Christmas

I hope you are all ready for Christmas. I still have to buy some of my groceries. Bananas and such that will not keep very long. But other than that I am ready. I have not talked to Van Berts to see how much if any snow they got yesterday. We had a sprinkling of snow yesterday morning and this morning.

I love the snow but I don't like it when I know my family is on the road. Bill never liked for our family to travel over the Christmas or any other holidays. It is always more dangerous on the roads at that time. But we have entrusted them to God's care so I know they will be where they need to be in God's perfect timing.

I think back to Christmas many years ago. It seems so recent but in was really more than twenty years ago. Mike had just recently joined the military. I was always big on having everyone home for Christmas. Mike had been sent to Germany for his duty station. He was single and it was maybe his first Christmas that he was so far away from home. He talked about coming home several times and I was hoping he would be getting home for Christmas. After all it would not seem like Christmas if we weren't all together.

Things didn't work out for him. He was early in his career and didn't have the money or the leave, I'm not sure which. Probably the money thing. Anyway, I was mopping around all sad he wouldn't be home for Christmas. I had been like that for more than a week. Then one day I learned that flight 103 had gone down over Locker be Scotland. The flight as you may remember flew out of Frankfurt Germany. That was the airport Mike would have flown from. It was right before Christmas and all were lost.

I can't say for sure that Mike would flown on that day and on that flight but it woke me up in a dramatic way. I realized that my children could be home for Christmas or they could be with people who cared about them elsewhere in the world. In any case, where ever they were they were in God's care. I got over my mood that we weren't all going to be home together for Christmas and praised God that at that Christmas we were all well and safe.

As it turned out, Mike was invited to spend Christmas Day with someone from his base and he had a nice day. Our Christmas was also good here too.

There have been many Christmases since then that we have not been together for Christmas. Mike spent more Christmases in Germany and a couple in Iraq. Steve has spent Christmases in Italy and other duty stations around the world. I always thank God that I can hear their voices and know they are well. For you see they have never missed a Christmas calling home to tell us they are thinking about us and know we are thinking about them too and missing them.

Some asked me when Mike was in Iraq how I slept at nights with him in such a dangerous place. I always said that I knew he was in God's care and there was no safer place to be.

Tomorrow as Steve heads for Kentucky with his daughter, Sarah and granddaughter, Elyssa, I know he is in God's care. Steve and his family live in Mississippi. Chrissy, his wife and their three children that live at home with them drove from Mississippi to Kentucky. In the meantime Steve flew from Mississippi to Virginia to bring Sarah and Alyssa here for Christmas. He rented a car there and after Christmas, he will drive them back to Virginia and then fly back to Mississippi. Steve has done this because it has been so important to him and Chrissy that as much of the family as possible could be here for Christmas. What a good man. . And what a good woman

Mine is a rather large family and increasing in numbers all the time. It gets harder and harder all the time to get us all together. There are four children plus spouses, 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchilren. Plus two grandsons-in-law. With each of them having in laws it is harder all the time to get together. Edward will be getting married next year and he and his fiancee will be coming here from Ohio.

But come Christmas Day, we will have most of the family here and for that I thank God and ask that he bless each and keep them safe over the Christmas Holidays. I ask God to also bless each of you and keep you safe as you travel for Christmas and keep your families safe.
]
Never forget that Christ is the reason for the season. May he bless you all with his presence as we remember that God sent his son for a present to the world and to redeem a lost world. It is through him that we can hope to have eternal salvation. It is through the acceptance of him as our Lord and Savior that we gain entrance to heaven. Not by our works but by his finished work. His death and resurrection.

God bless and keep you in his loving care.

Regards and Merry Christmas

May the joy of Christmas fill your hearts and lives. And may the laughter of children fill your heart with love.

Mary


"And the angle said unto them, 'Fear not for behold, I bring you good tiding of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' "

Luke 2: 10-11