{"id":142,"date":"2012-12-24T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T23:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2014-04-28T19:01:44","modified_gmt":"2014-04-29T00:01:44","slug":"christmas-eve-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"about\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-150  aligncenter\" title=\"Henry Del Rosario\" src=\"http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"844\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve.jpg 1500w, http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-300x168.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-1024x576.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-700x393.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Christmas Eve and the festivities have begun: little cousins climb sofas and people, family members weave themselves between food and drinks, music lifts the mood, lights and wreaths line every domestic edge, adults sing karaoke and play\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/gingsbrain.blogspot.com\/2010\/10\/how-to-play-filipino-mahjong.html\" target=\"_blank\">mahjong<\/a> in the basement, a buffet of Filipino food spreads itself on the table with a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/specials\/packages\/article\/0,28804,1893324_1893292_1893289,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">whole pig<\/a> smiling at the center. It truly is the season!<\/p>\n<p>With Christmas having multiple associations to different people (family, food, traveling, vacation, gifts, etc) it&#8217;s easy to see why so many people want to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a fascinating symbol&#8211; like an empty signifier that holds whatever is precious to us. As a Christian, one may tend to be possessive of the Christmas symbol, but rather than getting caught up in fighting commercialization or American culture, it might be more productive to humbly speak about what Christmas means to us with plain &#8220;clarity and conviction&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.desiringgod.org\/blog\/posts\/a-festivus-for-the-rest-of-us\">David Mathis<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1PBQmONX1TY\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This song is such a treasure to me because it describes understated aspects of God&#8217;s power: <strong>quiet,\u00a0humble, and poetic<\/strong>. What is more <strong>quiet<\/strong> than the sound of snow falling at night? What can be more <strong>humble<\/strong> than the God of our universe, the God of tsunamis, the God\u00a0of YV Canis Majoris,\u00a0the God of tectonic plates, the God of eternity taking on human frailty? What is more <strong>poetic<\/strong> than cramming and stuffing the flames of 1 septillion suns into the cradled form of a baby?\u00a0Seeing something so significant in something so insignificant is something fantastic to me!<\/p>\n<p>In Isaiah, I am reminded that in God&#8217;s character is expressed in his word. God&#8217;s word is compared to &#8220;rain and the snow&#8221; that waters the earth. The word is simple, meek in appearance, yet consistent, powerful, and purposeful. These verses are something that blesses me the longer I meditate and chew on it in my heart and mind. Christmas is the quiet collision of body and spirit, of finite and infinite, of word and wordlessness. This Christmas Eve I prepare to celebrate the birth of a poem and the eruption of eternity into our world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div style=\"position: relative; width: 50%; float: left;\">\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #506eaf;\">Winter Snow &#8211; Chris Tomlin (&amp; Audrey Assad)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> Could\u2019ve come like a mighty storm<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> with all the strength of a hurricane<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> You could\u2019ve come like a forest fire<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> with the power of heaven in your flame<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> But you came like a winter snow<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> quiet and soft and slow<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> Falling from the sky in the night<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> to the earth below<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> Could\u2019ve swept in like a tidal wave<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> or an ocean to ravish our hearts<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> You could have come through like a roaring flood<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> to wipe away the things we\u2019ve scarred<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> No, your voice wasn\u2019t in a bush burning<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> No, your voice wasn\u2019t in a rushing wind<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #506eaf;\"> It was still, it was small, it was hidden<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"position: relative; width: 50%; float: right; text-align: right;\">\n<p><strong>Isaiah 55: 10-11<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the rain and the snow<br \/>\ncome down from heaven,<br \/>\nand do not return to it<br \/>\nwithout watering the earth<br \/>\nand making it bud and flourish,<\/p>\n<p>so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,<br \/>\nso is my word that goes out from my mouth:<br \/>\nIt will not return to me empty,<br \/>\nbut will accomplish what I desire<br \/>\nand achieve the purpose for which I sent it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Christmas Eve and the festivities have begun: little cousins climb sofas and people, family members weave themselves between food and drinks, music lifts the mood, lights and wreaths line every domestic edge, adults sing karaoke and play\u00a0mahjong in the basement, a buffet of Filipino food spreads itself on the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[24,23],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-verbal","tag-music","tag-verses","column","threecol","has-thumbnail"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve.jpg",1500,844,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve.jpg",660,371,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-1024x576.jpg",660,371,true],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve.jpg",1500,844,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve.jpg",1500,844,false],"slider-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-1140x395.jpg",1140,395,true],"blog-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-700x300.jpg",700,300,true],"teaser-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-332x205.jpg",332,205,true],"gallery-1-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-432x432.jpg",432,432,true],"gallery-2-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-268x268.jpg",268,268,true],"gallery-3-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-268x164.jpg",268,164,true],"image-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-700x393.jpg",700,393,true],"video-thumb":["http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmaseve-700x393.jpg",700,393,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Del Rosario Henry","author_link":"http:\/\/www.henrydelrosario.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It&#8217;s Christmas Eve and the festivities have begun: little cousins climb sofas and people, family members weave themselves between food and drinks, 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