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Wednesday 19 December 2012

A Very Happy Christmas To You All - AND A Happy New Year; Welcome 2013

Well, Christmas has come round yet again . . . . .  and so quickly!  I must be getting old, for time seems to travel much faster these days - and accelerating!. It seems like yesterday we were putting up our Christmas Tree and hunting around for replacement bulbs for our Christmas Tree lights. You may all know and have experienced this no doubt . . . . they seem most elusive and when found are never the right ones.

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year - may 2013 be kind to us all.


I have been absent from BlogLand for a while because my dear wife, Mrs Bluelights, has experienced a set back regarding her health.  Most of you will know that about 15 years ago my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy, removal of 22 lymph nodes (9 of which were cancerous), chemo-therapy (a course of 6) and radio-therapy.  She was prescribed a hormone therapy drug, Tamoxifen, which she took for 5 years, then she was discharged. Unfortunately in 2008 secondary breast cancer was diagnosed in some of her bones.  This was contained by taking Tamoxifen but only for 2 years because the drug became ineffective and replaced by another hormone therapy drug which lasted only a year, then another which failed  We were very down and worried but the consultant reassured us that they had plenty more tricks up their sleeves.  By that time the cancer had spread again to the edge of her liver and progressed further into more bone areas.  She was in so much pain it was awful seeing her suffer like that and this coincided with our daughter's wedding in August, spoiling it to a degree.  I remember having to find a wheelchair after the evening reception to get her back to our accommodation. It was simply dreadful for her . . . and for me to see her like that. So after another consultation with the specialists, unfortunately she has had to undergo another course of chemo-therapy and has just completed no 4 out of 6 sessions which is a bit of an ordeal for her.  The good news is that after chemo 3 a new CT scan shows significant shrinkage of the invading 'nasties'. The consultants are delighted with her progress.  The other good news is that we have friends praying for her all over the world and she is on many, many church prayer lists, again all over the world.  We are sure this has had a lot to do with keeping this evil thing at bay for so long, that plus her determination . . . . plus our hope and, most important . . . .  our faith.

Thank you all for your prayers . . . they are so valued. We know that nothing is impossible for God and He does listen to our prayers and answers them in His own way and in His own time.  We cannot make Him cure her but we ask him to do so.

So Christmas is here once more and I took this photo of a crib at a local nursing home:


Soon we shall be celebrating Jesus's first advent, born in His humanity to be with us for 33 years - although many of us are longing for His second Advent when He shall appear in glory and full majesty.  But first time round the King of the universe actually humbled Himself to be with us, to give us hope, to die for us and to provide Salvation for everyone who wants it.  This little baby was here in his humanity, yet in His Divinity he was holding the whole universe together.  His presence in our lives has helped us so much with my dear wife's illness and we are so fortunate to have Him in our hearts. Unfortunately He is missing from so many hearts and I recently found some quotations from well known atheists, spoken on their death beds.  When they were young they were so fit and well and even very happy, witty and wise, but we all know when we are young we think we are immortal:

I shall quote just one which is so disturbing I just had to share it with you.  This is the sum total of how he viewed all humanity, including his life.  His name, Mark Twain:


"A myriad of men are born, they labor and sweat and struggle for bread. They squabble and scold and fight. They scramble for little mean advantages over each other. Age creeps upon them. Infirmities follow. Shames and humiliations bring down their prides and their vanities. Those they love are taken from them and the joy of life has turned to aching grief. The burden of pain and care and misery grows heavier year by year. At length, ambition is dead. Pride is dead. Vanity is dead. Longing for release is in their place. It comes at last. Death, the only un-poisoned gift earth ever had for them. And they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence, where they achieved nothing, where they were a mistake and a failure and a foolishness, where they have left no sign that they have existed, a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever. And then another myriad takes their place and copies all they did and goes along the same profitless road and vanishes as they vanished to make room for another and another and millions of myriads to follow the same arid path through the same desert and accomplish what the first myriad and all the myriads that came after it accomplished...nothing."


