Walking was pleasant, no rushing traffic, no yellow boxes yet, just calm and cool, nice fresh air. Just two walkers who stepped along at a lively pace to keep warm, but they were bundled up, each wearing a stocking cap.
And today is my Dad’s birthday. I always remember it because it fell during this week, and it meant relatives came to visit. Not so much to celebrate the birthday but to break the winter dullness by visiting. Teens went skating to the lighted rink in Brown Deer, returning just in time for the midnight lunch. All the aunts brought either a cake or a plate of sandwiches, and we tried our best to get one made by Aunt Lydia, roast beef on home made bread slathered with butter. Boy, I can taste it still. The ground was always snow covered, and the air was frosty. But the timing was right for winter visiting, and all enjoyed it. Several uncles always played chess and kept track year to year as to who won! It was intense, but relaxing fun that made the rest of the cold winter not so hard to live through.
And how was your Christmas? I hope you had some visiting and family affairs to fill the time, and that exchange of presents, and did you get what you wanted or needed, or just something.
My grandchildren come along with something I can use, cards at McDonalds or Safeway or Starbucks. That is wonderful, order, and hand a card, the clerk swipes it, grins, hands it back, and says thanks. Because the grandchildren don’t know what I might need. They do understand I have all the sox and ties I will ever need, and of books they have no idea where my mind might run. They have yet to understand that ONE Book really fills my need at this stage of my life, and I already have that one book.
But being able to swipe a card reminds me that is just why Jesus came as the Babe in the manger in Bethlehem. It was to give me something free, my salvation. The Book of Hebrews was written just to remind Israel there was no longer need for daily sacrifice for sins, because Jesus said, “I have come to do your will, O God. . .and by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Heb. 10, 9.10.
That is the message of the Bible, that “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only begotten Son, whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him”. John 3,16,17.
The Bible teaches this so clearly. Paul, in Ephesians 2, 6.7. declares, “By grace are you saved, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” So we do sing, “Go, tell it on the mountains, over the hills and far away, that Jesus Christ is born.” May your Christmas bring you “Peace with God, which passes all understanding”.
GPD 12/28/09
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