O HOLY NIGHT

"O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining"
picture by Todd

Todd, Kristy and I drove up to Salem last night and were awestruck by the beautiful evening. (Clare was home babysitting a sleeping Nora.)  The moon wasn't full but it shone so brightly on the snow covered landscape that we could see our shadows.  Todd parked the vehicle on the west side of the church so that the lights were shining on some of the evergreens.  Strangely, they appear white in the picture.  The glow on the ground is from the candles we lit by Howard's grave.  It was so still and quiet that we just had to sing a verse of "Silent Night".  We had soprano, alto and bass but our tenor will be forever missed.

 A few years ago Laurel had recorded Howard singing "O Holy Night" accompanied by the accordion so I will add this link.
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We placed a wreath at Howard's grave and lit two candles.  One was a special grave candle from Norway.  The other was in a lantern that Todd made as a project at Bible camp one year.  It has plexiglass on the sides so keeps the wind out.  This past week has been unusual in that there has been no wind.  Hoar frost clung to the trees all week.

Howard's wreath

Howard's wreath with candles lit

The last line of the verse we sang had an extra meaning for me, "Sleep in heavenly peace".  It seemed to be a line for Howard whose earthly body rests in peace awaiting that day when "the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; and we shall all be changed".  It's a line from the quartet "Behold I Show You a Mystery" that my brother Merv and three of his friends sang at my Grandma Haaland's funeral service.  It is based on 1 Cor. 15:51,52 and a song that means so much.