Christmas Day is here!  Our light has come! These photos are from our Christmas Eve service and my grandchildren:

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John1:4,5)

And we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!  Let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare Him room….and Heaven and nature sing!”.  This JOY is for the whole world.  This JOY transcends all boundaries.  I love this painting  which for me expresses this joy.  It is from the book “B is for Bethlehem”:

God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only Son!  Joy to the world! We are all holding hands circling the manger and the Christ Child…this is our dancing day!  Heaven and nature sing together!

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.  Thank you for sharing this Advent journey with me and sending your love and encouragement along the way.  I have loved it!  Thank you for the gift of being together around the manger and celebrating this joy!

Questions to ponder…

Where is the light in your life?

Where is your joy this Christmas Day?

nk

 

The picture I have in my memory of every Christmas Eve is a candlelight service at church.  It has been especially meaningful for me as a pastor, because I was able to tell the story, the most beautiful story of LOVE ever!  On this holy night there were multiple services beginning early with a children’s service and ending with a midnight worship.  They were all special and I truly loved being there all night long! It was the place to be for me and every single time was meaningful.  I can’t wait to experience it again on this holy night!

There are a couple of memories I want to share with you…

 

This Christmas Eve took place at Montgomery UMC and my granddaughter Molly was  22 months old.  The setting for the stable and manger were set up for the live nativity inside the sanctuary.  She had arrived early and found her way into the Christmas scene, the Christmas story, and in her mind and heart she became Mary.  The baby was a doll, but alive for her.

She picked up baby Jesus, held him in her arms, and treasured him.  He was REAL to her.  He was HER baby!

Another year at St. Timothy UMC I did a drama with a young boy named Nicholas.  I was Mary and he was Jesus as a boy when his parents lost him in the temple and had been searching for him.  We were in costume, and we sat down on the steps of the front of the sanctuary. He said, “Mom, tell me again about the night I was born.”  As I recalled different parts of the story, the children entered as angels, shepherds, and wise men to take their place in the nativity. Then, I held a real baby in swaddling clothes close in my arms, unwrapping to show Nicholas his tiny feet and hands and let him touch.  I explained to Nicholas that he was God’s child, sent to be the Savior of the world.  Then at that moment, I looked into Nicholas’ face and his eyes were filled with tears.  Although we were role playing the Christmas story, I realized it had suddenly become real for him!  By the power of God’s holy touch on that holy night, the baby Jesus came into the life of that young boy.  Baby Jesus was REAL to him.  He was HIS baby.  When I witnessed that moment, it was also REAL for me.  God was present and I was holding Him, and He was holding me!  This truly was Immanuel, God with us!

Every Christmas Eve for many years I held a real baby.  There were multiple services each year so this means there were over 25 babies who became baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. Some would say that would be too risky.  Anything could have happened in that situation in front of the entire congregation.  But that never stopped me from stepping out in faith because I wanted that moment to be real for everyone.  “God came into the world as a tiny baby born this night.  And this child is born for YOU!”  This baby is yours.

And every Christmas Eve over all these years, every single baby received that holy moment as if they knew. There was a beautiful stillness, a peace within them, and they were captured.  Indeed, we were all captured by God.  We all knew.  Then we lit our candles, held them up to glow in the dark…”Silent night, Holy night,  Son of God, love’s pure light…”

Questions to ponder…

How will you prepare your heart to receive the Christ Child on this holy night?

This baby is born for YOU.

nk

 

Part of getting ready for Christmas is finding just the right gift for those you love.  In the song “Little Drummer Boy”, the child feels he has no gift fit to bring baby Jesus, the new born King.  Then he realizes he can play the drum for him.  He played his best and Jesus smiled at him, AND his drum!  The perfect gift that makes Jesus smile!

Here is an ornament which hangs on my Christmas tree.  It is a gift from my friend Ellen:

How wonderfully simple can it be that we just give Jesus the best of who we are, the gift of giving the gift within us that God has already created in us!  I am not certain why that can seem to be so difficult sometimes.  Maybe we think we have to be good at everything and end up spending too much time trying to develop what is not our gift.  What is it we do well, that comes naturally for us?  What do we have a passion for?  What is it that makes us happy?  Could it be that is the gift God wants from us?….the gift that makes baby Jesus smile?

Last night I was with my friend Ellen and our daughters Susan and Meg.

Ellen and I have never been too good at math….

But give us an opportunity to vision about the future…what things could look like, what they could become!  And let me find a way to create a picture of that!!

For me, I would bring baby Jesus something I created. Here are a few words to a song which speak to me…

Questions to think about…

What is it you do well?  What makes you happy?

Think of a story from your childhood which you think illustrates who you are.

Where might the gift God created in you meet the needs of the world?

nk

In “The Last Straw” by Frederick H. Thury and illustrated by Vlasta van Kampen, the old camel is chosen to carry the gifts of the Wise Men to Bethlehem.  Along the way, gifts from others keep getting piled on until his back is breaking from the heavy load:

When the old camel finally arrives in Bethlehem, he enters the stable and lurches to his knees with pain and exhaustion from the heavy burden he has carried so long and so far.  And then, something very special happens…

The tiny hand of the Christ Child reaches out to touch the old camel.  His heavy burden seems to be lifted.  His pain is eased by a deeper joy.  The touch is one of healing.

I am certain there are many who have sadness, who carry heavy burdens this Christmas season.  There are many who for various reasons long for the touch of God entering their lives….long for a touch of love, someone to be present, someone to understand, someone to lighten the load.  The longing of advent is for the touch of God to be with us.

