A Simple Christmas…M4B*

Because of the persecution at the hands of my birth family, which included being systematically poisoned in their attempts to control this great gift of shalom that is die zauberflote and try to use it against God’s will, Christmas has a special meaning for me. I learned it the hard way. At the time, I could not understand why it seemed that God had abandoned me to people who insisted on turning themselves into monsters. Yet nonetheless I willingly stood in ankle-deep icy mud, at times with tears running down my face, and sang Christmas carols with the neighborhood children in my hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut. Although I came to realize that the persecution would intensify during the holidays, I never lost my love of every piece of music connected to Yeshua, the Messiah.

But much of the hooplah came to make me quite miserable. The tree, the tinsel, the cotton batting on the mantle with a cardboard sleigh and reindeer, and of course, “Santa Claus” — whoever that was — came to represent to me an abyss of hopelessness.

“Let’s have our Christmas!” my Mother would chuckle, as she got out her notepad to record which gift was from whom, so we could immediately send thank-you notes for everything under the tree.

Well, that was it. The Bible sat dusty and untouched on a bookshelf, and everything swirled around who got what. And of course, I seemed to end up with items I had never wished for nor could ever use. That seemed to be part of the orchestration.

At the time, being quite young, it was all very confusing. Now, looking back, I can see how God has used everything for good, for I literally cannot tolerate anything having to do with Christmas that does not directly lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. I no longer ‘celebrate’ what I call ‘Xmas’. No tree. No lights. No wrappings. Just the music. And The Presence.

And I am richly blessed…I invite you to do the same…:-)

*M4B=Mozart For Believers

MinnegeddonPartDeux — just for “Starla”and Yoko?…really, ladies? Really? :-0

Update, January 27, 2023

Some time has passed since this post was written, and some things have changed.  Bob Dylan has insisted on telling us about our connection to John Lennon.  And Piper has some new characters…

It looks like the Queen of the Night (my mother) has some helpers…a Wanna Be…and possibly an adjunct! Well, John calls her the “Mother of Night”, so that kind of fits.

And Monostatos has increased in size with Bob as the leader of the cadre, and Bill, along with his cohorts at the Minnesota Orchestra…

Oh, and my best friend Brad (Papageno) is now married to his little dove Missy (Papagena)…however, he is complaining that he is being tested more as a Christian than I am!  I would beg to differ with him, but what good would that do?

And it looks like Minnegeddon is in full swing, where the truth comes out about everything that has happened to us…

Original post…

In the novel “Piper to the Alternative”, Pamina’s mother is Mildred Payne.  She is the great Queen of the Night.  She hurls down curses with a bolt of lightning.  She emanates charm that can seem almost irresistible.  At other times, the air glows black and white with the depth of her profound wickedness.

Mildred was also an adept at various evil strategies.  One of them, in fact, perhaps her favorite, was that of finesse.  In order to accomplish this, you set your prey up through flattery and deceit, and then move in to destroy them, getting them to do something or give up information they would never otherwise do.

By the time of MinnegeddonPartDeux (post Monostatos’ Orchestra lockout) Mildred is dead.  A proxy or two seem to have tried to step up to the plate.  They too try to corner Pamina and cause her harm. They seem intent on becoming Mildred’s little mini-me’s.  Of course, the energy of the great die zauberflote protects Pamina.  And, as it might be expected, Pamina has learned from her experiences with her mother how to finesse her adversaries…

So instead of a slanted field, there is instead an even one…:-)