sing the songs and give the presents and love one another fully. Let's celebrate it the rest of the year as we work for justice and fairness and honesty and honor and protecting those Jesus most called to be protected, the children, the widows, the orphans, the hungry the poor, the hurting, the lonely.... All of those Jesus loved and taught us to see... It could change the world. That up springing of God's love.

Let us not let ONE single day pass without "doing something beatuiful for God'....(Mother Teresa said that). So Go out there right now... well when it gets light and do something beautiful for God with your life...

God abides
oh and Happy Birthday Jesus.... Happy happy joy joy
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Christmas music

Last night Jay Leno made some great joke, though I don't think I remember exactly that some houses with all the lights miss the meaning of Christmas. Remember he said God only used one star.
Sometimes I think we do the same thing. We use too many things and lights and packages and everything and miss the one thing that is important about Christmas. I know that in some families, like it or not, they go around the table on Thanksgiving saying what they are thankful for... Well shouldn't we consider going around the table, and say how in the past year knowing Jesus has made a difference in our lives.
And it does. When you are a Christian you see the world through the lens of the faith we have in Jesus Christ. We don't have to have multi-million dollar movies to do that. This lens we have of the world through Christian eyes is one that sees need, injustice, sadness, joy, hope, peace, and all else the human being experiences. Where in the midst of any of those things in our our lives did we understand Jesus' presence.
Deep sigh.
Perhaps the all to familiar Christmas music drone in stores and everywhere can remind us of the presence of Jesus and be thankful and realize he can redeem even gross commercialism.
But maybe like too many lights making things gaudy and one light just right...One song can live in our hearts, one hymn, carol, Silent Night, or Joy to the World, or Angels we have heard on high...
Pick One... let it be the music in your heart this Christmas....
Gloria...
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

Shooting star

Last night was to be a comet shower and as I was driving home I saw one really really bright one shoot down from the sky toward the eastern horizon. I hoped that was just the beginning but with my timing that is the only one I saw.
But you know you are supposed to wish upon a star. I confess I did. But then I imagined that what if you did have one wish...something that would bring you the best joy what would that be?
I think sometimes it would be hearing the voices of someone I love who has gone on, or sharing a meal or laugh with them. Then I think it would be something like world peace. ...or the health or recovery of someone I've been praying for... so many things come to mind.
But I suppose when one makes a wish like that the next job is not to just sit back and let it happen but to make it come true. No I can't talk to my parents again, but I can be present for someone who needs that kind of support. I can't have a meal with them, but I can share my bounty with someone who is lonely. I can't laugh with them, but I can share a joke to make someone else laugh..and pass it on.
What is your hearts deepest wish? Peace, hope, assurance of good things? What is it that brings your heart to smile?
It is yours already in faith.
The sun will return, the days will lengthen, the Light of the World shines through you.
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

Did you know?

There are times when we find out something new about someone we thought we knew. Like I found out that someone I'd know for four years once pitched for the Boston Braves (before they moved to Atlanta) He never told me. But it was great fun to discover this.
What is it about yourself that you wish someone near you knew that you've never told them? What secret do you hold in your heart? Is there something you wished you had done ...but would never do now? Is there a dream that you still hold but have never spoken aloud?
When you give gifts at Christmas perhaps the exchange could be between people you know and trust---a dream shared. Imagine what you might learn about someone you care for..
You could even write them down and then try and guess who wrote their dream...
When I was young I wanted to be a _________
If I could do anything in the world I would _________
If I could go anywhere it would be to ___________
If I could apologize to anyone in my life it would be to __________
If I could hug anyone in my life it would be _________
If I could have dinner with anyone ---alive or dead --- it would be with ___________
If I were a character in a novel I would be _______________

If my Grandmother/Grandfather was nearby I would want them to teach me to ______________________

What else can you think of ..imagine this exchange!

God abide with you
Bobbie Giltz McGarey

Looks Like Christmas?

I heard the song..."It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" today and thought about the different ways that Christmas has looked over the years.
I grew up in Ohio where we sometimes had snow before Christmas but we always spent our Christmas in Virginia Beach. I remember one or two times we'd have a skiff of snow there. But I also remember many trips to and from Ohio with snow on the roads.
When I lived in AZ I remember they turned on the air conditioning so we'd have it cool enough to have a fire in the fireplace.
Oh of course our years in Texas were snowless. But Utah had snow every Christmas all but one in the 12 years. That year we longed for it to come and cover the browned out grass.
But then I think...what does Christmas look like anyway?
Perhaps it's not the pictured version but rather Christmas should look like peace. It should look like peace that falls over a world that so needs to feel that blanket of peace. Perhaps the blanket of snow reminds of that peace.
But it could look like love. Given to us in the greatest gift. God's self come to earth in Jesus Christ that we might know God's incredible love for us...then and always to the end of the age.
It could look like joy... that joy that comes from having given the best gift to someone else.


Love is something if you give it away...

God let you see what Christmas really looks like...
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004

together

Well you'd think I'd been away...but I haven't. I've just been up to here.... Point to the top of your head...with things going on demanding attention. Some have been attended to better than others.
We did have a great family thanksgiving. And the 30th of November is my Mother in law's 84th Birthday! What a gift she is to us continually.
Well and its that gifting time of year. I think Gift has become a verb. To gift someone is to give them a gift. Gifting is to be about the process of getting something for someone and then letting them have it... gave it.. nope gift it.
So together now let's gift the world the Grace and peace it deserves on this world AIDS day.
The gift so many need is life. The New York times has an interactive article about AIDS... YOU really need to see it.

God bless all on this World AIDS day...

Let's not take for granted what we have but remember what we have to share...

God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2004