Boxing Up Baby Jesus

Last week we took down the Christmas tree and strings of Christmas lights.

It's the latest we've had the tree up, I think, in years,

because we had so much going on, with Crystal gone back to college and having to take Carrie to work every day early this week. 

We packed ornaments and gift bags and 50% off Christmas cards into boxes.

I couldn't help treasuring a few of my favorite Christmas ornaments, like this little sled.

Of course, we packed the angel away in the same box as the other ornaments.

Only a few ornaments match each other. 

I thought, for next year, I'd like to aim for a blue and white and silver theme

since blue is Jonathan's favorite Christmas color.

So, for next year, I packed all the blue and white and silver decorations in a separate box--not very many. We better get a small tree, very small!

We bought a few blue and silver ornaments at 50% off.

And then there was the manger scene, of course.

It has its own box.

One problem!

 We couldn't find the box!

We ate leftovers for lunch, cooked beets on the woodstove, took down Christmas stuff and packed it,

sauteed mushrooms and made chili and cornmeal muffins for supper,

lit candles for supper,

and still the manger scene was sitting on the table.

We just hadn't found the box for Jesus yet.

Maybe He doesn't want to be put in a box.

Maybe He wants to be left out of our little box where we like to pack Him away in our basement somewhere.

Maybe He really wants to just stay right in the middle of our home,
right in the middle of our heart.

Right in the center of our world, and our home,

and our family,

and our affections.

Jesus, all boxes aside,

be free to be Who You are,

and reign in my heart, making me more like You every day.

Almost Hurricane Winds Yesterday

Yesterday the wind was blowing between 43 and 63 mph here at our house,

and up to over 100 mph in areas of town and up in the mountains.

Jonathan got a couple snaps of destruction he passed.

So many trees were blown over, and Jonathan saw about a dozen semis blown over on the interstate.

The news online said 21 semis had blown over.

High profile vehicles like semis and school busses were prohibited after this many disasters.

On my way home from taking Carrie to work, I snapped this picture of a gate smashed by a fallen tree.

And this tree snapped off near the top.

Jonathan said a street was closed at both ends by police 

because glass was being blown apparently out of windows of the skyscrapers onto the street,

and the courthouse closed for the day because so many pieces of roofing were blowing down onto the premises.

At home, our trampoline blew away from its place, and the children had to hurry out and batten it down with dogfood sacks and cement blocks and other paraphernalia!

How thankful we are for a cozy house to be a shelter in time of wind and storm!

I thought over and over again how thankful I was for this cozy, warm, shelter of a home.

,

Several of us were out on the roads yesterday, whipped about a bit by the high winds,

but at home it was safe and quiet.

Outside the wind whistled, and we sometimes we could not open the front door due to the wind, 

so had to go out the back door.

Something flew into one of the boys' eyes, so after that, he wore goggles outdoors!

We watched a neighbor's trampoline fly many yards away over by the road and get caught against an electric pole.  

We watched bags and cardboard and all sorts of trash fly through the air and get caught on fences.

We watched clouds of dirt pushed along on the dirt streets by the wind.

But inside was safe.

We did school, cooked our meals, did our chores, watched Mama Poodle with her cute little batch of puppies, put away laundry,

cooked another huge pot of beets on the woodstove,

baked berry cobbler,

found more pieces for the puzzle of American Presidents,

and looked up news about the devastation in town.

And before bedtime, we sang together,

"The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide,

A shelter in the time of storm...

O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,

A shelter in the time of storm."

Jesus is our shelter in the windy storm and tempest.

He doesn't shake in the hurricane wind.

He is not a glass window that breaks or mere shingles that fly away.

He is not even a fir tree that shelters birds from the weather.

He is a Rock.
He is our strong shelter, a fortress, a place of safety in the time of the hurricane winds.
The righteous run to Him and are safe.

While We Slept, Our Son Was Working Behind the Scene

Last night, our son Sam got up before midnight to head to town to spend the rest of the night shoveling snow.

While we slept (the kids have been sleeping around the Christmas tree during this Christmas season,

along with two dogs!)

Sam and other strong young men were clearing sidewalks and plowing parking lots

so that businessmen and customers could arrive safely at their places of employment.

Those people probably had no idea who exactly it was that cleared their sidewalks and parking lots.

They just enjoyed the benefit of walking safely where before snow lay.

And while we sleep, God also works.

We stoke the fire, turn off lights, but God sees in the dark.

The darkness and the light are both alike to Him.

We crawl in bed and fall asleep.

He never slumbers, or sleeps.

All night long, He not only watches over us, 

but He works behind the scenes.

In the darkest night, He is working.

In the darkest hour, just before the dawn, He works.

When we can't sleep, He is working.

When we are anxious, or try to do for ourselves what we really can't do,

He doesn't stop working.

He clears the snow from our path, 

the stumbling blocks from our way,

and sprinkles rock salt to melt the ice so we won't slip.

He melts the mountains

and fills in the valleys, 

makes our paths plain and straight so we know where to go

and can walk safely with Him.

