Snowman Time

The Boys See Santa...And He's Bald!

Obituary from 33 A.D.

Hammond's Candy Factory

Nate The Great

God’s Christmas Bonus

Clark Griswold had been dreaming for weeks of the new swimming pool he was to put in his back yard upon receiving his Christmas bonus check. He would stare out of his kitchen window daydreaming of his family swimming and splashing in the gift that would come as a result of his year end bonus.

As he received the envelope from his boss, his expression on his face was priceless. He was so excited he didn’t know quite how to deal with his coming excitement. His immediate and extended family gathered around him as he slowly opened the long-awaited envelope. You could’ve heard a pin drop as he read the card. There was obvious disappointment. After some expletives, Clark explains that instead of a new pool, he had received a membership to the “Jelly of the Month” club. After a long silence, Cousin Eddie offers his timely observation. “You know Clark, that’s a gift that keeps on giving the whole year.” Not exactly what Clark wanted to hear.

As I contemplate the Christmas season, I am transported back in time 2,000 years to an amazing scene. I arrive simultaneous to the wise men. I watch quietly as the Magi bow before their king. What an incredible sight! These priestly men are paying homage to their newborn king, their Redeemer, their prophecy fulfilled. There was no confusion. These men understood the magnitude of this gift. They brought their time, their treasure and their earthly importance to honor the promised child. They were expectant, searching the heavens each evening for a star…a star announcing the arrival of a promise.

Jesus Christ was delivered to this world not as royalty, but by way of a peasant birth. His tiny nostrils filled with the smell of fresh manure. This was an unlikely start for the one who sat with his Father and breathed life into the world in which he now resides. His tiny round eyes first seeing the backend of cattle, or perhaps the wooly coat of sheep. Hardly what you might imagine for the King who would eventually look into the eyes of you and me and say, “You have been forgiven…welcome home.” His delicate fingers first touch being that of a splintered manger. This is an ironic start to the Healer who would eventually touch our lives, healing our hurts, our families and our hearts. The first sound to his tiny ears was that of bleating sheep, an amazing beginning for the One who hears the slightest utterance and groans of our hearts.

In spite of His meager beginnings, the Son of God was given to us to fulfill a promise. God gifted His son to breathe into us life…to look into our eyes and tell us we’re forgiven…to touch our lives and heal our hurts…and to intercept our groans and present them to His Father on our behalf.

To steal a phrase from Cousin Eddie, Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year…our whole lifetime and beyond.

If you have not yet received your membership into the “Jesus of the Month” club, I would strongly ask you to reconsider your decision. What part of God’s amazing gift can you not fully embrace?

The Haven of Heaven

I pulled up to a house and a steep driveway. My Toyota Camry was unable to traverse the steep incline. I was forced to unload and carry my luggage up the steep drive…traipsing through deep snow and ruining my dress shoes. I had been traveling for 4 days and as Murphy would have it, the day I left, it snowed a foot. It never seems to amaze me. Every time that I have traveled over the past couple of months, the Lord opens the Heavens and dumps 6 to 12 inches of snow the morning I leave…stranding my wife and boys.

Needless to say, everyone was ready for dad to get home. Gabe and Luke were particularly excited to have me home and couldn’t wait to show me their pictures they had drawn for me while I was away.

As they handed them to me, I starred in awe at their masterpieces. The fact that my boys spend their art time drawing a picture of an Angel named “Exalter” at the gates of Heaven, is humbling. It makes you feel like you are doing something right as a parent. The second thing I noticed was the appropriate misspelling of the word “Heaven.” Gabe had titled his artwork “Haven,” and then came back and crammed an “e” in there.

Webster’s defines HAVEN as: 1: a place of safety or ASYLUM2: a place offering favorable opportunities or conditions

If you cross-reference the word Asylum you find that it means: a place of retreat and security.

Gabe, I couldn’t agree more with you. I live my life here on this Earth to one day enter a place of safety, a place offering favorable opportunities or conditions and place of retreat. Heaven…a place offering eternal security. Sign me up…I’m in.

I thank God for the plan. It would have been impossible for God to make it any easier or simpler. I am asked to trust Him with my life. Because I place my trust in Him, I am equipped with a Helper that navigates my steps to follow his instructions in a book that He wrote to me a long time ago…to treat others as Christ treated the Church, and to love my neighbor as myself. Because followers of Christ do this, the world is a better place and I am able to live life to the fullest. And, one day when my Heavenly Dad says it’s finally time to enter His gates, I will live forever, with no end, in complete happiness and security. Sounds like paradise…oh wait, it is paradise.

Good plan God.

Sometimes my vision gets cloudy. I forget the prize. I forget what awaits. I thank God for my insightful 7 year old boy who reminds me of the haven of Heaven.