Christmas Monday Horse Rides and Log Polishing

Christmas Monday we had our friend Tim out to ride our horse, check on her leg that was injured when she was given to us, and give the children tips on training her and riding her.

Tim loves to be out in the country, and with the horse's leg improved, he seemed to really enjoy riding her and sharing tips with the children.

Then they got Jonathan to even hop on for a ride!

 Boy oh boy, they even got me to ride!

Then Jonathan was working on a couple old logs that he wants to transform into a lampstand and mitten rack.

He sanded and sanded and sanded--yeah, Rowen and Janet Albertson are just waiting for me to come up with a devotional about that...

but here is Jonathan sanding.
It was fun having him actually, actually stay home on a holiday, and I could watch him work--
before running to Walmart to catch some Christmas markdowns.

(I do my Christmas shopping right after Christmas for next year!)

We had a rather quiet but happy family Christmas this year.

("I don't think anyone was happier than we were!" Jonathan murmured to me,

and I don't think so either.

Perfect with all its glorious imperfections,

complete--with a few missing pieces and not nearly everything on everyone's wish lists,

merry and bright--despite little heartaches,

with lots of hilarious laughs and joys mixed into the batch,

and especially joyful with our whole family together again with Crystal back home for Christmas break! 

One thing I like about Christmas is the stories we read out loud with each other.

sometimes stories from a Country magazine,

or little books from the library like The Best Christmas, which I read to the children, while the barn chores were being done

before opening gifts Christmas Eve.

And oh, the Christmas cards from friends and family!I love those. We got so many we quit hanging them on the wall because there wasn't space across.

There were a lot of things we simply didn't do this year;

instead, we tried to focus on two things,

letting Jesus care about us,

and caring for each other in our own family this year. 
 

 It means so much to us when our children make gifts for each other.

The girls spent many hours tucked away in their room knitting socks, slippers, a hat like this one on Danny, and sewing pajamas or pillowcases.

My favorite gifts are the handmade with love!

Of course we spent Sunday Christmas dinner with Jonathan's folks.

When we came back from North Caicos, Carrie had started her new job, and I came to realize how much she has helped me, as Rose and the younger ones and I had to step up to do all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and dishes that she had always helped with.

Laundry, laundry, laundry!

Dishes, dishes, dishes!

Back to teaching school and checking lessons, and sometimes, I really just wanted to check out!

 A special gift to me this Christmas season from the Lord was a transformation in Jonathan's and my prayer methods and the way we relate to the Lord and to each other.

It has made such a difference for me as it helps us relate to Jesus as if He is right there in the room with us.

 Jonathan is being real

in his prayers for himself, for me, and for the family and others.

It's like Jesus is right here.

We aren't addressing Him like He is some far away Eminence,

"Most gracious heavenly Father, We thank Thee that Thou...."

or like we are writing a letter, "Dear God, How are You? I'm fine--"

when actually you are not fine, and both you and God know it.

You are hurting inside, and maybe you have hurt for most of your life.

"Jesus, what does my heart look like today?

And do You care about that?"

So a very special gift to me this Christmas is finding it real that Jesus is caring for my heart,

and to  just listen for His kind voice.

Does God Care About How Our Name is Spelled on a Christmas Card?

So this Christmas Sunday after church, we went to Jonathan's parents' home for Christmas dinner.

But before that, we took a ride through Garden of the Gods park to enjoy the beautiful snow in this beautiful place that was practically the back yard to the home where Jonathan grew up.

Jonathan's mom always has her home decorated so picture-perfect beautifully.
They just had two little trees this year. This one had ornaments handpainted by Jonathan's sister Barbara, who is a lovely artist. 

Sunday in church, just after we sat down, I noticed a new lady in front of us. She has come a few times recently, from just down the street.

I had brought extra Christmas cards along just in case I had missed someone in our church, and when I saw her, I decided to give her a card. 

So I quickly wrote a note in my card, addressing it to "our new friend," and wrote her name on the front, "Rebecca."

Then I leaned up and handed the card to her and whispered, "I didn't know if your name was spelled with a c or a k."

She said, "A c,"  and looked at my card with her name spelled correctly.

I thought no more about it till Jonathan nudged me.

"She's crying," he whispered.

I looked, and sure enough, the lady was wiping tears.

"Did she read the card?" I whispered to Jonathan.

"No," he said.

I watched as more tears came to the lady's eyes, and slid down her cheeks. 

She started to look back toward us, almost like she wanted to say something, 

then looked out the window, wiping tears.

Now it could be that she was crying because of how weird that lady behind her was,

or because the handwriting on the card turned her insides the wrong side out!!

