I love your feedback. Here are some stocking stuffers gleaned from recent comments from you.

• I have received a lot of fun and favorable feedback to my post about what sound the cattle were making when they were “lowing” during the lyrics of “Away in a Manger”. Who knew that an intrepid reader of this humble blog would speak cow? Reader Leslie took the time to let me know that lowing really is a distinctive cow sound. According to Leslie, the official bovine linguist of this blog, lowing is “when you hear a mother cow ‘talk’ to her calf, you will hear a lowing. It is a very low and soft type of moo. Most mooing has a high pitch at the end of it. Lowing is soft and comfortable.” I think you can see that the time invested in this blog is well worth it when you impress friends and family with this little factoid. Thanks Leslie!
  
  
• Gary L. Burchett wrote a rather brief note. “Hey Dave, We may be related.” Gary didn’t tip his hand about whether he was hopeful or fearful that he might be related to a “Bad Christian”. Well Gary, since there aren’t a whole lot of us Burchetts we may well be kin. My litmus test for family connection is to reference one of my relatives from Kentucky. His name was Grass Burchett. Yep. That was his name. It is unlikely that you would not notice a relative named Grass. So if Grass Burchett is in your genealogy we are related for sure. If not…you may have caught a break.
  
  
• Shawn from Ohio is the official agnostic of this site (not sure if he speaks cow).  I have a minor bone to pick with my buddy from the Buckeye state. In a recent post about how people search for meaningless info on web search engines I posed a list of questions that were worth searching. Shawn wrote this in response.

“Sadly missing from both lists (sorry, hope this isn’t too harsh) is TRUTH. Is truth so grotesque that we don’t want to talk of it? Are we that scared of what is true and want only “answers”? Are we out to confirm ours, or other’s conclusions of what their presupposed “answers” are? Can we not “handle the truth”? Not THE Truth, but truth, where ever that may lead.”

It isn’t too harsh at all and when did you become Jack Nicholson? It is a rather presumptuous suggestion that I am not willing to seek truth (I refuse to do the all caps thing). The list I suggested presupposes a search for truth. If you examine the claims of Christ honestly you cannot consider those statements in a vacuum. Of course I have studied other texts and religions. I am not a “cradle” Christian. I did not grow up with Christianity forced down my throat. I came to faith in Christ after a search much like you are pursuing. So I resent a bit the inference that I am not willing to seek the truth wherever that may lead. I like to think that I am a moderately intelligent person (okay…I lack self-awareness) so I am not interested in wasting my time or money on something that is not true. So please understand that just because you have temporarily reached a different conclusion does not mean we are not both seeking the truth as honestly as we can. So Shawn, I love you like a brother (and a Buckeye) and our legions of “Bad Christians”  will be praying for you.  

Bonus stocking stuffer…

My nomination for the most obvious lyric ever written is awarded to the Beach Boys.  In their tune “Little Saint Nick” the boys let us know this incredibly insightful piece of information.

Christmas comes this time each year!

(To be faithful to the text I will show it in context)

It’s the little Saint Nick
Ooooo, little Saint Nick
It’s the little Saint Nick
Ooooo, little Saint Nick

Ahhhhhh
Oooooooo
Merry Christmas Saint Nick
Christmas comes this time each year

So if the Christmas holiday has been sneaking up on you perhaps you haven’t noticed that Christmas comes at this time every single year! Thanks to the Beach Boys for that nugget.

Oh my…it’s that time this year. Ahhhhhh. Oooooooo. Merry Christmas!