New Year’s Resolutions are something I avoid like the plague.   I don’t like to disappoint myself or others, so I just don’t do those.   But I was ready to get back to my exercise routine after the joyous disruption of the holidays, so one of the first days in January, I hit my favorite track in a local park to put in a vigorous walk.   Oh, sorry…..you thought I was going to be running a marathon?  Nuh uh!   

It was cool, in the upper 40’s, and I was dressed for it, so no problem there.  And as I walked the track, I enjoyed the bright sun of morning.   But as I rounded the back end of my circular journey, there was this one stretch of track that fell in a shaded place, and I shivered a little as I passed through the darker spot, which was noticeably colder than the rest of the route.  My fourth time around, I approached the shady area, anticipating the chill I would feel, and then the warmth that followed as soon as I stepped back in the bright sunshine.  That’s when the word picture came to mind.   Sometimes we have to walk in the shadows to truly appreciate the warmth of the sunny places.

Life feels a lot like my ‘walk in the park’.   And don’t go with the familiar translation of that idea to ‘piece of cake’ or ‘no big deal’.   Instead, think of the of the easy places and the hard places that we pass through on the journey.   The hard places are, at best, uncomfortable, a lot of work, and sometimes downright painful.   Coming out of one of those times is like stepping into the warmth of a sunlit path.  I am just not sure we would really appreciate those sunny places if it were not for the shadow places that we have to pass through.

One of my favorite movies, ‘Finding Dory”, gives us the encouraging thought, ‘Just keep swimming’.   So why don’t we choose to ‘Just Keep Walking’ so that we make it to that next sunny place with a greater appreciation for the joy and peace it brings.   

… Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.  Psalm 30:5

The sun is shining! The sun is shining! No! Really, it is!

Okay, so I am looking out on the gazillionth day of rain, and thinking…seriously?  More rain?  But I am remembering a past plane ride an overcast day, and the moment we broke through the clouds to the up above, where the sun was shining brilliantly, almost blindingly.  It was a wonderful reminder that even though I can only see clouds and rain, the sun is still firmly in place.  I want to remember that in each of my days, my current perspective is limited.  The sun is still shining, even when I can’t see it!

The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Psalm 50:1

These were thoughts from a year ago on New Year’s Eve. I hope they will encourage you! (Previously published in Bret Legg’s blog ‘Normal Marriage’, December 31, 2017)

Just generally I am not in a hurry to put Christmas away.  To me the season passes so quickly that I savor the days after Christmas and enjoy reflecting.  Gods love, His care, my blessings, my family, the year that is winding down; all of these fill my heart as I look at the lights on our tree.   And usually, I am excited at the prospect of the new year and what it brings. But if I am honest, this year I am feeling something different, something akin to fear.

At what other time of year are we so aware of the passing of time than while we count down to midnight on December 31st?  This year I am keenly aware of all I did not know this time last year.  Though I knew we were adding a new grand baby to our family ranks, I did not know she would require specialists and surgery and emotional strain for all of us, in addition to the joy she brought.   I did not know that I would hurriedly pack a suitcase and make a middle of the night drive to stay with another grandchild in a town two hours away, while his sister was rushed to a major pediatric medical center in another city for emergency surgery.  I did not know that I would pretty much desert my husband for a while to help out at the hospital with the newborn while her mother tended her other daughter, the recipient of that surgery.

As I looked at the Christmas lights at the close of the year, I had no way of knowing that four close family members would step out of this life and into the next so unexpectedly and seemingly tragically by my earthbound perspective.  Each death unrelated to the other, and three coming in rapid succession.   I didn’t know that a great deal of my year would be spent loving the people around me who were grieving so deeply.  I didn’t know.

And so, I look at the lights this year, and feel hesitant about stepping forward into next year, like my hesitancy is going to keep time from advancing.  If the year was so costly, how can I dive into another year and risk more pain? So I examine my choices.  Hide out, refuse to take down the tree, and refuse to acknowledge the New Year?   Will that stop anything?  Will that cure my fear?

After sorting through all of these thoughts, here is where I land.

