What do Groundhog Day and Super Bowl LI have in common?  To me, it's a bit bizarre.  CBS Philadelphia reports hotel room rates in Punxsutawney for February 2nd are higher than they are for Super Bowl LI in Houston.  It's reported a room for two for Groundhog Day will cost you $450.  The average room rate for this week's festivities in Houston is only $340.  That's the average rate.  Most rooms in Houston are booked for a minimum three nights.  When you add all the other stuff one would buy on a Super Bowl excursion it gets to be a very hefty total; food, drink, travel, nick knacks, parking, and those very costly tickets.  The package would be a couple thousand dollars.  What's $450 plopped down in Pennsylvania for a good night's rest?  And while you will incur travel costs and drinks while there, my guess is the Groundhog isn't nearly as pricey as the lobster or the Porterhouse or the Shrimp de jonghe at Houston's finer restaurants.  Unless of course, you like your Groundhog...oh, never mind.  Enjoy the game and pray God you don't wake up over and over and over and over again with the sky line of Houston visible out your hotel window.  There's work to do back home; wherever that is.

Julia often times wonders about me.  What I mean is, she doesn't understand my sense of humor.  I think I have a rather well developed sense of humor.  I like puns and sarcasm and "A man walked in to a bar" kind of jokes.  I remember times when my brother and I would start telling jokes and we would end up laughing so hard we could barely breathe.  That's when Mom would tell us to go outside.  Perhaps there was more air out there and we wouldn't suffocate.  She was saving our lives and her sanity.  Sam Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was reputed to have said, upon learning his grandson was being named Sam: "Why did you name him Sam?  Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is named Sam."  Norm Crosby said his favorite word was "apocryphal."  He learned it from the nursery rhyme: "Sing a song of sixpence, apocryphal of rye."  And he always thought "cabaret" was what French taxi drivers wore on their heads.  Ha Ha Ha.  You must have now figured out I am in a rather frivolous mood today.  Really, I'm just warming up for when Julia gets home and I can give her reason to keep wondering.

Beginning with the 18th of January and running through the 25th, Christians across the globe are urged to pray for Christian Unity.  This Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been celebrated since 1908.  The World Council of Churches instituted this week noting it spans the days between the Feasts of the Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul. It encourages Christians to remember Jesus' prayer that we be one as He and the Father are One.  We need only look at the over two billions Christians in the world to see we are not united.  We may pay lip service to unity and ecumenicism but we are not one in spirit nor in intention.  We have one Lord and Savior.  We worship the One God of Heaven and Earth.  We are joined by One Baptism.  That is a good and laudable start, as a minimum. But however we are in agreement about these three, we are sorely divided by all kinds of social and political standings that bring shame to the Body of Christ.  Pray for Christian Unity this week.  Pray for our unity that the witness of our words and deeds brings a smile to the Face of God.

Mind readers and palm readers and Tarot Card readers and all other manner of "fortune tellers" have found gullible clients wherever they set up shop.  Knowing the future has always been a fascinating enterprise.  Imagine knowing the outcome of Super Bowl LI.  Placing the right bet could win buckets and bucket of money.  The great temptation is to win every time.  No one can do that.  To win every bet or to know in advance the Lotto numbers will eventually draw the attention of the IRS, if you're lucky.  It's organized crime I'd worry about.  It would track you down and you would either be their prisoner or shark bait.  19th Century showman P.T. Barnum famously and accurately said, "There's a sucker born every minute."  And I might add, that's enough for every charlatans who wishes to make a quick buck over and over and over.  Let me play fortune teller just this one time: Tomorrow may be messier than today or it may not.  No matter. The End is coming.  The Lord of Creation sits on the throne.  The Victory is His.  Always has been.  Is now.  And will be forever.  Read your horoscope, if you must for a good laugh.  Trust the End to God.  And may I say again, Happy New Year to you all.                                        

The New Year came on time, again.  That shouldn't come as surprise to anyone.  When you're old enough you can watch on TV as the ball drops in New York City's Times Square.  Being a bit older, you could even be there in person with a couple of million other revelers.  At some point you will reach the age when you may try to stay awake for the ball drop, but just can't do it.  Guess what?  The ball will drop and the year will change without your participation.  The ball dropping and the New year don't need your permission.  "Time like an ever rolling stream bears all its sons away."  So says Isaac Watts, the prolific 18th century hymn writer commenting on Psalm 90.  Time comes and goes and we live our life within its all encompassing realm.  It's the way God set things up.  For a season we live.  After a time, we die.  And the years just keep coming and passing.  What will A.D. 2017 bring?  Who knows?  Be of good cheer and give thanks for the life you know.  And trust the God of all time will accompany you along the paths it lays before us all.  Happy New Year!

