Moments

What's This Day Several years ago when my grandchildren were very young, we had this conversation and I wrote it down.  My prayer today would be that as they grow older and enter into this world as adults, the knowledge and hope of the Gospel "will follow them and they will dwell in the house of the Lord, Forever." It was calendar training time for my granddaughter: day of the week, the months, and then, the  holidays.  She couldn’t read yet so she asked----- “What’s this day?" “Palm Sunday, and "  "And that’s when Jesus came, “riding a donkey,” she interrupted, “and the peoples put branches in His road when He came to town. "What’s  this day?” She pointed. This is Good Friday.  That’s when they took Jesus to the cross and---" “They nailed His hands and hurt Him and put him up on a cross.   And He died."  What’s  this day?” She pointed to Sunday. “This is Easter.  That’s when --- “ “I know about Easter....

Last night my family put up our Christmas tree. It was nice; music, a nice fire, good relationship, but my mother was missing. She was in a nursing home, not knowing the season or what day it is. It was the first Thanksgiving in many, many years that I did not interact with her in some way. If she makes it to Christmas, it will be a Christmas without her as well. So amidst the hope and joy of Christmas, these thoughts served a backdrop for an element of sadness with every Christmas song played. There were memories of her in that very room, under these same circumstance, helping us put up the Christmas tree. Now I think of a helpless old woman sleeping the moments of her life away. But, the Christ child came as a child of Hope. He came to be Emanuel: God is with us. God is with her in her sleep. God will take her to an even greater celebration in His own good time. There will be the warm fire of the Love of God, the singing of angels, and the presence of the Risen Lo...