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Preparations
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Nothing makes me quite so happy as planning a party. Once the date is on the calendar, and the invitations have been made, that satisfying endeavor of planning begins to take shape. There’s the consideration of the menu, the deliberation over various recipes, the inventory of resources, and the ultimate grocery list, including fresh flowers. Then the really fun part: scheduling all the small tasks that must be completed before the eventual reveal when the first guests arrive. It’s often a bit of a puzzle to fit the individual projects into the number of hours available. There’s shopping, food preparation, table…
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Light of the World
We sat in stacked stadium seats. The arena was quite full, and I pressed up against his arm because the stranger next to me was rather overlapping the confines of her own seat. Darkness came suddenly, and there was a hushed waiting. The first chords reverberated deep into our bellies and streams of light in red, green and white flashed all around. The concert had begun. This particular Christmas concert is one that we’ve enjoyed before, and we purchased the tickets this year as an early present to ourselves. The experience is quite overwhelming to the senses with electric music and throbbing lights. There are even some fire bursts at…
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Deep Desire
Advent is here. For many people these next few weeks will become a frantic push rushing pell-mell toward the twenty-fifth. For believers, now is the time to slow down, pause, and reflect. We remember the four hundred years of silent waiting for the birth of Christ, and we make room in our souls to long with deep desire for His second coming. We reach forward with hope, because He did come, and He will come again. My childhood memories of Christmas seasons recall to my heart that somewhat desperate excitement of anticipation that innocent children can experience. The spare room my sister and I weren’t allowed to enter after Thanksgiving,…
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Steppingstones
We sat next to each other on the sofa with his tablet between us. The fireplace was dancing with fire and Christmas music was tickling our ears. Our annual online Christmas shopping was underway. Talking about our loved ones as we move through the list and anticipating the hoped for delight has become as much a part of the tradition as making the purchases, and we appreciate the leisure with which we can share ideas and focus on the recipients. This is a planned event, and we don’t rush it. We know going into it that we’re committed to the time, no matter how long it takes. Later, I was…
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A Thankful Heart
Thanksgiving was always my father’s favorite holiday, and he instilled in us a love for hearing one another’s specific gratitudes. (I know that is not really a word, but it should be.) We all knew to come to the feasting table with something ready to share. I must honor my mother here, as well, since she, the cook, had to be prepared for the lengthy time it would take all of us to go around the table before we could dig in. My brother-in-law, who has assumed the patriarchal duties since daddy went home to Jesus, carries on this tradition, and it sets the tone for our gathering beautifully. Of…
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Sharing Life
I awoke this morning in someone else’s home. The bedroom was charming, with pale yellow walls and dark traditional furniture. The bed coverings were a rich red and pale gold, and the window cornices matched the color scheme without matching the pattern. Just different enough to be pleasing to the eye. (I have a thing about too much symmetry.) There were fresh towels and bottled water in the guest bathroom, which had a faint but heavenly scent. I was wrapped in a cozy and warm hospitality, and I smiled with happiness. We had been invited to spend the night with our dear friends so the men could attend a gathering…
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From the Heart to the Mind
My heart has a memory. This heart that sometimes seems a bit warn and calloused swelled within me today a fountain of love and gratitude that splashed upwards and called to my mind a happening. It was a good number of years ago, several more than a decade anyway and not too long after I had begun a new life with my teenagers whose father was absent from our lives. I was on a daytrip with some of our church family to visit a mission run by friends and members of our small faith community whom the Lord had sent out from us to a small town in the North…
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A Glimpse of Eternity
It’s been nearly nine years since my father went home to Jesus. As I sat there next to the gentleman who had been his best friend, I knew we were feeling the knowing of a man of God, a truth teller, and touching the edges of a vastness only snatched in glimpses this side of eternity. For that brief moment, we were touching heaven in a way that made the pain of earth sharper and the joy of life richer. Theirs was a deep and abiding friendship made rich by the Spirit of God, and their adventures together were the backdrop of my childhood. My memories, both of heart and…
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Ready to Love
The back door is open onto the screened porch, and I can hear the bell sounds of the wind chime that is hanging above the patio. There are still green leaves on the trees, but these will begin to turn and fall soon. The warmth that is still in the air is becoming shy, and it, too, will give way to chill in another month. The daylight hours are fewer and will become fewer still. Winter is not bearing down just yet, but the inevitability of it weighs. Even in our cities and towns, there is a measure of preparedness that must be met at the change of season. Water…
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Relentless
Today my youngest son turned twenty-nine. I was grateful to have some time with him, and we enjoyed visiting together, just the two of us. He’s a gentle soul with a heart of compassion, and he’s also a super smart dude. I know you’re thinking, “Every old crow thinks hers is the blackest.” Well, you’re right. A mother sees the best and cheers the best in all her children. Even when they do not think these things about themselves, our noble calling as mothers demands that we lift up, build up and stir up all the good that the Lord has deposited. I believe in smiling at the future. (Proverbs…