"Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen."

-Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

I'm writing this on Christmas Day; so Advent is officially over, and Christmastide is here.  It's been quite an unusual Christmas thus far, especially since being in the southern hemisphere now, we are in the heat of summer rather than the dead of winter.  It was a scorching 95 degrees today; and rather than turkey, we ate impala game pie (well, William and I did; Allison couldn't because she is gluten-free) -- just to mention a couple differences from the normal Christmas routine.

But there was another difference, too, of a different kind.  On Sunday, at the Anglican cathedral in Mbabane, we heard a sermon by a priest (a white man, probably British, who married a Swazi woman has lived here in Swaziland for nearly fifty years) who questioned the Virgin Birth of Christ.  He didn't deny it outright.  But he said that he didn't think that the Incarnation demanded that the birth of Jesus from a virgin mother was necessary for it.  It's not good to say things like this to theologians; it gets us thinking.  I will spare you the diatribe and simply say that I think the priest is wrong.  After the service he wanted to meet us, and he offered us a standing invitation to his farm out in the country for tea.  Perhaps one of these days I'll drive out there and have tea, and a chat.  But the main point here is that I had never before heard, in any church, a priest openly question the doctrine of the Virgin Birth from the pulpit.  Why did he do that?

In other news, I think I have discovered the key to the mystery car problem of a couple weeks ago.  It turns out that the engine is shutting down at odd times when the radiator fan turns off.  Obviously, the problem was new that weekend in Pretoria.  But we don't normally drive the car long enough distances for the radiator fan to come on, so it simply hadn't happened very many times.  But this weekend we drove long enough that I began to find the pattern.  What's interesting to me is that, looking back, our breakdown outside Pretoria still did not follow the pattern.  Since then, every time the car has stalled out, it has started again less than 10 minutes later -- except that one time at the exit ramp where we met Elizabeth a little while after the car stalled.  I can't draw any scientific conclusions from that whole scenario: but I conclude, in faith, that God is good and that He cares about all our needs -- as big as an ill husband, and as small as a beige bookbag.

Another difference from before ... well, two actually ... is that I'm a father now, and I have a son.  These are different things themselves, and they make an astounding difference.  Not in any particular sense, I don't think, or at least I haven't figured it out yet.  I'm still too new at it.  But as I write this, it strikes me that God is a Father, and God has a Son ... although I'm certainly NOT trying to say that I am God, nor am I suggesting that divine relationships are the same as human relationships in general.  Here's all I'm saying: I have these things in common with God now, and I didn't before.  But I don't know exactly what it means.

I'm trying to think if there are any other loose threads to tie up from this Advent season.  I've been thinking a lot -- the working of the Holy Spirit, the goodness and providence of God, the painful reality of suffering.  No matter how you cut the cake, we are born to die.  Hmmm, sounds like someone else I know...

Merry Christmas, world.  Happy Birthday, Jesus.  Gloria In Excelsis!

"Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever.  Amen."
-Collect for the Nativity of Our Lord [Christmas Day]