Home

This is where I live.  This is home.  God is Creator.  Creation sings his praise.  Marvel with me for a moment.  Our God is an amazingly creative God who makes things new each day.  God has come.  God is still coming.

Carols and Such

Yesterday was a day of carols!  In the morning, we took the children's choir around to Sunday Schools classes to bring a little Christmas cheer.  Not one kids cried or tried to hide..they all sang!  That's a miracle in itself!  Even Cora, who had never practiced or done this, sang her little heart out!  During "Silent Night" she made up her own words! Kids are amazing little creatures!

Then we took a caravan around 4:30 to several places, including Darby House (assisted living home), our pastor's house, and an elderly couple's home.  We had about thirty people running around.  I'm telling you, there's nothing like it in the world...when you look around and see your friends and their kids, most of whom I have taught these carols to over the years...and the tradition continues.  They need to know these songs, the story of Jesus...and they need to see service modeled by their parents and each other.  The kids always went to the front of the crowd to sing loudly.  They sang their little hearts out.  These are things that matter. This is joy.  This is love.

Bryan and Laura had a new picture in their house and it said "Home Sweet Home."  It was simple and warm.  And it reminded me that wherever we go, we create home.  When we entered the pastor's house, it became home.  When we sang to those older people, we made home for them.  Each time I embrace a friend, they are home to me.  As I held baby Dana last night, I was home to her.

Daddy asked me Friday if I was missing home...I said, "I miss y'all."  Home is ever moving and it is a state of mind and heart.  Chris and I have home.  Donna and Jerry make home for me every time they embrace me and each time I enter their house and sit with them.

The innkeeper provided home for Joseph and Mary.  Joseph and Mary were home to each other on that night.  Jesus makes it possible to dwell within us...Jesus is home within us...and that's what makes it possible for us to be home to each other.

Thanks be to God.

A Tribute to My Family

I've been getting emotional this morning, thinking about my family and all they mean to me.  I try not to be weepy, but joy makes me cry.  My heart swells with love for them and sometimes it's just too much to keep inside.

Mama, did you know that your first born girl would one day have a baby of her own?
Did you know that your baby boy would become a daddy with two girls of his own?
Daddy, did you know that your son would learn to love just as you did?
Did you know that he would be a strong father and loving husband?
Did you know that your middle child would feel the call to teach just as you and your mom did?
Mama and Daddy, did you know that your lessons of commitment and acts of service
Would instill in your children a desire to be committed and to serve others?
Did you know that those little babies would become grown ups who truly love one another?
Did you begin to comprehend how much they would love you in return?
Mama and Daddy, did you know that the heritage of faith that was given to you
Would continue in your children and in your children's children?

We are truly blessed.

I love you all.

It's Never Over

Yesterday was a day of affirmation for me in my classroom. We learned about Saint Nicholas, the real man who lived long ago and who embodied the giving spirit.  As they watched and as we discussed the meaning of Christmas, I was able to share the real story.  We talked about how the true story made Saint Nicholas want to be generous and having a heart that saw others' needs.  

One student said, "I'm not asking for anything for Christmas, except for my Nana to get here safely from Honduras."  Other students asked for "love in my house" and "for my family to be back together."  These kids have hearts and some of them are longing for hope and restoration and love.  

Is that so different from the rest of the world?  We see so much darkness, but we refuse to step outside into the darkness to shed some light.  

Christmas is never over...it should just be the beginning...

"It's Not Over"

"It is not over,
this birthing.
There are always newer skies
into which
God can throw stars.
When we begin to think 
that we can predict the Advent of God,
that we can box the Christ
in a stable in Bethlehem,
that's just the time
that God will be born
in a place we can't imagine and won't believe.
Those who wait for God
watch with their hearts and not their eyes,
listening
always listening
for angel words."

Load to Bear

Do you ever feel like you are carrying a load?  

Do you have a burden that you are carrying for yourself or for someone else?

Has it been hard to walk your faith journey lately?  Is God calling you to go too far, or to carry more than you feel you can bear?

Think about a woman who is carrying a child for nine months.  As the child grows, her load gets heavier, breathing is more difficult, sleep becomes something of the past, and life just gets more difficult.

Mary experienced all of that.  And in the end, God called her to go further...to walk a long, hard journey when she was already carrying a heavy load.

When you feel as if you can't walk another step forward, when you want to sit down and have a melt down, when you feel like this thing you are called to bear is just too much...think about Mary.

And remember, maybe, just maybe, you are carrying Jesus with you every step of the way.  Perhaps your burden will become Jesus to you or to someone else.  Perhaps you are carrying the Light of the World...walk on.

Memories

I love Christmas.  I know a lot of people don't...and yes, it is commercialized, etc, but I still love it.  Perhaps it's because Christmas was a magical time when I was growing up. Grandma made the best sugar cookies and you couldn't eat too many.  Mama Jig took us shopping with her (the only time she went grocery shopping) for the ingredients for fruit cake.  We didn't really eat it, but it was still fun to watch her make it!  I know we didn't have a ton of money, but Mama and Daddy always made Christmas a time for miraculous gifts to appear under afghans and old quilts.  How we never saw them behind the couch, I will never know!  Jamie would come in and wake me up first and then we would drag Bethany out of the bed to see that "He came, Melodie!  He came!"  Shhhh...we can't wake Mama and Daddy up yet...so we sat in darkness by the Christmas tree.  On Christmas Eve we caroled to people in our church and opened gifts from each other.  My parents gave us money to buy a gift for our siblings and that was one of our favorite parts of Christmas.  Crab stew and broccoli cornbread on Christmas Eve...I'm telling you, my parents aren't perfect, but they did a jam up job of making life special, Christmas time and other times as well.

I'm going to miss them this year.  I'm not going to pretend like it won't be hard to be away from my family when we have so many memories and traditions together.  But, there's something about being away that simultaneously makes me appreciate them even more and be incredibly grateful for my family here.  I have a boyfriend who loves me in a way I can't even grasp.  I have his family who has adopted me and treats me like I've always been a part of their family.  I have friends who are family here in Jeff City.  I am loved and that is plenty.

We are making new memories and traditions.  The past impacts the future.  Because I have been loved well I can now love well.  It's a gift I have been given and now I can share it with others.
Let's make some memories together!

Thoughts

"Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself."

 I'm a thinker.  Sometimes I think too much.  I can't stop my brain from going here and there and everywhere...it's a circus in here.  I'll admit that I have a hard time understanding that fact that when Chris tells me he isn't thinking about anything, he really isn't.  

Thinking can be a very productive thing, or it can be destructive if we don't allow God to hold every thought captive.  Mary probably thought a whole lot...in the beginning she most likely thought about her reputation and went back and forth between knowing that she was doing something God called her to do, and then wondering if Joseph could really love her and believe that all this was true.  During her pregnancy, she probably thought about the life within her, with thoughts of joy and excitement when she could feel him flutter within her and kick out as he grew.  She also probably worried, like any mom, for his safety, for his life, for what would become of him.

And then he came...she experienced the sacrificial act of giving life to another...and life was given to her.  And others started to realize what a gift that had been given to the world...and she treasured it...she went within herself, into her thought world and just sat there in silence.

How has God brought wonder into your life so far?  Take a moment and hold those thoughts captive...sit and be still...embrace what the Holy Spirit has done in your life...treasure it and look forward to what is to come.