I don't know about you but I found this to be utterly stunning and incredible that anyone can come to the conclusion that this is the total sum of their existence - total failure and nothing - and this by a man of such great genius and intellect.  If only he knew that here on Cosmos Diabolicus, as I call it, we can use just 5% of our brain power - some a little more, some a little less, but we will one day we operate at 100% efficiency - imagine that, when everything will make sense to us and when we shall all be blissfully happy.

I can quote other famous atheist men who at the end of their lives came to similar conclusions but time does not permit me to expand on this here. However,  I read somewhere that atheism is much harder to believe than Christianity.  In mathematical terms to be an atheist and to explain creation one has to believe that:

Nobody x Nothing = Everything

as opposed to:

Somebody x Something out of Nothing = Everything

I suggest the second formula is much easier to accept than the first.

I compare Mark Twain's spoken word to the death of my own mother and her unspoken words, as a believer.  She did not have to say anything - her actions were much more vocal than mere words. She had been unconscious for a number of days in hospital after a tragic illness.  She awoke one morning and fortunately my sister, Maggie and I were at the hospital by her bedside.  We could converse quite well with her and she could converse back, but then she drifted back into unconsciousness.  She awoke a few hours later in the  afternoon, looking in my direction, but I thought not directly at me - perhaps just behind me.  I have never seen such a wonderful and loving smile on any face. It was as though someone standing right behind me had come to collect her and take her to paradise. After that moment we knew our real mother had gone and only her shell remained in her bed.  I often wonder whether this person was my father . . . . or maybe Jesus Himself.  Perhaps one day I shall know when it is my turn to make that journey.

22 comments:

  1. thanks for the update man...i am a little sad for one that thinks life adds up to nothing...merry christmas eddie....wishing the best for you and your family...prayers always...

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  2. It is wonderful to hear from you, my friend.
    You know that I pray for Maria..for you, for Maggie and Harry...and love all of you like family. You ARE family...we belong to the King...our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
    I, too, long for the return of our Lord. But until then, we will be about our Father's business: Exalting the Savior, Equipping the Saints, and Evangelizing the world.
    Again, let me reiterate how wonderful it is to hear from you. We here in Blogland miss you, but I know where your time needs to be spent 1right now, and that is with dear Maria. I hope that your daughter and son are doing well. I send you great big smiles, my friend.
    If I don't see you before then, we will meet at the Amethyst Gate, OK?
    :))
    Hugs,
    Jackie

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  3. Hello Eddie, I'm so sorry your dear wife has suffered with that deadly disease for so long.
    It's good news the nasties are shrinking.
    I wish you and your wife a joyful and peaceful Christmas.

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  4. Eddie, I'm so sorry to hear that Mrs. Bluelights has been through another horrific battle, but I praise the Lord that she is beating the beast. I pray for health and restoration to her entire body. I'm so glad you have such tremendous prayer support, and she is so blessed to have you by her side.

    I knew that Twain was an agnostic, and I have often thought the same thing. How can anyone who wrote so beautifully and had such insight into the human mind be so lost??? I don't get it either.

    On a cheerier note, I wish every blessing of this Holy Season to you and yours and a healthy, happy, prosperous 2013 to come!

    Rule Britania! (and I love the whole notion of the Royal Baby!)

    XO,

    Sheila... across the pond in the good old USA

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  5. When my BFF's mother died, she was looking up, smile beaming, and holding her arms out to someone. I'm convinced it was Jesus and her son who died before she did. They came to get her... wait for it... on Good Friday, the same day her son died!!!

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  6. I keep forgetting to tell you that your tree is lovely! Merry, Merry Christmas!

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  7. Seems strange to me to see your tree in the house I know so well with the pictures of the children in the background!

    Lovely to see this post!

    Hoping that you will both have as good a Christmas as possible and I am relieved that we do have a future in the next world and that we don't have to be as negative as Mark Twain. That would be dreadful if that was all there was to it.

    Yes..... I remember how mum was that day before she died and also the day before when I went to see her and she was so happy looking at the photos of the family after months of sadness. It was the last day I really engaged with her. I miss her still.

    Happy Christmas.
    Maggie x

    Nuts in May

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  8. Eddie, I'm sorry your wife has been through such pain and difficulty lately but so glad to hear that there is improvement. I wish the two of you a very Merry Christmas and many, many more to come.

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  9. Eddie:

    So nice to hear from you again. Rest assured, I said a prayer.