If you are reading this on Wednesday the 28th of December, our son Nick is celebrating his 32nd birthday.  My, oh my, how the little ones grow up so quickly.  Where does the time go?  Today is also the 4th Day of Christmas.  On this day you will receive from your true love: 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Lucky you.  If you don't see this memo until the 5th, well, you will be blessed with 5 gold rings and the four other above mentioned gifts.  I have only ever worn one ring at a time.  The first was my high school ring.  I wore it on my right ring finger.  At some point I stopped wearing it and I did not wear another one until I was married.  My wedding band resides very comfortably on my left ring finger.  I have no desire to wear any other jewelry.  I will concede some believe a watch is jewelry, but I find it a necessity and so it falls into another category, altogether.  All this is to say, in a subtle way, Christmas is only beginning.  The season is twelve days in length, culmination on Epiphany.  The Magi visit the manger and The Light of the World shines on the gentiles.  Remember, it's the Magi responsible for all the gift giving at Christmas.  Blame them or honor them.  And if we strictly observed their example, we'd only give gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  That would sure cut down on the mania in Advent.  Merry Christmas all, and I pray your New Year is blessed, prosperous, and joyful.

A.D. 2016 finds Christmas falling on Sunday.  Only infrequently does this happen.  Christmas usually falls on one of the other six days and when it does, the Sunday before Christmas  becomes "Christmas Sunday."  Not this year.  Sometimes this complicates plans and schedules.  Work and school and travel all adjust to a Sunday Christmas.  Holiday "days off" need to be considered and, perhaps, renegotiated.  What doesn't seem to suffer is shopping.  A Sunday Christmas means Saturday, the 24th, becomes the last day of last resort for those last minute decisions and purchases.  The season of celebrating the birth of Jesus is one both of panic and mania for some and reflection and relief for others.  Families gather and eat and exchange gifts.  This year worship on Christmas is available to those so inclined.  Remember, not everyone has family or a family they can have near.  Not everyone can gather around a tree and a fireplace and a feast laden table.  As blessed as many of us are, remember those who are not so blessed.  Remember our homeless and the hungry and the sojourners.  Remember the prisoners and the displaced and those suffering the devastation of war.  Remember, too, the Child who comes from God to set right all that is askew in the world.  And pray.  Pray for all God's families and all God's servants and all God's beloved.  Be well and be blessed this Christmas season.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." Or so the opening lyric of the popular song asserts.  The look of Christmas apparently means candy canes and holly wreaths and snow.  And that is true only because we inhabit the 21st Century.  Our culture pretty well dictates our holiday rituals and customs.  But remember, Jesus was born in Bethlehem over twenty centuries ago.  What's more, Bethlehem is in a desert.  It averages only three days a year of snow.  Oh, if that were only true here in Indiana.  Alas, it is not.  We must drive and shovel and spread salt and put on snow tires, well, you know the rest.  I doubt Jesus ever threw a snow ball or made a snow man or licked a candy cane.  He did not celebrate his birthday as we have come to do.  Whether a person celebrates Christmas or not; whether it's part of one's standard year-end routine or not; whether Jew or Gentile or Greek or Roman there is one way the world takes notice in remembering Jesus' birthday.  It's A.D. 2016.  The world keeps track of days and weeks and months and years and centuries based on his birth.  Believe in Him or not; honor Him or not; ignore Him or not; Jesus is a part of our living.  He is ubiquitous.  He is unavoidable.  Even if by silently and subtly measuring time until even it surrenders to God's will and is swept up into eternity.  I wonder what that will look like?

I've been without my cell phone since last Tuesday afternoon.  When I sought to purchase a replacement (as I believed it to be dead beyond repair) I discovered it was still under warranty.  I immediately felt a couple hundred bucks richer.  However, to obtain a replacement, I needed to contact Samsung and not just my AT&T provider.  For what I considered to be an exorbitant mailing charge, I could have had my new phone the next day.  I opted for regular/standard delivery.  That delivery spanned the weekend, to my dismay.  Therefore, I was phoneless-in-Syracuse for the next six days.  I was out of touch, so to speak by text and voicemail and simple conversation.  What's worse, I didn't receive pictures of Audrey Isabelle.  At last the replacement came, I had it set up by an expert, and I'm back in touch.  However, I do not have all my contacts and I lost my pictures.  Such is life, at times; not fatal, but inconvenient enough to notice and not like it.   I think I'll go spend that "new phone savings" on lunch and something else for Julia.  After all, her birthday is the 17th.

Some anniversaries come unexpectedly.  Yesterday was one of them.  I was in Mrs. Pence's 4th grade class when the principal came over the intercom to tell us President Kennedy had been shot.  As a fourth grader I had no Idea what that meant.  We were also told school was to be dismissed and we were to go straight home.  When I arrived home my dad was on the couch watching television.  He was home early from work and that is when I realized something was wrong.  My dad didn't arrive home from work until after five o'clock and dinner would soon be on the table.  Not that day. My brother and I couldn't go out to play.  We were to play in our bedroom.  That was 53 years ago.  In over half a century, no one who is able to remember where they were when Kennedy was shot forgets.  It was a very long weekend that November of 1963. A very long and sad weekend, indeed.