December 25 – “Merry Christmas, World”

We pulled a one miler together yesterday.  Chris is toughing her way through it.  She’s a little discouraged, but hanging in there.  She figured up through the miracle of modern watch-ery that the walk we took through the lights at Moody Gardens was about a mile as well.  Merry Christmas, Chris.

 

I followed my own personal goal of making a trip to WalMart on Christmas Eve to check out the people.  Chris was doing some baking and realized she needed some sugar, so I HAD to volunteer to make the trip.  After all, it’s in my husband contract, isn’t it?  Speaking of husbands, I saw quite a few of what appeared to be that species wandering aimlessly through the store.   Some were pushing mostly empty carts.  Others were going all-out, tossing in one of everything they passed.  I passed Dale from church and his son, but they didn’t see me.  Too focused, I guess.  Merry Christmas, Dale and Son.  Out in the parking lot I saw Cathy from church getting into her car.  I had to pass right by there, so I eased over to the passenger side and pressed my nose against the window.  She was beyond happy to see me.  Yep.  That must have been it.  When she recovered from her initial elation, she rolled down the window to say hello.  Merry Christmas, Cathy. 

 

On the way home I was listening to Christmas carols on the radio.  That famous song came on, “Do You Hear What I Hear?”  I listened carefully to all the lyrics, since after the first verse or two I often check out.  One of the verses captured my attention, though.  It goes like this: “A child, a child, shivers in the cold.  Let us bring him silver and gold.”  OK.  Aside from the lack of mention of silver in scripture, we have a much bigger problem here.  The baby is cold.  How about a nice blanket?  Or a long-sleeved onesie?  Merry Christmas, Wise Men.

 

Last night at church we had a record crown.  Best count and last I heard was 95 people.  we had every one of our usual chairs in use, as well as several rows of our backup chairs.  Along with the regular Seaside attenders, we had families from the community and their families who had come in for the holidays.  We had several families from the nearby RV park.  And children.  Lots of children.  Speaking of children, I wrote a new Christmas story this year.  I asked Ezra and Noa to come to the front when I read it and sit with me.  They were joined by ten or twelve more of the visitor kiddos, all of whom sat at my feet (I was in a rocking chair) as I read another tale from the Deep Meadow.  Kel did a great job putting the service together, and his Charlie Brown Christmas tree was a really big hit.  The music was great, as usual.  I was particularly impressed when Jim led out in singing “How Many Kings,” one of my newer Christmas favorites.  He even hit the two really high notes at the end of the song.  Super job.  Sadly, one of the visitors left her purse.  We did our best to contact her, but to no avail.  Perhaps she will give the church a call when she realizes it is missing.  Or we can send it to her.  Merry Christmas, Seaside. 

 

Luke 2:11 says, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

 

Father, thank you for your unspeakable Christmas gift to us, Jesus.  Merry Christmas, World.  Amen.