• When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 56:3
• Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
• For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.Jeremiah 29:11

Is your Christmas preparation almost wrapped up, or is it still a work in progress?  After a marathon weekend of friends and family, I sat down Sunday evening by the fireplace to just take a moment…to pause and reflect on the people I love and that love us.  As I did, a verse from Luke 2; ‘there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,’ came to mind, and quickly after that, the entire passage that tells of Jesus’ birth just unfolded from memory.  I was surprised because I have never consciously tried to memorize this passage.  If I had, I would likely fail.   Memorizing has never been easy for me!  But maybe because I have heard and read this story so many times, there it was…in my heart.

   Talking to myself, with you listening in, I have covered some ground about lots of things that Christmas isn’t…not the decorations, or how many cards I send, or how I dress or what I bake (hooray!) or the gifts I give.  Wrapping up Christmas is a heart thing, a perspective that rises above my surroundings and yours.  Step back with me to the first Christmas, and to those unwashed, socially unwelcomed shepherds.

The angels left and went into heaven. Then the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby. The baby was lying in the manger. After the shepherds had seen him, they told everyone. They reported what the angel had said about this child. All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Luke 2:15-18

Did you get that?  The shepherds hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby!  About the last people on the planet people would expect to greet the Son of God, were the ones that heard the news!  If, in my efforts to finalize my Christmas prep, I hurry, then I want to focus on making it a ‘hurry to see’ this One who was sent into the world as Light and Love.

And that’s a wrap!  Merry Christmas!

As I get closer to December 25^th, I am feeling a little ‘pummeled’ by advertisements threatening me…o.k.  maybe threatening is too strong a word…. but warning me that I have X number of days to get my gift buying done, especially if I want to have the Fed Ex Fairy deliver to my door.   On some fronts I am still waiting for inspiration, not to be confused with desperation, to guide me in my choices.   I figured out something a few years ago that may be worth sharing, and may save you some angst.  It sure helped me!   I do not have to FIX anyone or anything with a gift!   Whew…that is good news!

There is one gift that I cannot buy or give.   It has already been purchased and received here.   You may have received it also.   This Baby’s birth that we celebrate was the unfolding of a story that dates back centuries, from the point God first put humans on the earth, who chose to do things their own way instead of His way.   This Baby we celebrate lived a perfectly sinless life, and gave Himself to bridge that gap between imperfect me and perfect, holy, God.  It is the true gift of Christmas…God loved us and sent His Son.

1 John 4:10 says it like this:  Here is what love is. It is not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life to pay for our sins.

Now there’s a gift worth giving and receiving!  And that gift is the gift where I choose to aim my focus, while fighting the urge to make it all about the gifts under the tree.

And the other gifts I still need to find?  Well, I’ve always worked best under pressure!

 

Are you a part of the ugly Christmas sweater scene?   Whether by accident or by a purposeful and unusual sense of style that you make these fashion choices, wear it bravely!  There are so many ideas about what to wear during the season.  I am seriously into comfort clothing, so if it doesn’t go with my cozy leggings, it usually won’t make it out of the closet.  But there are gatherings and parties where I may feel the need to ramp it up a bit, in keeping with the festivities.

Looking back at the first Christmas, this is the style reporting found in Luke 2:

 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  Luke 2:11-12

Swaddling cloths…about the simplest form of covering for this newborn baby Savior.

Fighting the need to worry too much about the outside trappings, I am remembering the simplicity of the first Christmas, and the manger filled with hay, and cattle and sheep and unwashed shepherds, and weary parents… and the simple cloths that swaddled the Son of God.

 

Hooray!!!  Because I am not the consummate cookie baker, merrily blessing those around me with fabulous flavorful morsels. Yet there are so many wonderful tastes and treats that I associate with this time of year.  My mother makes a wonderful thing called an Orange Blossom Coffee Cake.  Through the years, because we have lived in distant locales from Mom and her baking, I have learned to make it myself.   When you walk in the house and get a whiff of one baking, you KNOW it is Christmas!   My Dad makes these wonderful pecan cookies rolled in confectioner’s sugar and gives them as gifts to his friends and neighbors.  The folks at their local hardware store start asking in late summer if there will be cookies from him at Christmas!  No pressure, Dad!

