STUBBORN OR CONFUSED? Resisting the change of seasons

Photo taken the trees in our neighborhood on December 15, 2010

For the first time since we have lived in our home, our leaves did not fall as usual during the autumn season. Instead we are in winter and we still have most of the leaves on our trees. Either the leaves this year where stubborn and wanted to hold on, or they have been confused with the unpredictable weather we have experienced all across the country. 

I will write more shortly.

Signs in the Heavens: Winter Solstice and Lunar Eclipse Overlap

I will write more shortly.



Above Photo taken on October 21, 2010 from my driveway.

 

 An example of a lunar eclipse that happen in 2004 (courtesy of msn.com)

This year's winter solstice will coincide with a full lunar eclipse in a union that hasn't been seen in.The last time the two celestial events happened at the same time was in AD 1554, (just under five centuries years ago)

The sun and the moon are at their darkest at this point in time during the winter solisitice. The eclipse will start just after midnight Eastern Time on Tuesday December 21, 2010, with the main event starting at 1:30 a.m. ET and lasting until 5:30 a.m., when the moon reappears.

From a Humble Birth to Elaborate Shows

Photo taken on May 15, 2010 in a cave outside the city of Bethelem. 

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes,

and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

Luke 2: 7

We know the Christmas story very well. Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem and were turned away from the village inn by the innkeeper. Every since I was little, I have always pictured the baby Jesus in a barn like structure as he was laid in a manger (a stone feeding trough for animals). However, a very early tradition says the site of the nativity was a cave near Bethlehem.  A cave could serve a household well by providing shelter for the animals or a place of refuge. The above picture was taken in one such cave in Bethlehem.

As a sidenote: the below picture was taken at this years Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert with David Archuleta. We have come along way since the humble birth of our Savior.

Ascending the Mountain

Photo taken after the first snow storm in November of 2010 .

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

2 Nephi 24:14 

I will write more shortly