Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you enjoyed some time with those who mean the most to you in this world. Holidays are not always perfect as they are pictured; I know from experience. So to those of you who had an unhappy holiday I’m really sorry for and with you.
My Thanksgiving this year was in that category. I’ve been learning that the cradle and the cross are what keep me - keep all of us - steady in unsteady family times, even in family times that threaten to undo us. Jesus was not undone by His rejection and His losses, so His outstretched arms hold me together in mine.
He sees, He knows, He is near, He rules. Gratitude in all things keeps me steady in Him.
Two highlights from before Christmas:
On December 7 I enjoyed speaking to a candlelight dinner hosted by Lakeside Community Church in Hot Springs, AR, and attended by 130 women. My topic was “When Christmas Came,” and in the audience were several women I had not seen in many years. One told me she remembered keeping our two children who were just toddlers when I was in the hospital at 28 years young, afraid I was dying because my heart was racing at 300 beats per minute. I had no idea she came or that she babysat my two and a half-year-old and my 18-month-old in our first great life crisis. Forty years later I saw God’s care for me when I couldn’t care for myself. I was able to thank Mickey for her kindness in coming to our rescue.
On December 15 we attended our grandson’s college graduation. His college is small, unpretentious, and seen by many as insignificant ... just like the town of Nazareth was viewed by those who thought themselves superior. But we heard two of the best and most memorable commencement speeches (by the chancellor and a selected student) that we’ve ever heard. So like God to have his heroes in unlikely places. James graduated with a degree in aviation management.
Christmas Day found us with our daughter and son-in-law and their seven boys and one amazing daughter-in-law. With barely enough room for their loud and remarkable young men and still-growing boys, Ashley and Michael gave us their own room, insisting we were not staying in a hotel at Christmas. They bunked with their boys upstairs. In the midst of the mess of a testosterone-fueled locker room, they are doing a heroic parenting job.
Later that day we joined other Christmas travelers on Interstate 40 as we drove east to be with our youngest grands and their also-remarkable parents. These little ones are bundles of delight. We read lots of books, new and old favorites from my traveling Mimi’s book bag. Their wide-eyed wonder and innocence fed our souls.
On to the farm for all this place of quiet history and constancy provides. At the end of this year we are especially in need of refreshing and restorative space in our lives. And we are open to God’s recalibrating hand.
My friend Susan sent me a text two days before Christmas. She and Joanne and I had enjoyed one of our infrequent but always encouraging 3-way phone calls on Friday the 22nd. Her text was a response to my sharing about the ambiguity of our season of life.
When Joseph was informed by Mary that she was pregnant, his shock shook his life like an earthquake. The news totally preoccupied his mind with a problem impossible to resolve. He had very few options and, being an honorable man, he decided on the one option that was least shameful. Susan said we often overlook the next part of the story … God interrupted Joseph’s very good plan with a better one, but God’s plan required greater faith in Joseph than he imagined he had. Marry Mary, pregnant by someone else, and live not in hiding but in the open with everyone watching. Susan’s encouragement to me: Watch for God to redirect if He has a better way that we can see in the moment.
Does that speak to you, too? The end of the year is naturally a time to evaluate the last 12 months and plan for the year to come. We are asking our God, who has promised to always guide (Isaiah 58:11), to interrupt our plans with His if we are only doing what we can see with our human eyes.
Next week 2024 will be here and the new year will begin like an airplane about to depart on its runway. It begins sitting still but quickly is racing down the runway. Too soon time will be flying by again. I hope you’ll join me in these few remaining days of 2023 to catch your breath and at a minimum ask God to guide you and interrupt you if He wants to redirect.
We have lots of plans for 2024 for Ever Thine Home: blog content I want to dig into, big writing projects that are at the top of my to-do list for early 2024, and finding ways to be more intentional about engaging with you, my readers. I want to see more comments, questions, and ideas from all of you! Interested? I hope so.
Giving thanks in ALL things,
Ever His,
Barbara
P.S. We are still in need of year end donations and would be honored if you’d join us in this quest to meet our match. I’m listening like Joseph. Looking forward to sharing more of what God is doing in my life with you in 2024!
Good word on allowing God to interrupt my good plans for his better ones! My problem is currently continuing to wait patiently for His Timing . . .