Up the Sunbeam

-- I was beating a hasty retreat out of Costco--a place I avoid as much as possible, and twice as much this time of year! I wouldn't have even been there that day since Hero Husband had hero ically already been there a couple of hours earlier, delighting me with his chivalry in taking this chore off my hands.  He knows how I feel about the crush of too many people milling around like confused cattle, complete with mooing and the occasional stampede when samples are close by. However, the kids and I were out running a few errands which included filling up the gas tank, and Costco is my station of choice because of their nice price.  Since we were there, Drummer Boy asked if we could go in and get a couple of things for the breakfasts and lunches he likes, things I knew Hero Husband had not known we needed.  Sigh.  I did not want to go in, but knew it was probably the best time to do it, so in we went. I had hoped to just get in, find our two items, and get the heck out of th

-- Several days ago, Jennifer Lee posed a fun question on facebook.  She asked, "Which nativity character do you most closely identify with?" When I saw her question I was just breezing through and didn't have time to respond, but that question stayed with me as I went through the rest of a customarily busy leading-up-to-Christmas week. I guess this was kind of a new thought to me. I had never really tried to see myself in the characters, except to imagine what it was like for them as they lived their part in the story.  I did play the angel in the school Christmas play in grade 3 (that's what they call it in Canada where I lived at the time).  My costume was wonderfully homemade--a soft white robe made out of an old sheet with silver tinsel sewn around the hems of the billowing sleeves, wings my mother made (I can't remember how) and a tinsel-wrapped wire halo that was hard to keep from tipping off my slippery curls. (That was way back when schools st

-- "'Dear Santa Claus,' it began. 'You know I have never written. I could never think of anything I needed or wanted for Christmas. But this year I had a different idea. What do you wish for Christmas Santa? You always answer children's wishes, but what about your own? Isn't there one thing in the world that you wish for but do not have? If you will post a letter back to me, I will do all that I can to bring your dream to life. Respectfully, Your friend, Christopher C.'" In Brittany Ryan's enchanting novel, The Legend of Holly Claus , this child's letter set in motion an amazing adventure of love and sacrifice . . . and redemption. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "What do you want for Christmas?" It's a familiar question this time of year. Lots of you are probably way ahead of me and have your shopping done already. Whether you're wrapping the presents you've bought, or still wracking your brain to find that certain

-- When you become a mother (or a father), you can never anticipate all that you are saying yes to.  If you're wise you'll let the prayers fall from your lips like raindrops. Three times life has blossomed within, twice I have delivered beautiful, healthy babies into the world.  Three times I have known the rending of my heart to make room for the flood of love it would have to hold as a new life came to be; one of those times I had to release that too-brief little life to heaven in the sorrow of an early miscarriage , and twice I have been blessed to watch those new lives grow into the amazing children God chose me to mother. I was a few months pregnant with She So Sweet the first time I heard the song "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant.  I was nervous in those early months, especially when complications came that felt like a repeat of the miscarriage.  As I prepared to go home from a scary trip to the ER, relieved to get good news but still shaken, the male nu

-- The deep, inky blue of the shepherds’ sky was awash in waves rolling in on heaven's tide. Not waves made of water, nothing anyone could see, but something was coming, something profound was about to happen. As the shepherds kept uneasy watch, the round soft shapes of the sheep showed pale in the starlight as they munched their way contentedly across the grassy hills that rolled below. The shepherds knew nothing of the coming hosts, the angels who were riding the tide, riding to greet them, riding the billows of history to make an announcement that would change everything. No wonder then that the angel appointed to speak to them had to start where all angels start when they bring a message from God to the earth, "Fear not." "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."   Luke 2:10 KJV Standing astride the sky-waves, just like the One  he came to herald would on

-- ♪  ♫   "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . "   ♫  ♪ Okay, so maybe this isn't what Christmas looks like on Christmas cards and in story books and where I grew up, but this is what Christmas looks like where I live now.  No snowmen, no sleigh rides, and no caroling after dark with snowflakes floating down like big downy feathers--I miss the snow so much, but thankfully Christmas finds it's way to me anyway in vivid living color! It's funny, some people lament long and loud about how soon the stores start putting up decorations and they groan at the first strains of Christmas music--Bah! Humbug!  At the opposite end of the spectrum are the ones who can't wait to get started on their own efforts (some of them have even finished already!) to deck their halls and bake Christmas treats and they have been listening to Christmas music since the 4th of July!  Still others go all out to decorate in a big way but complain the whole tim

-- The sky directly above me was dark and close with low, dense clouds. Across the valley, visible in peek-a-boo splendor, the sunrise was happening above and beyond the thick bank of clouds. You see, the sun rises in flaming beams of gilded glory even when our view is obscured by an ocean of clouds--it is always warm, always beautiful, always radiant.  "Then he gave them an illustration to show that they must always pray and never lose heart." Luke 18:1 PHILLIPS Dr. Luke tells his readers at the beginning of this chapter exactly the principle Jesus was illustrating before he relates the parable Jesus told. Nice of him, don't you think? This time at least, there is no treasure hunt for a truth veiled in a  cryptic   story we may or may not fully understand--I love that! This was a parable about an unjust judge who, though reluctant and uncooperative at first, was ultimately persuaded to give justice to a woman because of her persistence in pleading her