I have a great deal of admiration for Mary, the mother of our Lord. I do not pray to her, or through her, or any such thing. That is idolatry. But I admire her like I admire Sarah or Elizabeth or Abigail. One of the striking things about Mary is her courageous loyalty. Consider her famous response to the angel Gabriel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
Mary’s first allegiance is to the Lord. She submits to the angel’s message, calling herself the Lord’s handmaid. And this is no minor thing. She has been greeted in a startling way with startling news. And no sooner has the angel departed than she “arose” and went “with haste” to her cousin Elizabeth. She obeys quickly, loyal to God and to His messenger. She is teachable, responsive to God’s leading, loyal to His command.
Later she is loyal to her husband Joseph who is himself a loyal man, faithful and responsive to God. He is “raised from sleep” and “did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife” Continue reading ‘Mary’s Loyalty’
I know I’ve busted out this recipe before, but I feel compelled by Holiday cheer to share it with you again. I think the last time I posted it, they were all pastels and it was Easter, so I assume that makes it fair game to repeat. We had the Christmas Ladies’ Fellowship last night, and it is now a little tradition to decorate cookies together. Anyway, this frosting is a charm to work with, and we put it into those little squirt bottles z9you can buy in cake decorating sections) to make the whole process easier, cleaner, and consequently more fun! If you get busy with multiple colors and some toothpick dragging through the wet frosting (move fast or it might start getting crunchy spots on you) – it is even more fun to play with. Either way, these cookies freeze well, and the frosting keeps well, making it very easy to use multiple days as an Advent surprise (ask me how I know). Continue reading ‘Christmas Cheer’
As you do your Christmas shopping, you are bound to run into the person who is feeling very guilty about buying presents. It’s so materialistic, they say. Well, yes, it is in one sense. After all, it is stuff. But if we are buying this stuff to bestow on our friends and family because God has bestowed so much of it on us that we just have to let it slosh over, then that is not materialism.
Thankfulness is a great antidote to false-guilt giving. Look at how much God throws away on us all the time. How much rain just runs down the gutter? How many sunsets are enjoyed by the whales because no one else is around to see them? What about the mountainsides covered in wildflowers that no human eye will behold? God just gives and gives and gives recklessly. He doesn’t want us to feel guilty about the sunset or the flowers. He wants us to overflow in thanksgiving. And though we cannot come near His capacity to give, we can imitate His extravagance by giving gifts and filling stockings and making fudge, all to the glory and praise of The Great Gift Giver Extraordinaire.
 If you are thinking about Christmas gifts for the book lover in your family, especially the person who loves and adores first editions of anything by Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, or Wodehouse, then be sure to check out the books my friend (and co-Nana) Diane Garaway has for sale at Santacruz Books. We have a few from her shelves as you can see.
I hope you all had a nice relaxing day-after-Christmas. I think we had our house “put back together” by sometime mid-afternoon. But it was all well worth it, and we can’t wait to do it all again. The N.D. family spends the night with us Christmas Eve, and it is much more of a workout for them than it is for us. They haul all their gifts to our house, and then they haul them all home again on Christmas Day! That is what I call self-sacrifice! We have such a fun time with them.
The Luke and Lizzie group come over mid-morning for the second round of unwrapping. And normally, the Merkle gang would show up around the same time. (We are hopeful that next Christmas they might be here with us.) We had our late Christmas breakfast, just like all of you, no doubt. This is just as much a part of the Christmas ritual as the stockings and the dinner. Then after all the opening and what not, some of the kids Continue reading ‘Highlights’
After I had eight or nine grandkids I started wondering if stuffing stockings for them was a bit much. I mean, after all, their parents do stockings for them already. So one year I decided to skip it. That was the year that Knox asked me a couple weeks before Christmas, “Nana, are you going to do stockings for us this year?” Well of course I told him the truth. “Of course I am.” And I have never looked back. Here are the stockings of the eight grandkids who live in the USA. Nothing like a vacant coat rack to hang them on. And here is my pile of “stuff” that I need to cram in them all. I resorted this year to some rather bulky clothing items….hope that isn’t cheating!
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