Peri Zahnd is a native of St. Joseph, Missouri--she travels often but always comes home. She and her husband Brian are the parents of four awesome children, Caleb, Aaron, Philip, and Word of Life Church. She has somehow acquired two remarkably beautiful daughter-in-laws, Ashlie and Sarah.
posted by Peri Zahnd on December 31, 2008 at 7:28 PM
The last week of December has some of the shortest days of the year.It is the time of the year when darkness falls all of a sudden, as if the sun, after a day of shining with all its might, desperately but futilely trying to warm a frigid world, reaches the horizon, strains valiantly to stay up a little longer, but collapses in exhaustion down below.Darkness prevails in no time, and with it, the cold intensifies its grip.
Driving home late this afternoon, I saw at the same time three different flocks of geese flying overhead.They were each veering in different directions, somewhat haphazardly and randomly.I don’t know enough about geese.I know that they always fly in groups, always in V-formation.There is always a leader who has two different contrails streaming behind him.Why aren’t these contrails, or kite tails, ever the same length?Why is it that only the lead goose can start the V?Couldn’t any other goose randomly have two streams behind him, so that the flock wouldn’t resemble a V, but many V’s within the one V?But that never happens.
Why do the geese honk?Do they always honk while flying, or do they ever have quiet time?Where are they all going?Why now?I went outdoors very late a few nights ago, when the temperature was near zero.It was so very quiet, nothing like a noisy summer evening, as if the cold was muffling all the sounds, or maybe the snow had blanketed and soundproofed the entire outdoors.Suddenly, the stillness was broken by a flock of geese flying overhead, honking madly, flapping their wings frantically.They were going somewhere in a hurry, maybe, or perhaps just flying around trying to warm up?
There are so many things I don’t know, but I do know that the heavens declare the glory of God.The geese give glory to God.Their formations, their honking all give glory to God.The cold speaks of the majesty of God, gives glory to God.And in noticing all of this, in living on this beautiful planet He has created, I too give glory to God.
posted by Peri Zahnd on December 19, 2008 at 5:38 PM
Yes, Happy Holidays! Happy Holy Days! All of them! I'm sorry that some Christian people are angry when they are greeted this way by checkout clerks while Christmas shopping. I hope they don't respond in sanctimonious sarcasm, with their offended noses tilted in the air, "No, it's MERRY CHRISSSTTTMASSS!!!"
I think it’s wonderful that American culture recognizes and celebrates an entire season of holy days, beginning with Thanksgiving, a day set aside for being grateful, and ending with New Year’s Day, a day of looking forward to new beginnings. Two holy days, a day of reflecting on the past year and recognizing how much we have to be grateful for, and another holy day of looking forward to the coming year with faith and hope, surround the holiest of days, the holy of holies, the day that makes the other two possible. The holiest of holy days, Christmas Day, is the day that God became a man, came and dwelt among us, and changed everything.It is this day that gives us hope for the future, for without it, life would be hopeless.
We do need an entire season to reflect on this great gift, the greatest gift ever given, the greatest gift we have ever received.Each year that I celebrate Christmas I enjoy it more, understanding a little more the mystery and the miracle that it is.The gratitude I feel at Thanksgiving is the entrance into the mystery of the Incarnation, culminating in an ever-startling revelation that because of the finished work of Christ, every day is a new beginning, every new year fresh with possibility.Christmas is the greatest wonder of all.
So, Happy Holidays!All of them!Celebrate the Trinity of Holy Days!Rejoice in the one who is able to turn sorrow into laughter, who will someday wipe all the tears from our eyes, cause all things to work together for good in our lives, and make everything new again.Merry Christmas!
posted by Peri Zahnd on December 6, 2008 at 10:15 PM
In 1965, when I was five years old, we moved into the neighborhood I would live in for the rest of my childhood years, a home with a big backyard, lots of trees, and a long line of lilac bushes that divided our yard from the neighbors. Our neighbors were a childless couple in their late forties who quickly grew to love me, my brother, and then the little sister who came along a few years later.
Arthur was a big man with a nice smile who never said very much. His wife Alberta, who was just Bert to us, did all the talking, and she did love to talk. She talked a mile a minute, and Arthur, or Art, just smiled behind her. He worked at the local brewery, and kept his yard neat and tidy. I remember him pushing the mower around the backyard, always wearing elastic waist shorts pulled up high on his belly, no shirt, knee-high white socks, and brown leather loafers. Art had a vegetable garden, and long rows of raspberry bushes that he kept neatly pruned and weeded.
