Translating a World on the Edge

This will be my last post until after the first of the year, and I will miss our communication.  But I have lots of family coming for Christmas and New Years, so quite a bit of preparation on my agenda.

As people do, I’m remembering other Christmases because Christmases have the ability to track time for me,  and I’ll bet they do for you, too.  A year in time can change our lives.

Who was there at a  particular Christmas, who was not? What things went  right, or what went  wrong?   What was funny? What was sad? Our Christmases are filled with emotional memories.

I go back to my own childhood, and a rusty red swing on Christmas Eve–no shoes, it wasn’t cold enough for shoes that year.

I swung high as I could, nearly upside down, attempting to toe a high branch on a  huge live oak in the back yard of my aunt, uncle, and cousins house, across the street from mine—- dreaming of all the toys I’d find the next morning under the Christmas tree. So much excitement!  Imagination and anticipation do that.

How many of you ever actually saw Santa Claus when he visited your house ? You smile?  Well,  I’m certain I did on one particular Christmas Eve coming home from Midnight Mass— a flash of red just behind the chimney, the jingle of sleigh bells on a roof covered, not with snow, but pine straw.

We all have Christmas memories, some warm and delightful— and maybe others that we’d like to forget.  And we do have that power to forget, to overlook and move on from Christmases that did not produce feelings of joy.

Your worst Christmas?  Mine was the impending surgery of my middle daughter, three days after Christmas for a malignant brain tumor.  That Christmas began many years of worry, but it began something else, too—my real joy, my total appreciation of the family I was blessed with.  Remember the old song lyric—“You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it?”

I think it’s good to Remember When— the good times and the bad, because we can learn from both.

This is a season that can fill us with strength, resolve, and a brand new lease on our lives.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

And to my husband, my five children, ten grandchildren, sister, cousins, and their families, too. We’ve made it through the good times and the not so good. So let’s Remember When with all the love we’ve got!

Do you know that you are here on this earth for a reason?

We were not created by mistake–not one of us.

We do indeed have a mission here.

Many might link ‘mission’ to their career, their job.

Yet many of us do not hold jobs or careers we feel are important enough to be called our ‘mission.’ Actually, a so-called important job has nothing to do with why we’re here.

In fact, I don’t believe we personally determine our mission. We’re part of a much bigger plan than our small thoughts can produce. The trick is to know that–to be open enough to allow ourselves to be used in whatever way God lays before us.

After all, God knows the bigger picture.

As parents, we see a bigger picture than our children do because we’ve had certain experiences that they haven’t had. We know of behaviors that won’t be good for them in the long run, so we present opportunities in which they might excell. We try to instill good character in our children, and though we may at times think we failed to do that, we hope that eventually our child will remember, and respond to our efforts.

Sadly though, if a child doesn’t come around, we sometimes give up.

God never gives up. His effort is always consistent. He wants us for Himself, but He also wants us to want Him. This is our ultimate mission–simply to want Him, to make a covenant with Him. So God hangs around for as long as it takes–waiting for us to “get it.”

He is always behind us, longing for us to fulfill the mission created for us, and waiting for us to turn to Him and say, “Here I am, Lord. I want to do your will.”

When a child is born to us, we make plans. Our hearts lift when we consider who he or she might become, how he or she might influence the world.

This is common to parents in the moments of joy after the birth of their child.

We don’t consider that anything bad might happen to him or her. We see their lives shining and happy. Of course, realistically we know that won’t be the case.

I wonder what Mary and Joseph felt, don’t you?

Did they know the suffering that would befall their child?

Did they know the tremendous influence He would have?

Did they know the enormous offering He would make for humanity–His very self?

How could they possibly have known that? How can we possibly know what fate holds for our children?

But every night a child is born is a HOLY NIGHT. 

Every day a child comes into the world, the world itself is given another chance to expand in goodness. Because each of us holds that goodness within us, and the possibility of spreading it.

Most of us have things to hide.

We have secrets we don’t want people to know–the proverbial ‘skeletons’ in the closet.’

We have personas we want to protect.

We don’t want the truth about ourselves discovered. We don’t want our meanness, our selfishness, our betrayals, our insecurities, our addictions known.

But we can’t hide ourselves and our secrets from God. Yes, we can fool some people, but not Him.There is nothing He doesn’t know about us. There is nothing we can cover up that God won’t see.

And guess what? He loves us anyway! And there is  nothing we can do to keep Him from loving us.

Of course, there’s plenty WE can do to keep from loving HIM–and we do it all the time. It’s called sin, that thing no one wants to give a name to.

Sin is a turning away from God. But while we turn a way from Him, He remains beside us with open arms. I sometimes wonder how we think we can hide from that.

How can we go about creating havoc with our own lives when all it takes is a turn toward God?

Lest we forget, this is the time of year when we celebrate new life coming into the world.  It’s a time of gifting. Let’s give ourselves a gift and look at our lives a little differently.

And when we take that quick–all too brief– look at our lives, let’s try to see who’s in it with us.

Look for the one who never leaves us.  Look for the  one who knows all our undesirable warts and  all the secrets we try to hide, but loves us anyway.  Look to see  Him patiently waiting for us to notice  His presence.

How many promises do we make in a single day?

How many have we broken?

Sometimes the breaking is unavoidable. We make a promise to a spouse, a child, or a friend; then we have to work, we are ill, or something goes wrong with the car, and we just can’t follow through.

Sometimes we just don’t do what we mean to do,  although  we have the best of intentions.

Then there are other times when we promise serious things;  yet we take our promise very lightly, or maybe we just get carried away by emotion or strong desire.

A promise is never one-sided. It always involves another. And when we give it, we give away a piece of ourselves. We make ourselves vulnerable in the giving of a promise because we are fallible human beings and that means we can fail.

And in our failure, we wound another.

Often, we feel terrible when we’ve broken a promise–especially one so important as a marriage vow. When that twinge of conscience moves in, it’s hard to ignore. We feel diminished. We haven’t done what we meant to do.

Some of us chastise ourselves. Some of us ask for forgiveness.

And if we’re the person wounded by the breaking of a promise, we might refuse to forgive betrayal.

Can we remember that we are made in God’s image?  If we do remember that, then shouldn’t we act as if we are?

God keeps His promises. I will not violate my covenant
or alter the word that went forth from my lips. –Psalm 89:34

And God also forgives. Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.—Matthew 18:21-22

As wonderful a time of year as the Christmas season is, it can also be burdensome.

There are the decorations, the presents, the cooking, the cleaning, the extra school parties—not to mention the price tag for all these things!

Mothers with children and grandchildren are especially stressed at a time when we wish we could simply breathe and enjoy  the Birthday of our Savior.

But preparation is necessary.  In fact, Advent is the season of Preparation– and Waiting.

In all our busyness, we can keep in mind what we are trying to do—-create a celebration worthy of such a Birthday, but we are also preparing our children and family for  the joy of  receiving, not only wrapped gifts, but the joy of knowing that because of Our Savior, we have the promise of  eternal life.

We will be the givers of many presents this Christmas,  but let’s not forget that we are the receivers of the greatest gift of all. And  when  we get tired–and yes, cranky. When we want to spout off at whomever is in front of our face—let’s take a load off ourselves and give it to Him.  That’s  the gift God wants from us—our Trust that He will handle it all for us if we truly allow him the chance to do so.

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and  carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 …