GeorgePWood.com

President Barack Obama made the following remarks at last night’s lighting of the National Christmas Tree.

Remarks by the President at Lighting of the National Christmas Tree

5:31 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: It’s nice having your own band. Please have a seat, everyone. Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Thank you, Secretary Salazar, for that introduction and for your hard work to preserve and protect our land and our water and our wildlife. I also want to thank Minister Rogers for the beautiful invocation, as well as Neil Mulholland and everyone at the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service who helped put this outstanding event together. I’d like to thank Carson Daly and Big Time Rush, and all of tonight’s performers for joining us to kick off the holiday season here at the White House.

For 89 years, Presidents and Americans have come together to light the National Christmas Tree. And this year is a special one. This year, we have a brand new tree. The last one stood here for more than 30 years — until we lost it in a storm earlier this year. But we all know that this tradition is much larger than any single tree. And tonight, once again, we gather here not simply to light some decorations, but to honor a story that lights the world.

More than 2,000 years ago, a child was born to two faithful travelers who could find rest only in a stable, among the cattle and the sheep. But this was not just any child. Christ’s birth made the angels rejoice and attracted shepherds and kings from afar. He was a manifestation of God’s love for us. And He grew up to become a leader with a servant’s heart who taught us a message as simple as it is powerful: that we should love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

That teaching has come to encircle the globe. It has endured for generations. And today, it lies at the heart of my Christian faith and that of millions of Americans. No matter who we are, or where we come from, or how we worship, it’s a message that can unite all of us on this holiday season.

So long as the gifts and the parties are happening, it’s important for us to keep in mind the central message of this season, and keep Christ’s words not only in our thoughts, but also in our deeds. In this season of hope, let’s help those who need it most –- the homeless, the hungry, the sick and shut in. In this season of plenty, let’s reach out to those who struggle to find work or provide for their families. In this season of generosity, let’s give thanks and honor to our troops and our veterans, and their families who’ve sacrificed so much for us. And let’s welcome all those who are happily coming home. (Applause.)

And this holiday season, let us reaffirm our commitment to each other, as family members, as neighbors, as Americans, regardless of our color or creed or faith. Let us remember that we are one, and we are a family.

So on behalf of Malia and Sasha and Michelle and our grandmother-in-chief, Marian — (laughter) — I wish you all the happiest holiday season, the merriest of Christmases. God bless you all, and may God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

And with that, I’m going to invite the entire Obama clan up here to light the Christmas tree. I need some help, and there’s a lot of technical aspects to this. (Laughter.) Come on, guys. (Applause.) All right.

Okay, we’re going to start counting down here. We’ve got the switch right here.

MRS. OBAMA: All right, come on.

THE PRESIDENT: Everybody ready? And this is the new tree. I know it’s not quite as big as the old tree, but it’s going to take time to grow. But we’re going to fill it up with some spirit and start a new tradition right now.

All right, everybody ready? We’re going to start counting down. Five, four, three, two, one — (applause.) There you go. That’s a good-looking tree. Thank you, everyone.

END 5:35 P.M. EST

P.S. Interestingly, when I first posted the embed code in my blog, the title automatically assigned to it was: “Thank God for America and President Obama.” That’s the titled assigned to the video embed by the White House, evidently.

UPDATE: My P.S. is wrong. The White House did not assign the title, “Thank God for America and President Obama.” I use VodPod as a third-party app to post embedded videos on my WordPress blog. Evidently, The Global Democracy Project also posted this video on VodPod, and VodPod–for whatever reason–automatically assigned GDP’s title to my upload. I’ve removed the offending lines of code from my original post and apologize for the false inference it contains about the White House.

Two clever fellows at Occupy Wall Street–technically, Occupy Bloomington–performed this skit, titled, “Life Under Capitalism”:

Screaming “work, work, work” evidently passes for insightful drama in Bloomington, and given the Fall, work is certainly burdensome.

Then again, God created us to work. We often find a measure of personal satisfaction in our work. And at the level of the mundane, we must work to purchase our clothing, food, shelter–not to mention the clothing, food, and shelter of our children.

And of course, we must “work, work, work” whether we’re living under capitalism, socialism, or any hybrid economic arrangement.

But recognizing that fact doesn’t make for compelling drama, at least not according to Occupy Bloomington. Would you be intrigued by performance art titled, “Life Under Each and Every Existing Economic Arrangement”? Me neither. Then again, I wasn’t a fan of this particular video either.

From Rick Warren, “The Battle for Your Mind” in Thinking. Loving. Doing. A Call to Glorify God with Heart and Mind, ed. John Piper and David Mathis (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 34:

If you’re serious about growing in knowledge and growing in your mind, here’s the approach I suggest:

• Read 25 percent of your books from the first fifteen hundred years of church history. So many people act like nothing happened between the times of Paul and Luther. God was at work all that time, and we are dismissing the God of the church to think that he was not having his Word faithfully taught during these times.
• Read 25 percent from the last five hundred years, since the Reformation.
• Read 25 percent from the last one hundred years.
• Read only 25 percent from contemporary authors of the last ten years.

Some pretty music to start your day…

The entire village of Quinhagak, Alaska, seems to have turned out for this creative visual rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah. I guess there’s nothing better to do up there in the winter, so why not… Oh, and good for them!

In this video, Stephen Barr talks about the relationship between science and faith, from a Catholic perspective. Barr is professor of physics at the University of Delaware and author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.

• Hey, baby! Your name must be grace because you’re irresistible.
• You know your mouth your mouth is saying no, but unconditional election is saying yes.
• Girl, it is predestined. God rearranged the alphabet and put U and I together.
• I hope you believe in the perseverance of the saints, because my heart is forever yours.
• Baby, you are so fine, it is women like you who make particular redemption a necessity.
• I would ask God to bless you, but I can see he already has.

Apropos of this (somewhat), I’m interviewing Roger Olson about his new book, Against Calvinism, this Thursday, October 20, at 1:00 p.m. (Central) on MinistryDirect.com/live. If you would like to ask Prof. Olson questions, email them to questions@ministrydirect.com, tweet them using #MinistryDirect, or use the Facebook interaction tool on the live page.

Dead-tree publications are so outdated! This little girl knows how to use an iPad but can’t figure out how to do the same functions on a magazine.

This is an interesting video about prehistoric “flutings” made by children who lived in caves. I don’t plan on showing this to my nearly 3-year-old son, lest he begin “fluting” on the walls of our house.

See also “Prehistoric children left marks in caves.”

Singapore is a very clean nation, with very nice citizens. Not surprisingly, then, its people voice their complaints in choral form…the public performance of which is promptly banned.

Evidently, other nations also have complaint choirs.