When You Have to Put Christmas Away

How do you cheer up your house when the Christmas decorations have all been put away?

How do you keep living your life when there is bad news on every hand?

Somehow it just seemed like the light and joy and cheer had suddenly disappeared!
How do you keep the joy and cheer of Christmas around when the festivities are over and the decorations have been put away?

Christmas stuff went up into the attic until next year, and I started putting some country decorations together on top of the piano. 

Carrie finished for me!

I had these little wooden blocks, and she drew the letters on them.

We debated what word should we have? "Winter"? "Cozy"? We finally settled on "CABIN."

Somehow right now "cabin" connotes cozy thoughts in our minds--a wood fire, plaid tablecloth, lantern lights, blue porcelain cups, antlers, pine boughs and cones.

Because in our culture, a cabin isn't where you actually live.

It's where you go when you want to get away from it all for a day or two or a week.

It's a place of comfort and peace and rest and solitude and simplicity.

Mostly it's the simplicity. 

No undone jobs staring you in the face. No stuff to sort in the basement or garage or shed.

You just go and you start a fire and roast hotdogs and marshmallows and you sit back in a rocking chair and read a book or play a game.

I am sitting down in the middle of a busy day, after a Sunday when we attended three different services. There's news of government shutdown reaching over three weeks long, a stand-off between President Trump and the Dems, police officers shot by illegals, a young father facing possible divorce by a disgruntled wife, another husband whose wife has already divorced him, the death of an acquaintance, friends or relatives bedridden with old age or chronic pain, financial struggles, government intrusions and red tape, piles of paperwork to do.

 There are needs on every side and all around us. So many distresses that I keep taking time to pray and lift the burdens to the Lord. 

The Lord--My Go-To in Trouble,

my ROCK,

my Fortress,

my Deliverer,

my Shield,

my Cabin. 

Here is a link to a good article addressing "When the day is hard before the alarm sounds."

https://christyfitzwater.com/day-hard-alarm-sounds/ 

and then this one, too.

https://christyfitzwater.com/go-ahead-and-have-hope-in-the-hard-days/

Birds--and the Song of the Redeemed

These last snowy days the finches, juncos, and sparrows like to come perch on the branches of the tree right outside our bedroom window. They sit and fluff themselves up in the cold--and they sing!

They twitter and chirp, and no one can sing quite the song they sing except the finches and juncos and sparrows. 

 I saw a verse yesterday from Revelations. It talked about the song of the redeemed in heaven.

"They were singing a new song before the throne...

No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth."

Rev. 14:3-4

No one could sing that song except the redeemed.

The fact that these people are redeemed who sing this song connotes that they were redeemed from something.

They weren't righteous, good, perfect people.

They had been sinners.

Just plain and simple--sinners.

But they had been redeemed.

The proud and the self-righteous cannot learn this song.

Those who think they are something cannot learn this song.

It is a beautiful song for those of us to learn who have confessed our sin,

acknowledged our failures, 

and admitted our faults.

There is a song for us who have humbled ourselves before God and man and been redeemed.

We aren't going to sing it in front of the church,

or up on a platform,

or at the Interchurch Holiness Convention,
or anywhere in front of people who think one thing or another about us.

We're going to sing it 

before the throne of God.

We aren't going to be singing about our sinlessness, our righteousness, and our perfection.

We're going to be singing about our Redeemer.

He took a bunch of vile, worthless, off-tune people like us 

and made us worthy to sing before His throne.
I want to learn that song someday!

Peanut Butter Pizza--and Our Homes, the "Bridge Between the Church and the World"

I loved how an article at DesiringGod talked about how our homes can be a 

"bridge between the church and the world."

At Christmas time we wanted to do something for Jonathan's work crew guys and their families. 

The last couple years Jonathan took them and our family out to eat, but this year we couldn't afford to do that, so we invited them all to our home for a Christmas dinner--after Christmas when things weren't quite so busy and hectic.

The girls and a couple of our friends helped us with cooking and decorating. Carrie had found this plaid table cloth at an after Christmas clearance.  We had ham, mashed potatoes, veggies, cranberry jello salad, rolls, and scrumptious peanut butter pizzas pictured above.
They are peanut butter cookie dough topped with marshmallows, peanuts, MandM's, and chocolate syrup.

