Weekly e-Tidings An email publication of The First Congregational Church of Danbury. December 4, 2014 This Sunday: II Advent – Communion – Birthday Sunday 3 pm Children’s Community Chorus Concert From Pastor Pat Kriss: According to Old Dutch traditions, children who put their shoes out on the eve of St. Nicholas Day – December 6- will find that by morning St. Nick will have left them gifts. If they’ve been very, very good, there will be candy and maybe an orange. If they’ve been naughty, there will be chunks of coal in there as well. With the negative way that the news is running these days, just turning on the TV is like checking your St. Nicholas Shoe and finding mostly coal. With the ongoing tragedies of the Michael Brown case and now, the Eric Garner decision bringing heartache to so many, black and white alike, and what seems like endless stories about muggings and cruelty, it’s really, really easy to lose one’s perspective on what reality really is. The problem is, morbid curiosity about evil attracts more viewers, and therefore more ad revenue. Right now, in this season not only of joy and preparation, but also of additional stress and awareness of want, I offer you these antidotes to the Christmas “blahs.” These are the stories that get buried. They are also the stories where we can detect grace moving through them, and even the hand of Providence: The female burglar who, out of need, broke into a vending machine at an English pub. Twenty-two years later, she sent a letter of apology to the pub owner, with amount she stole enclosed in it. The pub owner was touched, donated the money to a local church, and plans on meeting the woman for lunch. Amid all the negative press about law enforcement officers and vivid pictures of riot police and enraged protesters, comes this story from the Huffington Post: “Officers Barry Ward, 49, and Terrence Paramore, 27 from the Boynton Beach Police Department, responded to a hang-up last Saturday, and discovered that a baby had been playing with the phone in the house. But while the police were there, they also noticed that the family was struggling financially (noting a lack of furniture or belongings). They spoke with the child’s mother about the holidays coming up and she mentioned that times were tough for her as a single mother. The little girl made mention that she was sad they didn’t have a Christmas tree. Thats when the officers realized they had some shopping to do and took a trip to Home Depot the next day. They purchased the tree, stand, lights and ornaments. They then went back to the house and delivered the surprise. At the door the little girl was hugging the tree. The big-hearted cops plan on taking on some of Santas duties, and will return to the household before Christmas bearing presents -- many of which have been donated by those in their local community. On the streets of Ferguson, amid the protests and the anger, a little boy stood with a sign that said he was giving out hugs. One of the Ferguson policemen came over and asked if he could have one, too. The boy obliged, with tears streaming down his face – a good news image, a step toward healing, that has gone around the world.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 01:04:51 +0000
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