    I've never understood how anyone can accept the premise that nothing somehow mutated to become something. While God's existence from eternity to eternity is not something we can ever fully grasp, it seems to me to be much more sensible than throwing our hands up into the air and saying everything just happened - boom.

    Happy Christmas, sir!

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  10. I didn't know your wife's history with cancer and I'm sorry for how incredibly difficult it's been. Good to hear some progress has been made - I will be keeping you both in my thoughts. Peace to you this Christmas.

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  11. Oh Eddie, I am so sad to hear of your wife going through this all again

    Ad for you too; I can empathise a little as 2 of my cousins are battling the Big C and to know of their pain but not be able to alleviate it is hard

    My very best and heartfelt wishes to you and your family for the new year xxx [From me and from Aubrey! ;)]

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  12. So sorry that Mrs. Bluelights is having to go through this ordeal again. You both are in my thoughts and prayers each day and I am so thankful that she is making good progress. Hope that you and your dear family have a blessed and Happy Christmas.

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  13. Eddie!!! So great to see you posting.

    And so very sorry to hear of the struggles Mrs. Bluelights and you have endured. Of course I said a prayer and will continue to do so daily. I agree, the power of pray is pretty amazing.

    Wishing you both, and your family, a wonderful and blessed holiday and may 2013 be much, much easier for you.

    xo jj

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  14. Wishing you and Maria a Merry Christmas Eddie. So sorry Maria has been so ill, this is a perfect time for miracles and I am one who believes in miracles....:-)Hugs

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  15. Eddie, it's lovely to see you in blogland, but I'm sorry to hear that Mrs Bluelights is having such a tough time. Cancer is a tough cookie, though not invincible these days, and I'm very glad to hear that it's shrinking. I've a friend going through chemo at the moment, on 4 of 6, but doing well.
    Try to keep up your wonderful positive attitude and good humour, even though it's hard in the face of illness and pain.
    I've said a little prayer of healing for your family.
    Take care, hugs from Ireland, and hope 2013 will bring brighter news.xx

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  16. Happy New Year, Mr. Eddie!
    Discover new joys and give more meaning to life in 2012.

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  17. Hi Eddie...It's Jan. 2, 2013, and I wanted to stop back by and wish you and Maria a happy new year.
    I hope that all continues to go well with you both. I know that Maria is going through continued infusions, and I wanted to say that I hold her up in my prayers each evening.
    Hugs to you both and wishes for a blessed 2013.
    Hugs and love,
    Jackie

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  18. I am so sorry to hear about the ordeal your wife had to go through again. I hope that she is better now and looking forward to feeling well again.

    My best wishes for the New Year, may it be a very good year for you and your family,
    Merisi

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  19. Ha! Twain proved himself wrong! He, of all men, was most significant and it is proven by the fact that we talk about him all these years later on the blogosphere! Eddie you crossed my mind earlier today when I was blogging and got distracted by the kids and didn't get to stop by so I was very pleased that you came by to comment at mine! Yes that Sunday Roast was soooo fun and I'm going to share it on my facebook for old times sake! So sorry to hear about the missus..such a hard road..I'll toss my most significant prayers/healing vibes/good wishes to the east..I'm a little closer now having moved to Newfoundland so they can sale across to your land quite unimpeded! Cheers my friend and may you have a wonderful 2013!
    Breeze

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  20. *sail! There..now turning off the editor and leaving you alone to laugh at other errors I may have made in the last and this post.

    Cheers dear Eddie!

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  21. Eddie, I would like to take this dear humble and sweet post and keep it next to my heart, for it is truly inspiring. Like you, I know that this life is not meaningless, that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us as His children and watches over us, along with many angels, and answers our prayers in the best way possible. What many blessings have come to you and your wife in her fight against cancer. Judging from your description about the seriousness of its spread to your dear wife, it appears miraculous that she has recovered and is even feeling better. May this year bring joy and peace to you and your family. Thank you for sharing your feelings in this beautiful Christmas message.

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  22. Eddie - so thrilled that you popped over to my blog, and Happy New Year to you and yours. I really hope 2013 gives you, your wife, Maggie and bro-in-law some better news. You deserve it. x

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