I don't know. 

I just knew that God had a purpose in our choosing to sit in that particular pew that morning--

right behind this lady.

He wanted us to be His heart of care for someone who needed someone to care for her heart.

I will probably never know exactly what she was thinking, but I wonder,

did it mean something to her that God cared enough about her 

that not only did someone slip her a Christmas card, 

but the Christmas card that was handed to her was spelled in her name correctly?

Does God actually care about little things like that this Christmas season?

Wow! He really does. 

Crystal Turns 21!

It's been great having Crystal home for Christmas, and for her birthday last week,
when she officially became an adult at the mature age of 21!

She and Carrie worked at the restaurant all day on her birthday, and I was gone, too, that afternoon, but Rose made such a pretty table
and lasagna for supper.

Crystal had baked her cake that morning before leaving for work. 

 

Carrie and Crystal have been having fun working together at Indus Express Cuisine, an Indian restaurant managed by friends from India who have attended church sometimes and come to our hayrides.

 It would have been nice if Crystal could have stayed home for Christmas break, but this was one small chance to earn some money, so she eagerly went along with Carrie.

Just before coming home, Crystal finally landed a job at a gift shop near Penn View,

where she can work on Mondays and some Saturdays. 

She is very thankful for that.

We had such fun Christmas Eve, opening gifts. Jonathan and I are always especially appreciative and touched with the handmade gifts the children make for us--knitted dishcloth and scrubbie, a Welcome wreath for the front door, etc. Maybe more pictures later.

We had some hilarious laughs over a couple gifts our mischievous Carrie or Rose made.

Here is one Carrie made for Crystal, saying, "I just knew you wanted an X-box for Christmas!"

And here is the X-Box!

Fish on Trees and God in a Manger

The last day Jonathan and I were in North Caicos, the pastor drove us along the ocean

and we got out a couple times to spot fish.

And at the cafe where we ate lunch, I couldn't help noticing the Caribbean Christmas ornaments!

Fish!

 We're used to everything from beads to bows to burlap, like this pretty tree set up in our church vestibule for Christmas.

Fish on a Christmas tree seemed so out of place! 

But hardly more out of place than a baby in a manger.

Or a Savior on a tree.

God's ways are so different than ours.

" He himself, lying in a manger, had been a sign of God’s way of doing things." I read in desiringgod.org this evening. "God had countered the violence of tramping warriors and bloody tumults by sending a child (Isaiah 9:5–6), and now he had inaugurated his kingdom by sending a child. That was so like the wisdom of God!"

 

Years later, when his disciples were dreaming of greatness, Jesus took a child, and told them of this greatness: “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). It’s the only way in. Even a Nicodemus (or an Augustine) has to enter the kingdom not as an Eminence, but as a spiritual baby: knowing nothing, bringing nothing, and needing all."

Last Sunday our pastor had a special reminder about the importance of Jesus in the midst of our Christmas.

He told about how the terrible wind one day had blown away the manger scene they had set up in their front yard. Mary blew away, and Joseph blew away, and baby Jesus blew away.

They found Mary blown up on the front porch, and they found Joseph way down by the fence somewhere but they could not find Baby Jesus!

Then finally, Mrs. Kearney went hunting again, and found the baby, not lying in the manger like the shepherds, but in the weeds!

Bro. Kearney showed us the Baby Jesus they had found and told on Facebook about,

posting, "I have found Him!"

He said how sad it was to not be able to find Jesus.

And what a joy when they found Him!

Then we sang the words on the left, "Lord I want Your presence for Christmas."

That evening we had candlelight service, and  our dear friend Katherine Gafford, organist, accompanied her father who played some pieces on the musical saw.

The choir who had gone to prison service handed out chimes to different ones in the congregation to play along as we sang.

I loved watching our friend, Candy, playing her note.

What a transformation God has worked in her life!

Meanwhile, this is how our Danny holds his candle for the candlelight part of the service!

"Monkey toes," as Jonathan affectionately called him.

The lights were turned off, and the cross, with its huge red Christmas bow,

glowed in the dark.

And all the candles glowed--except mine.

Jonathan's mother, sitting next to me, had lit mine, and then I had lit Jonathan's on the other side,

but as I sat in weakness, with head bowed, while others stood,

I realized my frail flame had gone out.

Sometimes our frail flames do just that.

For whatever reason, they  seem to flicker and go out. 

I didn't let it die more than the seconds it took to notice.

And I quickly held my wick close to Jonathan's--

and the flame from his warmed my feeble wick

till it glowed again.

Sometimes we need our spouse's flame, or the flame of a friend, when ours feels feeble.

