“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”
This quote is from Louis Pasteur, a famous scientist who lived in the 1800s and proved that it was not “bad air” that caused some diseases but actually microorganisms that we categorize as germs today. He also developed a vaccine for rabies, and his name is given to a method of killing germs in milk: pasteurization.
So, his secret is his tenacity, but what is it?
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What does Jesus’ disciple John have in common with Napoleon Bonaparte? I suppose the image below gives it away, but, yes, they were both exiled—banished from the homes and countries they loved.
John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos in AD 95 during Roman persecution of Christians. While banished to the island, John wrote the book of Revelation. Vistas of the Mediterranean Sea may be beautiful from there, but the island itself is only 30 square miles and very rocky and sterile.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the former emperor of France after the French Revolution, was actually exiled twice. The first time,
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Every year, paleontologists (those who study fossils or life in prehistoric times) find evidence of a species we didn’t know about before, like a new species of terror bird (Llallawavis scagliai) in Argentina. Its skeleton shows it was ten feet tall!
And, often, other types of scientists discover new animals or species still living that no one knew about. For instance, the kitefin shark was recently discovered in the deep sea off the coast of New Zealand. It not only luminesces but also its dorsal fin “emits light,” according to smithsonianmag.com. And now we know about a spider that looks like it has a peacock tail. It has been dubbed Sparklemuffin (Maratus jactatus), according to livescience.com.
In addition, a bird thought extinct for over 150 years surprisingly has turned up in a rainforest in Borneo. Ornithologists captured the black-browed babbler as it flitted through the trees. Then they photographed it for identification and sent it on its way, according to smithsonianmag.com.
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Mr. George McWhirter Fotheringay doesn’t believe in miracles.
At least, that’s what H. G. Wells tells us in his short story “The Man Who Could Work Miracles.” First published in 1898, it tells of a man who didn’t believe in miracles but ended up doing some anyway.
One day, Mr. Fotheringay argues his case in a local tavern. He defines a miracle as “something contrariwise to the course of nature done by the power of Will, something that couldn’t happen without being specially willed.”
While arguing against miracles, he ends up doing one.
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“Long, long ago, in a lavish lodge near the village of Liverwurst, lived a lovely lass called Linda the Lonely.
Linda was lonely because, ever since she was a little girl, she had been
locked in the lodge by her wicked uncle, Lord Ludwig of Liverwurst.”
So begins “The Legend of Linda the Lonely” in The Sesame Street Book of Fairy Tales.
By now you have noticed something strange about the first paragraph of poor Linda’s story—it’s full of the letter “L.”
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Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. Though that is over 200 years ago, we still read his work today.
He’s famous for his short stories and for poems like “The Raven.” (You know, that “Nevermore” poem.)
In an essay, Poe explained how he was very careful to choose just the right words for how they sound and for the effect he was trying to achieve. You’ll see that he was very successful in his poem “The Bells,” which is rich with writer’s devices.
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Advertising is everywhere. TV commercials bombard you 18 minutes out of every hour, but they are not the only places companies try to sell their products. Think of billboards, huge pictures of food products stuck to restaurant windows, and even your lowly cereal box.
Yes, even after you’ve bought the cereal, you still get advertisements about it. Take a look at a cereal box and notice all the adjectives there to describe the cereal and tell you how great it is. Here’s a sentence from my Cinnamon Life® cereal:
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When I think of a new year and new beginnings, I think of Samson, the Bible’s strongman.
You know, Samson with the long hair. Samson who wanted to marry a woman from an enemy country, a woman his parents did not approve of. Samson who tore a lion apart with his bare hands and then pestered people about it. Samson who killed thirty men at his wedding. Samson who hung around with Delilah.
That Samson.
Samson’s life was miraculous from the beginning. His mother could not have children, but an angel of the Lord announced to her that she would have a child and that he would help free the Israelites from the iron fist of the Philistines.
For most of his life, however, he pretty much did whatever he wanted to do.
But here’s the amazing part, the part about new beginnings:
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Do you have Christmas season memories you hold dear? Here are a few of mine:
The year my mother saved her hard-earned cake-decorating money to buy a sewing machine for me when I was a college freshman. Little did I know that I would use that machine to sew little outfits for my firstborn son and to teach my daughter how to sew on it. In fact, she has it now, and she is teaching her daughters how to sew.
The year we skipped Christmas.
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Think back to that first Christmas. Sometime after Mary was visited by an angel, she traveled to her cousin Elizabeth’s house. Elizabeth, an old woman, was finally expecting her first child, and when she heard Mary’s greeting, she reported that her unborn baby “leaped in her womb” (Luke 21: 41 NIV).
Elizabeth called out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
At this, Mary broke out into song! Her song is recorded in Luke 1: 46-55 and is sometimes called the Magnificat, which means “my soul magnifies.”
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