John Blase Archives - Inkwells & Images

Decembers are busy months, filled with parties and lists and shopping trips. They’re not often filled with books. I wrote this year about how I was not excited for Christmas, and I think part of the reason is that I hadn’t been reading. My heart gets a little grumpy when I haven’t been reading often enough.

This year, my December was also filled with a semi-secret new project I am working on with a friend. While it’s been super fun and energizing, it has also been time- and emotion-consuming. It won’t launch until February, so I really can’t talk about it (yet!), so instead I’ll talk about the books I did manage to squeeze into the month of much.

Here’s what I read in December:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K Rowling

This short book is a fabulous companion to the Harry Potter series, and you’re absolutely going to need to read it before the movie comes out in November 2016.

Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas by John Blase

This collection of readings for Advent was a settling place for my soul this year, and inspired reflection on Christmas Eve.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

This book was a well-woven mystery. You don’t see the end coming until the very, very moment that it happens. Moriarty is just vague enough throughout the whole book that you know something is about to happen and when it does – WHAM! – you are shocked and thrilled. And the ending is very satisfying, so that’s a plus, too. If you like a little mystery, layered characters and a spider web of a plot, read this.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Big Little Lies, Jojo Moyes Me Before You is a love story through-and-through. It’s not very apparent at the start, but you can soon see what is coming and how you think it will end – and then it ends completely differently than you expect and you are left crying in the backseat of the car while your husband drives and your dad navigates on the way home from Christmas at Grandma’s four states away. True story.

Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling

I added this to my Amazon cart in December after needing just $4 more to get free shipping. It sounds silly, but I’ll pay $3 extra for a book but I’m not willing to pay $5 for shipping. #BookAddictProblems.

Just as with Fantastic Beasts, this short novel was vintage Rowling. Short, punchy, and full of tiny little details that capture the imagination and tie the magical world and muggle world together. If you like Harry Potter, read this, of course.

What did you read in December to wrap up the year? I hope it was something great!

A Song of Joy & Sadness on The First Christmas

That first Christmas, there was joy. There was wonder and awe and salvation.

There was also sadness. Christ’s coming meant peace on Earth, but it was not immediate.

That first Christmas also held devastation. Mary’s joy was the joy of a new mother, a joy made infinitely more full as the mother of the Christ child. Her joy would become our joy, for centuries to come.

But there were others that would mourn that year, as another king of Israel sought to interrupt God’s place for peace on Earth. Other mothers welcoming new babes and unable to raise them.

An excerpt from John Blase’s Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas:

We sang that night as we had never sung before. Those shepherds believed they were the primary audience. True, they were important—the Mighty One has always favored the lowly. But there was much going on that night.

The other reason we sang in the fields was to hallow the ground where Rachel would weep over her sons. There the graves would be dug, the graves for the little boys of Bethlehem. Herod’s rage soon stripped dozens of firstborns from the breasts that nursed them. Those so fresh from God, so quickly silenced. Slaughtered like animals. So much blood.

The town had no room for Mary, as Herod’s heart had no room for another king. He would not share his glory. He would destroy this threat if he had to go through all the firstborns in the kingdom. Although we do not exist in time, there are moments when the affairs of earth are hard to endure. Even angels desire vengeance…

And so we sang: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please Him. And Gabriel said, “Again, louder.” We sang again.

What the shepherds heard as an anthem, the innocents would hear as a lullaby. We sang as we had never sung before. A song to bring Him into the world, a song to guide them safely from it, and a song to help her endure it…”

– An Angel

As I sink into carrying merry and bright with me into the new year, I am reminded to pause and to remember, as well.