Behind the scenes, 

His strong arm is working on our behalf.

 Sometimes all He asks is for us to be still and know that He is God.

It's okay to just go to sleep tonight,

knowing that He is working behind the scenes

for our good.

I Heard Him in the Stillness

I don't know about you, but I hear God in stillness.

Maybe it is because I have spent most of my life with noise,

so to hear God, I go somewhere alone--

and quiet.

 

Maybe others live in silence and quiet with lonely jobs, 

or homes without children or sometimes even without a spouse,

or after their nests have emptied,

so perhaps such people enjoy a Sunday service full of emotion and loud music and din of whatever sort.

Maybe others find God in the trumpets and pipe organs

the beat and the drums,

or the clanging of cymbals.

But two Sunday mornings ago, it was when the piano and organ hushed after the singing of Christmas carols,

that I heard Him. 

Don't get me wrong. I love music, and I love when the congregational hymns

or someone's song touches my heart to tears.

I love the style of organ and piano that has been played at our church all the time we've been there.

And the singing at our church is great!

But that Sunday there was a sudden moment of hush.

Just a couple seconds actually, and in that hush, I sensed Him.

I wished the moment had been longer.

In seconds, the sense disappeared.

It seemed so fragile--that sense of God in the hush of stillness.

Jesus, what do You think about a heart that is in a place that hears You in the stillness instead of the noise?

Is that okay with you? 

God, is it okay that I'm different--that I long for those tender hushes when I start to hear Your voice

and sense Your presence?

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46

Yes, it's okay to hear Him in the stillness.

It's okay to be different.

********

Here is something by Kristi Watts, that spoke to me yesterday in a few of those quiet moments when I crashed in front of the screen and looked up a favorite blog.

"So many things come out of our trials and tribulations.

We learn things about ourselves that we were most likely unaware of, including things we are capable of, driven by, and get tripped up on. All things that God reveals to us so we can go to Him for help.

It’s often in the difficult times that we realize we have nothing without the presence and power of God.

More often than not, what we discover are mind-sets, perspectives, and behavior patterns that have been stumbling blocks, preventing us from obtaining all God’s promises for our lives.

God’s heart is for us to see them and repent of them, so we can become free of them.

When we feel as if life is falling apart and our issues begin to bubble to the surface, God wants to draw our attention back to Him.

Regardless of what sends us into the presence of God, though, it’s important to get into His presence and learn what it is to praise Him in the midst of our pain."--Kristi Watts

******
And here are a few links to some thoughts from another of my favorite blogs by a transparent pastor's wife. I look her blog up every once in a while, and I've clipped these links in the last few months to share on my blog.

http://www.christyfitzwater.com/bible/three-ways-you-can-prepare-for-relationship-success/

http://www.christyfitzwater.com/spiritual-gifts/do-your-thing/ 

http://www.christyfitzwater.com/knowing-god/god-loves-the-blubbering-woman/

Termites and Sea Snails-Are We Walking in Darkness or Clinging to the Rock?--A New Year's Meditation

"Life isn't about avoiding the bruises. It's about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it."

Now that was a thought worth thinking about for this new year!
In this picture in North Caicos Island, Jonathan is getting a snap of the old, battle-scarred school building that needs to be torn down.

It is being destroyed and eaten of termites, which like to build tunnels up the wall so they can do their dirty work in the darkness rather than the light.

Termites do not like sunshine, and will go to quite some effort to make sure they don't have to operate in the light. They build dirt tunnels and

then they just destroy the building, little by little. 

Here is a main artery of their dirt tunnel.

Only a few hundred feet down the trail to the seashore, there are some totally different creatures.

They are small, too, and weak, and not that great or conspicuous.
Sea snails.

Has anybody ever heard of a sea snail destroying anything?

Ever heard of a sea snail working in the dark to destroy something, and covering up its tracks with a dirt tunnel?

Jonathan and I sat down with the sea snails a couple of evenings when we were in North Caicos.

We sat down on rocks with the snails, watched the sunset, and listened to the water lapping.

It was profoundly comforting.

“Trust is surrendering to God and not to our circumstances,” pondered Stephen Sweigart from "Frontline Review."

And we sat there and pondered such things.

Sometimes when you don't know which way to turn or what to do,

the only thing you can really do is cling to the Rock.

Like a lowly little sea snail on the rocky shore of a Caribbean Island, 

we cling to something stronger and more sure than we are.

Maybe some people are real sure of themselves,

and they collect around them other people who are less sure but like to follow something that seems sure,

so they follow the person who acts like they know something. 

And then there are the rest of us.
While the waves dash and spray,

while the storms roar and crash,
while less confident people follow more confident people,
the only thing we can manage to do

is cling more desperately to the Rock of Ages.

Down in the sand you find dried up sea crabs.

and down by the shore, wave after wave comes in, bringing battleworn sea creatures and empty shells.

But up on the rock, there is a safe place.

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee!"

So Lord, in this New Year, protect us from the termites which destroy,

and make us instead like the common, ordinary, lowly sea snail

that simply clings to the Rock That Is Higher Than I!