 Don’t worry! I do love the wonderful tastes that I associate with the season.  And though baking isn’t my love language, I do enjoy making Ginger Bears with our kids. But thank Heaven, Christmas doesn’t hinge on what I bake, or actually what anyone bakes.  In my continuation on ‘fighting and focusing’, I am fighting the urge to feel ‘behind’ because I am not a busy baker.  Instead, I will focus on the best taste of all, the taste that fills up and satisfies.   I even have these words on my kitchen wall as a reminder of my desired perspective.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Psalm 34:8

Yes…That’s an empty cookie jar, so far!

 

Guess you would say we are pretty tame outdoor illuminators when it comes to Christmas, with a string of white lights around the door, the old timey kind that don’t blink or change colors, and a simple live tree with those same lights on the porch.  When I was growing up it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t have a live Christmas tree in my home.  But after repeatedly getting sick during December, I finally figured out I was really allergic to that beautiful tree.   It is now located on the front porch, where I can enjoy it without courting death!  I love riding around during Christmas time to see the lights other folks decorate with, and how they choose to illuminate their world in celebration.  Their enthusiasm for decorative lighting adds to my enjoyment of the season.  And I notice the reality that even the lowliest store acknowledges the season with lights at Christmas.  I like to think that, without even meaning to, the world acknowledges the birth of Jesus. Why all the lights?  Maybe to remind us…

…Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Whether I light up my home ala Clark Griswold, or stick with the L.L. Bean vibe, I want to keep my focus on the true Light of the world.  How about you

 

Next on my list… Christmas cards. No pressure if you don’t buy into this tradition!   It is something I really enjoy doing, keeping in touch with old friends and reminding people I see more often that they are special in my life!  Having lived Army life for twenty-one years before settling down to civilianhood means we have friends all over the place; literally everywhere.  So, the search begins on my laptop for my trusty ol’ Christmas card list and…. what? new computer since last year…. list not found…. are you kidding me?  But being a bit of a pack rat in certain obscure areas of life, I still have the cards we received last year. I sort through the pile and marry up names and addresses for most everyone.  But there are some missing, and I think maybe I will just wait for a card to come in (fingers crossed).  Then a flash drive is discovered, list recovered, and I move forward in my project, touching base with much loved people, no matter how distant.

On the flip side of this, are the cards we receive with pictures of kids growing way too fast, trips taken, and families gathered.  How grateful I am for this peek into the worlds of those who have been a part of my own story through the years.   There is one Christmas card that I get out and read all year long.   Yes, it is THAT special!   It is a card laced with lights and music and pictures that remind me of the great joy that we celebrate.  The words paint a picture that makes me pause every time.                       Simple.  Direct.  Earth shaking.

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

Send Christmas Cards. Don’t send Christmas cards.  I will love you regardless.                Just be sure you open this card from Luke that is just waiting for you to read.

 

First up on lots of our lists is decorating our home for the season. You may have already checked this box. I am still in the process, but enjoying taking my time.   Depending on how long you’ve been doing this, chances are you have some emotionally significant things that come out of storage to make it feel like Christmas for you and yours.  We have a wooden star that tops our tree each year.  It’s plain as far as stars go, but it’s meaning to us is very special.

In the first years of our marriage, my husband was studying dentistry, and I was a teacher.  To say that money was tight is like saying the Titanic had a little accident.  But the joy we found in decorating our little tree with paper ornaments we made lit up our holidays.  We even crafted a paper star to top the tree, and it survived for several years.  Then my creative, ‘good with his hands’ fella reproduced that star using balsam wood, and it still tops our tree today, reminding us of those lean but happy years, and how much we have for which to be grateful.

Today is a good time to think about how you will decorate your heart through this season!   Rather than letting the desire to have the brightest and shiniest and most perfect take your focus away from the love that surrounds this season, why not make a plan to get lost in the real story of Christmas, and decorate your heart with encouraging reminders of the gift He gave us when He sent His Son into the world as an infant.  Need a resource?  How about an online resource or a Christmas Devotion?  I am signing up for a daily email from Bible Gateway called “How to Live the Bible” focusing on Christmas Joy.  Check out  www.biblegateway.comand see the yellow banner at the top of the home page. Or check out the You Bible app, Another great resource. Go on! Be extravagant when it comes to decorating your heart!

Meanwhile, this was written long before the first tree was decorated, before the first Christmas carol was sung, before the Baby was born:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6