Not by Might

For me one of the deep truths - the sparkling ornaments that I learn from during Advent seasons (the time of celebrating Christ coming to dwell with us) is that victory really does not come from the kind of might I think it does. I have been mulling over some of the lovely sides of that ornament. 

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I remember one of the first latin phrases I picked up in junior high, probably from a poem. Amor vincit omnia. Love conquers all. True of God's love. We are reminded of that love with the birth of Christ, and then again, so much at his death and resurrection.

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Not long after that, I got the same idea about God's love often conquering us quietly and seemingly from a place of weakness, in the Edwin Markham poem Outwitted:

He drew a circle that shut me out —

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

We drew a circle that shut God out. But He showed how large His love is by drawing a huge circle with Christ to take us back in.

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And James 2:13 includes "Mercy triumphs over judgment." Not the usual cry of power.

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Last week at a Christmas concert we heard this song, new to me. It moves a little fast, so the words are posted below.

This little Babe so few days old, is come to rifle Satan's fold;

All hell doth at his presence quake, though he himself for cold do shake;

For in this weak unarmed wise the gates of hell he will surprise.

With tears he fights and wins the field, his naked breast stands for a shield.

His battering shot are babish cries, his arrows looks of weeping eyes,

His martial ensigns Cold and Need, and feeble Flesh his warrior's steed.

His camp is pitched in a stall, his bulwark but a broken wall;

The crib his trench, haystalks his stakes; of shepherds he his muster makes; 

And thus, as sure his foe to wound, the angels' trumps alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight; stick to the tents that he hath pight. 

Within his crib is surest ward; this little Babe will be thy guard.

If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy, then flit not from this heavenly Boy.

"foil thy foes with joy" - there is the reminder that my soul longs for

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The Superbowl Letters

Did you see the Mercedes ad from the superbowl? 

I watched it three or four times. The first time I noticed how much fun someone had doing up the contract in Latin. Homeschooling Moms notice things like that. And I noticed the nails, I think they are a nice touch, just quietly evil. 

I keep thinking about it, a few random things. Of course I think of The Devil and Daniel Webster. And I think about two old songs, Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" and Terri Gibbs' "Somebody's Knockin'." But mostly I am wondering in terms of Lewis's  The Screwtape Letters - because my first instinct watching this ad is to think, Ha, the devil lost this round. But then I start thinking about pride. What sort of pride would it take to just take on the devil on your own power as this guy is doing? And would Lewis find that pride a bigger sin than signing the contract offered him? And how often do I take on Satan on my own strength? 

Nerds (Make that "Scholars") R Us

Mr Music and I have been enjoying learning about different types of gladiators in his Latin course. Last week we came across tile mosaics showing gladiators. We have especially liked the retiarii. They were used tridents and nets for defense and often beat the more heavily armed murmillones just because they were light on their feet. 


Anyhow, maybe you know you are nerds scholars when you see something like this:

and notice the thetas down by the fallen - that stands for thanatos, Greek for death. But you know you are a nerd when you think, oh so that is how they did it before they thought of Xs on the eyes.   :-P

Glimpses from My World

Some days I love ants and sit back on my heels and watch them like any good self-respecting three-year-old and of course think of Merlin and the Wart:

Other days the scouts that I allow in my kitchen go back and file a full report at their anthill HQ about the location of my sugar canister and I set little terrorist traps for them:

And I highly recommend, if you are bored, reading some of the comments on the amazon page for these traps with a great Latin-derivative name. Rocco's comment that it is like a free beer and pizza party for ants is spot-on for our experience. This picture was taken about two hours after setting out the bait and the ants are partying heavy. By the next morning, as far as we could tell, the party was over. All the little ants must be home nursing hang-overs, or worse.


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Proverbs 30:25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer. ~ ~ ~  Except, of course, when they have been duped into providing poison.