"God has written...on the hearts of us all... a longing for dignity. Life without the Lord is hard. It has hard edges and steep slopes. Its betrayals hold out no hope, its sufferings hold out no redemption. Only life in Christ offers redemptive suffering."

 "Get to know your neighbors well enough to know where it hurts, and then accompany them in their suffering. Show — as well as tell — that Jesus comforts the suffering."

"Being available to neighbors means cutting back on your entertainment indulgences, building in margin time in your day, and budgeting to feed many more people than those who share your last name. Make sacrifices for your unsaved neighbors that mean something. Go out of your way for them."

"Being hospitable in a post-Christian world means meeting strangers and making them neighbors and, by God’s grace, welcoming neighbors into the family of God. Our homes are crucial for this. Our homes are the bridge between the church and the world."

from the following link:
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-best-weapon-is-an-open-door

Promise on the Windowsill

Yesterday my heart was heavy as I kept thinking and praying about a sorrow that had been shared with me.

It was with difficulty I went about my work, helping the children with school and spending hours sorting and filing papers in the office. 

Prayer was difficult as I wondered how to pray specifically. 

In the middle of the papers near the printer I discovered this silouette of a praying cowboy that one of my children had printed off long ago. 

In a sort of sudden inspiration, I trimmed the picture and started to put it inside my Bible cover when I noticed the index card just inside my Bible.

It said,

"Be not afraid.  ONLY BELIEVE."

I pulled the card out and looked at it. I went over to my window, looking out on the chickens peacefully pecking at birdseed below. 

"Jesus,"I said, as I placed the silouette and the promise on the windowsill together.

"Please accept this little token of prayer that I am laying here before You today.

I have to go about my work, but my prayer remains here before You,

asking You to undertake for this need. 

And this, Jesus, is Your very own Word--"Be not afraid. Only believe."

I wondered what to believe--that the miracle I prayed for would be accomplished?

What if it wasn't?

How many times had I asked for something and it hadn't been done?

How many times have people I've known and loved prayed for something and it didn't happen?

Then it dawned on me.

Christ didn't ask us to believe that He could or would do a certain thing,

but to believe in Him. 

Jesus, I do believe in You! You are all-powerful, almighty, all-wise and merciful.

You can do anything!

Is anything too hard for You?  

Three Lucas Brothers' Families Together Over New Years

Jonathan has spent extra time at his parents' home in the last few months as he has supervised repairing roof and siding damages after last summer's hailstorm. His parents also decided to have this lovely stone facade installed along the front of their home.
Jonathan took this picture of them several Sundays ago in the middle of December when our family was at Sunday dinner there with Rob's and Esther's families.

Jonathan's mother decorates so tastefully with pretty pillows and this pretty pencil Christmas tree complete with wooden ornaments handpainted by Jonathan's sister Barbara.

They have various moose ornaments and decorations from Alaska where they have gone different times and where Jonathan's sister Barbara lived several years.

A beautiful yellow orchid with "O Holy Night" in the background.
I enjoy Jonathan's mother's home. It is always cozy and peaceful and tastefully decorated, with just the right amount of decorations for Christmas! They did a super job of downsizing four years ago when they moved to this new place. They got rid of a lot of stuff, but kept enough to make their new home cozy.


Getting together with Jonathan's brother's family was somewhat spur-of-the-moment this time, but I enjoyed the spontaneity. At the last minute, our nephew Bryan was able to come as well as Emily, arriving late Sunday night, while Dave and Ruth arrived in time for Sunday dinner. After a quick time of stopping in and singing for our dear friend Bro. Gafford who is bedfast, we had Sunday dinner together with Jonathan's parents and Dave and Ruth, then made plans for Monday night as well.

Ruth and Dave wanted to go out to eat with us so we could have some one-on-one time together for the purpose of building relationship.
We did that, bringing in pizza for the grands and the cousins who got together to play games Monday night while we parents went out for a couple hours. They had a lot of fun!

Here Ruth is icing the doughnuts Grandma made Tuesday night.

Ruth has been a wonderful and understanding friend to me, and I appreciate her so much--her spontaneity, laughter, understanding, and her desire to not just maintain but build good relationships.  I appreciate so much how she and I can talk at a heart level and not just on the surface.
 Grandpa and ma invited everyone back for Tuesday evening, so we decided that Monday night had been such fun, we'd go for another game night--especially if Jonathan's mom would make whirly donuts--one of her specialties that Jonathan drools over!

