Ten Things to be Grateful For

It seems this time of year always brings out all the things to be grateful for.

So, I decided to find 10 things to be grateful for.

1. SPELL-CHECK. It keeps me from spelling grateful as "greatful".

2. SUNNY WEATHER. It won't be long before the winter clouds gather.

3. CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. Everything looks so pretty and shiny.

4. SMILES.Sometimes they are hard to come by in this busy season, but when they show up.                                  fabulous.

5. CANDY. Candy is always a treat, but Christmas brings out the best: fudge, peanut butter balls, and                     candy canes. Did I mention chocolate covered cherries? No? Well, now I have.

I decided to keep this short, so you will have to read it twice to get my 10 things I am grateful for. I know there could be more: Jesus, the reason, family and friends, and love.  But all of those things are here.

Here is to a blessed Christmas and lots of candy. You can diet after the first of the year

Relief

Relief that Easter is over. I know. I know, Easter is never over, but the annual celebration is now done. It seems that as a Christian, a Lutheran, it gets to be hectic near and on the annual celebrations of the events of the life of Christ.


Meaning, Christmas and Easter. There are other minor holidays that we celebrate well, but these two have been taken over by the whole world and stores are full of Christmas and Easter items months before the event. The church celebrates with song, scripture and drama and Holy week is packed. You add in personal celebrations and it gets very hectic.


So, when Easter Monday comes, you really do feel relief. Now, you can continue with spreading the Easter message and still take time to put your feet up and breathe deeply.


My relief that Easter has happened is not just happiness that the pace will slow a little, but that the Christ has indeed risen and my eternity is finalized.


Happy Easter.

Jingle Bell Christmas

On this snowy, wintry Sunday morning in the Ozarks, we are putting away Christmas decorations and going to the mundane, every other day decorations. As I pick up and put away each piece, I am reminded how it came to be in my home.

The stable for my Nativity set had been found at a garage sale with another nativity set in it. I didn't like that set as well as one that had been given to me, for Christmas, by our newly married son and wife. So, they were traded out. I gave the unwanted Nativity to someone else. The nativity fit handily into the stable. Now, they are one.

There is a star of gold thread pinned on the wall above it. It came from a now forgotten purchase and was not used for a couple of years, because I couldn't find a place for it. Then I put my nativity on the mantle and discovered that the nativity needed a star. How could the wise men find it if there were no star? And my eye fell on the star. It has now been on the wall in that spot for two years. Even when it isn't Christmas. We always need a star.

This year our daughter and her family gave me a large Jingle Bell, decorated and says "Welcome". When I commented that she had given me one last year, the reply was, " Of course". I had not thought of it before, but, as I took the ornaments off the tree, there were two from her that were Mickey and Minney Mouse with jingle bells for bodies. As I counted my ornaments, well, handled them anyway, I saw how many were jingle bells and most of them from her. So, she has always tried to make it a Jingle Bell Christmas for us.

I have five ornaments from young friends of ours who, she and the kids, make an ornament a year for us. Some of them are intricate, some are simple, but all are special. Among these ornaments is a jingle bell.

Jingle bells are special. They remind me of "Dashing through the snow", even if I never have, and of all the bells that ring on Christmas day to remind us of the birth of Christ. Jingle bells are soft and gentle in sound and remind us that Christ is gentle in his coming to us.

When you see a jingle bell, whether it be a little one on the shoes of a child, or a big one that says,  
"Welcome", remember it is a gentle reminder that Christ came softly into the world.

Have a blessed day.