We need each other! 

I watched our friend Tim holding his candle higher than anyone,

and it warmed my heart as I nudged Jonathan to look.

It was such a precious sight. 

At first, I was ashamed of how lowly I was holding my candle,
and I thought I should also hold mine that high, 

till I remembered that we don't always have to do what others do,

and in my weakness at the moment, it was a comforting thought.

My candle didn't have to be higher than I was able to hold it. 

We don't have to hold our candle as high as others.

We don't have to be the most passionate or most spiritual Christian around at all times.

Maybe not any of the time.

 Maybe this Christmas, we could just simply, and in a lowly way, love Jesus.
Maybe instead of being like these fish decorations that are all over the Miami airport,

we don't need to go swimming in crazy Christmas circles.

Maybe this Christmas we don't need to be the brightest candle,

or the highest one.

Maybe this Christmas it would be okay to just 

rest in God,

and to be thankful for Baby Jesus,

not a plastic baby blown by a fence,

but His very real presence  for Christmas!
And if there is someone whose flame has flickered low,
instead of scorning and scoffing at them and their weakness or confusion,
shall we  reach out to them our own warm candle,

so that both our candles can be bright again?

What if Your Dark Christmas Tunnel Actually Led to Sunshine?

So there we were, in Middle Caicos, as I wrote in my last post,

having just discovered this special little monument of praying hands.

And now we discovered that the path suddenly ended.

Actually, it turned into a set of stone steps leading down into darkness.

We didn't know what we were getting into--just like you don't know what you are getting into 

when your path in life suddenly seems to come to a dead end

and then goes down,

and it just looks very, very dark.

I read a post a day or two ago called "When Darkness Falls at Christmas,"

discussing  the slaughter of the innocents when Herod tried to kill Christ.

"We too are caught in the cosmic crossfire of Christmas. We experience both 'joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory...' as well as burdens so great we despair of life itself ... Both are beyond our powers to comprehend because there is so much more going on in reality than we can yet understand.
When the deep darkness falls and never seems like it will ever lift again, that’s when we must pray for strength to comprehend what is beyond us (Ephesians 3:18), and trust in the Lord’s promises, not the way things appear to us (Proverbs 3:5). For this is what Christmas is all about: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

And so I stood there in the darkest corner of that underground tunnel, seeing only a stone wall, 

and a dark corner,

and darkness ahead.

But there in that dark corner, I stooped down, and this is what I saw.

There was something waiting for us there if we would be willing to keep going down 

those stone steps.

Sometimes we pause, as Jonathan and I did at the top of the hill and the cliff,

we pause in prayer.
No, we wait long in prayer sometimes.

We lift our hands to our God Who Hears,

but He doesn't seem to hear.

Instead, He takes us down a path that leads to darkness.

But what if we just kept going, 

and kept trusting,

and kept going on into that darkness,

embracing that darkness and pain --with Him?

With Him,

I have to share with you, that down at the darkest corner of your tunnel,

the steps you take forward into the darkness

lead to light!

It was like a miracle!

It was an experience I will never forget-

that dark stone wall, the dark tunnel underground leading we knew not where.

It led to this amazing sea cave.

It led to light and sunshine and beauty and the ocean of grace.

In  a whipstitch, we were pulling off our hot shoes and getting ready to hit the breakers and the foam and the waves and the sunshine!

Nothing could quite compare with those 15 or 20 minutes that Jonathan and I shared

in the beautiful sunshine, 

all by ourselves at that ocean beach.

We laughed and we played and we waded and we looked for pretty shells for our kids,

and we kissed when no one was looking, 

and we took a happy selfie,

and we reveled in the bliss of it just being us two together in the beautiful sunshine

at the end of the tunnel!

So if Christmas for you is not all twinkles and sprinkles,

and glitter and glitz and gaudy gifts,

if instead of laughter it's a time of the slaughter of what is innocent,
and only you can fill in the blank for that,
whether it is others blaming you for what you are not guilty of,
or twisting what you have tried to say or do in an effort to get out of the sword's way--

remember that God walks with us through that darkness.
He knows what is painful for us this Christmas season.
What if His purpose for leading us through the darkness is that we may experience the intimacy of a relationship alone with Him--
taking off our shoes upon holy ground,
basking in the sunshine of His love,
dancing in the waves of His grace,
and being held in the Everlasting Arms?

So this Christmas season, what if in the dark of our tunnel and the hopelessness of our stone walls,
what if we submitted to step through the darkness--
and discovered light?
What if we entered the unknown
and discovered that we are fully known?
What if we expected misery,
and instead experienced a miracle?