Grandma Lucas frying doughnuts for Tuesday night while Carrie stirs chicken soup simmering on the stove.

With a little help from Carrie making the white sauce, I made this potato/carrot/ham/cheese chowder to go along with the doughnuts. Grandma used to make such a delicious sausage stew along with donuts, and I wanted to help her out, but how to make a stew quite as good as Grandma's?. Carrie just wanted to make a brothy vegetable chicken soup for the frigid evening, and I told her she could make her choice of soup, but I wanted to make one crockpot the way the Lucases like it.
Every last bit of that chowder got eaten up, so I guess it was okay!

Carrie's chicken soup was delicious, too! So good and hot on that frigid night!

On the way there, Jonathan was starving and said he could eat SIX donuts!
I said that he had to eat his vegetables first!
Soooo--you can see the broccoli placed dutifully on top of the donut!

After supper, the youngsters played at the dining room table and some of the rest of us gathered around this folding table to play Bible Apples to Apples. Rob and Julie helped Cassie play across from me, and Dave and Ruth and Jonathan's dad played, too.
We had a gale of fun!
I love how Ruth is so fun, and we appreciated so much how their kids played games with ours.

Dutch Blitz at the youngsters' table--arms criss-crossing and hands slapping cards down. You need a video to watch the action on this one!

Clapping when the game was done.

I don't want to bug people taking too many pictures, but these I took to share on my blog.  

She Intended to Finish the Race--One Slow, Painful Step at a Time

"Sometimes the greatest act of faith is faithfulness, staying where you're planted." Craig Groeschel

And sometimes it is about running the race--

even if you are lame,

even if you know you will never be in first place--

or second place,

or even third place.

Even when you know you will come in last,

somewhere down at the bottom of the totem pole,

and the end of the pecking order.

Yesterday my mother shared on email a challenging story she heard in church from a man named Jason. When he was 18, he experienced his first tragedy; his girlfriend's mother was killed in a vehicle accident.  That's when he learned that bad things happen to everyone, not just others.  Some years later his mother died, then his father soon after.  Those hit Jason very hard, and he found himself doubting, even rebelling against God. Shaking his fist at the ceiling and God, he cried out, "Why do you hate me so much, God, that you've done this to such wonderful people in my life?"  His life began to take a downward spiral. 

Then one day he was at a friend's house. The friend's son was a metal worker, and Jason was intrigued with the beautiful piece of work that the son had made from twisted metal. As he gazed at it, it occurred to him that in order to create that masterpiece of twisted metal,
it had to be heated,
 beat on, and twisted to do what the worker wanted it to do.

As he began to think seriously about these things in relation to his life,

one day he was helping at a Special Olympics event where he worked.  

His job was to stand at the finish line and place the medal around the neck of those who finished the races.  On the last race, he saw a woman wheel her daughter onto the track to do the race; she helped the girl (age 12 or so) out of the wheelchair.  At the gunshot the others began for the finish line. 

But this girl could only take one step at a time, 

step, pause, step, pause.  

All the other contestants finished the race and received their medals.

  But there was that girl, way back there. 

When her mother pushed the wheelchair out to get her daughter, the girl refused, saying that she started this race, and she intended to finish it. 

 Jason watched with growing emotion

as this girl, 

painfully,

 slowly 

kept taking one step at a time, finally approaching the finish line.  

Young man that he was, Jason bawled along with her as he placed the medal around her neck.  

In those moments, he began to realize that what he needed to do was 

simply to go one step at a time

 until the finish.
Tragedies had happened, his heart walked with a limp, but he must keep plodding.

It is the beginning of a new year.

Some of us have experienced tragedies or difficulties of various kinds.

Some of us walk with a firm step,

and others of us limp,

while still others must run the race in a wheel chair of sorts--

needing help from others just to keep going.

Some of us, still growing and learning and eating the others' dust, 

limp while they cross the finish line for the blue ribbon.

We limp while others win the medals.  

We limp while others are cheered and slapped on the back and carried on shoulders and paraded around.

Limp on, my friend with slow and painful step. .

Limp on.

After the darkest hour comes the dawn.

Sunrise Over the Prairie Hill

"Under all conditions, stay thy heart only on the Lord." Charles Spurgeon