My cat Peanut has the life. Especially on Caturdays.

By the way, Caturday is just a Saturday where cats get to do whatever they want, whenever they want, for as long as they want.

Oh wait. That’s everyday. Not just Saturdays.

What Peanut wanted to do today was nap. A lot. And she did.

It helps that she’s small enough to nap in lots of different places.

She also has the advantage of a natural fur coat which makes just about anywhere automatically cozy and comfortable.

She also happens to look so darn cute when she’s sleeping. Especially when it’s on my lap.

It took her a little while to figure out the whole human lap thing, but I think she’s getting the hang of it.

Plus did I mention how little and cute she is?

I suppose I am a creature of habit. A happy, well-fed creature of habit.

Once again, I got my downtown Franklin fix tonight. I did the Pub (that’s McCreary’s Irish Pub for the uninformed), St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (where I got treated to an impromptu organ recital, also known as rehearsal), and a walk down my favorite street.

FYI, if I ever do win the lottery or a distant rich relative kicks the bucket, I want one of the quaint little houses on Fair Street in Franklin.

Downtown Franklin has a very Stars Hollow-y vibe. I could also imagine it feels like stepping into a Hallmark Christmas movie. All I’d need was a complete wardrobe of sweaters and a Christmas-y nickname.

The only drawback was that the weather was very un-festive. It was on-and-off drizzly and neither cold nor hot. Just kinda meh.

But all in all, a good time was had by all. I even managed to avoid getting hit by any cars for the fifth year in a row.

Once again the best part about a Friday night is knowing I get to sleep in tomorrow morning. I call that a win.

I’m trying not to let the rush of the holiday season get to me. I’m trying to slow down and savor the season of Advent as much as possible.

So far, I’ve blinked twice and Advent is almost halfway done. I’m starting to understand more and more what those old people were talking about when I was a kid about how time flies. Heck, those “old people” back then were probably the age I am now. Gosh, I need to lie down now.

I think the key is to keep Christmas small. Not to get carried away by all the decorations and the presents like they did in Whoville before the Grinch showed up. I need to focus again on that little baby in the manger who didn’t come with pomp and circumstance to a Fortune 500 power couple but to lowly peasants.

But I’m not all that great at focusing. I get distracted by shiny things and noise and pretty colors. My mind wanders away from Bethlehem time and time again. 

God, keep me centered on the Incarnate Infant. Help me to seek you and adore you this season, just as those shepherds and wise men did all those centuries ago. Help me not to lose my sense of wonder at the Glorious Impossible.

I ran across something I posted on social media a few years back, and it made me chuckle.

I hope it will bring some much-needed levity to your day as well.

“Strange Answers Given on a Bible Knowledge Test

Noah’s wife was Joan of Ark. 

Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night. 

Moses went to the top of Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. 

The seventh commandment is ‘thou shalt not admit adultery.’

Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol. 

Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption. 

The people who followed Jesus were called Decibels. 

The espistles were the wives of the apostles. 

One of the opossums was St. Matthew. 

Salome danced in seven veils in front of King Herrod. 

Paul preached acrimony, which is another name for marriage. 

David fought the Finkelsteins, which a race of people who lived in Bible times. 

The Jews had trouble throughout their history with unsympathic Genitals.”

What? What? The last Kairos of the year?

It still doesn’t seem right. There will be no more Kairos until January 8, 2019. There are a mere 20 days left in 2018.

Sometimes, I want one of those buttons on the remote control to slow things down a bit. I think the old VCR remotes had those back in the day.

I do know that the whole Advent and Christmas season goes by faster and faster each year. Lately, it seems like I hardly have time to savor the season before it’s over.

I distinctly remember as a kid wondering why those days in December went  by so slowly. Those last few days of school before Christmas break crept by like an arthritic snail.

Now I turn around and we’ve gone from Halloween to 2 weeks before Christmas. I blink and a week goes by.

Maybe my lesson to myself is to look up once in a while. Put my so-called smart phone down and see my world. Take in the festive decorations and be present in each moment.

Also, it’s good for me to remember that the true spirit of Christmas doesn’t end on December 25. It lives on in all the days of the years, for Emmanuel doesn’t just dwell in the hearts of men and women one day of the year but every day.

“May the blessing of light be on you,
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunshine shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire,
so that the stranger may come
and warm himself at it,
and also a friend.” (Irish Blessing)

If you can read that with an authentic Irish accent, you get bonus points.

That was the theme of Aaron Bryant’s sermon at church today. Specifically, it was about how God was fully content with Jesus and how we can have that contentment of God through Jesus. Well, he said it better than that, but that’s the gist of it.

This holiday season, just about every ad you see, hear, and read will play off of an underlying discontent. The cure is to buy this car or that television or this deodorant or that mattress.

The only problem with that is the satisfaction from buying things is temporary. As you might have heard before, we all have a God-shaped vacuum inside of us that God and nothing else will fill.

Even though I know that (at least intellectually), I still want to find contentment through more stuff. My Amazon wish list isn’t quite as ridiculous as it used to be, but it’s still shows how stuff-obsessed I am even now.

If I look back to the Christmases of my childhood, I can probably remember about 5% of the presents I received. What I recall most are the memories of family and friends and, above all, hearing the Christmas story of God coming near in Jesus and loving it more and more and I began to understand it more and more.

So many presents and things that are supposed to bring true contentment will end up at a local Goodwill or even the local dumpster once they lose their appeal, but true contentment in God is something that will last through this and every holiday season.

“My soul lifts up the Lord! My spirit celebrates God, my Liberator! For though I’m God’s humble servant, God has noticed me. Now and forever, I will be considered blessed by all generations. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; holy is God’s name! From generation to generation, God’s lovingkindness endures for those who revere Him. God’s arm has accomplished mighty deeds. The proud in mind and heart, God has sent away in disarray. The rulers from their high positions of power, God has brought down low. And those who were humble and lowly, God has elevated with dignity. The hungry—God has filled with fine food. The rich—God has dismissed with nothing in their hands. To Israel, God’s servant, God has given help, As promised to our ancestors, remembering Abraham and his descendants in mercy forever” (Luke 1:46-56, The Voice).

It all started with one small yes to God, and the world was forever changed.

Christmas means Emmanuel, God with us. Advent is all about God incarnate in Jesus, because when we couldn’t get to God, God came to us. When we couldn’t be good enough, God in Jesus became good for us, perfection for our imperfection, holiness for our filthy rags.

God came near and has not left, nor will He ever.

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes – and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas).

My pastor said that Christianity isn’t that you can get to God but that God in Jesus has come to you. 

Advent is waiting on that promised Messiah, confessing that we’re not capable on our own of making our way to God but that we’re in desperate need of a Savior.

When we couldn’t find a way out of the mess we’d made of ourselves and our lives, God in Jesus came to us, loved us in our mess and rescued us from that mess. 

“So if you believe deep in your heart that God raised Jesus from the pit of death and if you voice your allegiance by confessing the truth that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ then you will be saved! Belief begins in the heart and leads to a life that’s right with God; confession departs from our lips and brings eternal salvation” (Romans 10:9-10, The Voice).

That is the Gospel.