DECEMBER 16th

DECEMBER 16th

• Thought/story: "The Naming of the Lord"

• Scripture: Luke 8:5-16
Event: The Sower
Jesus Christ taught with stories

• Recipe: Hershey's Hot Fudge Sauce (great over brownies and ice cream)
Ingredients: 1/2 c. cocoa, 1 c. sugar, 2/3 c. evaporated milk,
1/3 c. light corn syrup, 1/3 c. butter, 1 tsp. Vanilla .

Instructions: Combine cocoa and sugar in saucepan. Blend in evaporated
milk & corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until
mixture boils. Boil and stir one minute. Remove from heat. Stir in butter
and vanilla. Serve warm. Makes about 2 cups.

• Tradition: Sometimes the little things can really mean a lot; the classics
that a lot of us remember from childhood, such as leaving a plate of cookies
for Santa, a certain item in stockings in each, the same Christmas breakfast
What favorites do you remember from your childhood? Maybe your kids
would like to hear about them.

• Small gift idea: You can give a plate of treats with the following message:

Twas weeks before Christmas and on my mind,
Were the tons of presents I couldn't find.

There was plenty to do, I needed to get to it!
And all I really wanted was some time just to sit.

So I fixed myself a cookie and a cup of hot drink,
While memories of Christmas caused me to think.

Even though we rush about and things seem hairy,
Christmas is a time for all to be merry.

So take a little time to fix yourself this treat.
Sit down, relax and put up your feet!

Merry Christmas!




THE NAMING OF THE LORD
Isaiah gave him names before his birth:

Wonderful, he called him.
Shepherds, seeing only a baby,
would not have known him otherwise,
but they marveled at the promise in him, .
for they had heard the heavenly choir.
the messenger's words, and seen glory
Thus the angel's saying turned
to shepherds' words, "and all they
that heard wondered at those things."
Counselor, he called him.
So the priests counseled to kill
Peter and the others. But one stood
in council, Gamaliel, to talk of men
of no account, whose words, and works,
and lives had perished. "Refrain,"
he said, "for if this counsel
or this work be of men, it will come
to naught. But if it be of God,
ye cannot overthrow it."
The mighty God, he called him.
Like a trumpet, the voice that John heard.
He turned to see, and behold, fiery eyes,
but the hair was white, like snow,
and his feet burned as if in a furnace, .
his right hand holding seven stars,
his words as a sharp two-edged sword,
his face as the sun in its strength:
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending, which is, and which was,
and which is to come, the Almighty."
The everlasting Father, he called him.
In the Garden, before his bitter.agony,
before the angel strengthened him,
before the sinful burden of all
fell on him, before his blood fell
as sweat, he prayed for all believers,
for glory to glorify his Father.
Having power over all flesh, eternal
life to give, he prayed, "Holy Father,
keep through thine own name
those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are."
The Prince of Peace to be his name.
The stonn of wind beat waves fuII
into the hull, and they cried, "Lord,
save us, we perish!" Rising, he rebuked
wind and said to sea, "Peace, be still."
Calm settled through air and water,
and they asked, "What manner of man
is this?" Peter answering three years later,
"The prince of life, whom God has raised
from the dead"; John answering in old age,
"he is the way, the truth, the life,"
commanding our hearts to be untroubled,
to be unafraid, leaving with us his peace.


(Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:36-41; Luke
2:8-18; 22:39-45; John 14:6, 27; 17:1-11;
Acts 3:15; 5:33-40; Revelation 1:8-19)

Richard Tice, associate editor at Deseret Book Company,
is also editor and publisher of Dragonfly, a
magazine on haiku. He has published a novel, The
Inside Track, and a book of poetry, Station Stop.