This collage portrays an essence of the Tree of Life.  The tree is connected to the people of the world through the the different hands represented. When I finished the drawing I stood back and saw something I had not yet seen.  The design of the tree emerged as the hand of God reaching down from Heaven to earth, holding all of creation in His hand.  God came to TOUCH.  God came to HOLD.  God came to BE WITH US!

Questions to ponder…

Are there burdens for you at this time of Christmas?

May you, my friend, experience the touch of God.

nk

 

 

I was recently at my friend’s home and she showed me this precious Madonna and Child.  It is made out of tiny beads and is only 4 inches tall.

The story of this tiny figure is that my friend was shopping in the market area of Puerto Vallarta and noticed a young man beading different articles.  Amazed at his work, she stopped to visit and asked if he had any nativity sets.  Given her “Tex Mex” he didn’t quite understand but finally clicked with “baby Jesus and Mary”.  After several days of his being absent from his regular place, she wondered if he would be back.  But the day she was scheduled to leave he appeared with this beautiful Madonna and Child.  So very special!

It reminds me of one of my very favorite Christmas stories found in the book  “Christmas Moccasins”, written and illustrated by Ray Buckley.  A woman and her grandson were walking through the woods when three youth who were drunk knocked them down, took their coats and the grandmother’s moccasins.  They had to walk home barefoot in the snow and frostbite took two of the woman’s toes.

Then she began a spiritual journey of beading three pair of moccasins.

Over time she beaded the tops and sides, and then the unexpected…she began to bead the bottoms, something rarely seen.

On Christmas Eve she wrapped up the moccasins and began the long walk to the house of the three youth.  She handed the gift to each one, “Merry Christmas.  God bless you”.  No other words were spoken.  The story ends with words from the grandson as he returned with his grandmother walking through the woods, “In the small house were captives of God’s love.  But we were liberated by the same love.”

The gift of forgiveness.  Here is a prayer from “Prayers, Praises, and Thanksgivings” compiled by Sandol Stoddard:

Questions to think about…

How would you explain freedom and forgiveness being in the same package?

Where have you witnessed forgiveness?

nk

I remember visiting Doris and her husband in their home.  His health was such that he was no longer able to come to church and I would take Communion to them.  On this particular visit during Advent, Doris was sharing a memory.  She and her little grandson were making Christmas cookies.  They were laughing and having fun, as flour and sugar began to spill over along with their joy into every nook and cranny of the kitchen.  Papa walked in to check on them, his steps making footprints in the flour on the floor of the kitchen as he proclaimed, “You two are making a mess!”.  Her grandson replied with a big smile, “No Papa!  We’re not making a mess…we’re making MEMORIES!”.

How true it is!  With every nativity I arrange to display and enjoy, every ornament I hang on the tree, every Christmas carol I sing, every Christmas Eve candlelight…there is a memory.  And all the while, new memories are being made.

My Colorado grandchildren recently moved there from California.  The last time I visited them on the West Coast, I walked with Anna to her school every morning and back home each afternoon.  We would talk about lots of things and enjoy the flowers.  I took her picture one morning along the way.

We had such a wonderful time together and as I was leaving to travel back to Texas Anna gave me this note…

I hugged her tightly and assured her that I would NEVER forget! In the days that followed she told her Dad that she always walked this certain way to school now because she could see the daisies Grandma loves and remember.

Sometimes it feels that memories are all we have, but memories are a gift, and they are powerful and precious!  Tomorrow morning I am flying to Atlanta to make more memories with grandchildren this Christmas.

Questions to ponder….

What is a memory that you hold dear?

Treasure the moments this Christmas.  We are all making memories!

nk

My Aunt Dot had only one child who died at child birth.  She taught school for many years and loved children.  All her nieces and nephews became her children and we loved her.  She made us all feel that we were special to her. Aunt Dot always had Christmas Eve dinner at her home and loved to come up with something unique to make that evening fun and special.  One year I gave her a Santa doll.  It stood about 8 inches tall on top of a music stand.  When you flipped the switch “ON”, Santa would sway his hips back and forth, dancing to the music.  She loved it and so did all her nieces and nephews.

Aunt Dot lived to be 98 and amidst all her collection of things along the way, Santa doll remained prominent.  Finally in her last years, she carried Santa with her everywhere.  She called him her baby, and she would become anxious if he were not in her arms or close by.  His battery had run out and was perhaps conveniently not replaced.  Aunt Dot never asked about it.

Here is my dear Aunt Dot at 97 years at Christmas time in the Assisted Living home….

She has Santa Baby all nestled in her arms as usual.  Santa Claus has come to visit the Nursing Home and he must be a bit stunned at the appearance of Aunt Dot and Santa Baby.  Perhaps he is thinking…”HOW CAN THIS BE? ”  Could it be Joseph’s story?  Or Elizabeth or Sarah laughing and proclaiming, “I AM TOO OLD FOR THIS!”.

We can laugh at this -it’s OK.  Aunt Dot would be laughing with us from Heaven.  She never lost her faith and with that came the assurance that for REAL one day she would hold her daughter Sharon again in Heaven.  And right now she is doing just that, because baby Jesus came to bring life for all forever.  “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more”.(Rev. 21:4).

Hear the words of the carol, “There’s a song in the air!  There’s a star in the sky!  There’s a mother’s deep prayer, and a baby’s low cry.  And the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing, for the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King!

 

Questions to ponder…

Remember a Christmas Eve that stands out in your mind.

How do you picture Heaven?

nk

 

John, cousin of Jesus, was sent by God to prepare the people and make them ready for the coming of the Lord.  He was to be a witness to the true light of God.  He proclaimed Jesus to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29). Out Advent time is meant to prepare us for the coming of the Lord.

This a photo of my high school girlfriends, dear and wonderful friends!  Every spring we get together and this year we were in Salado, Texas. In our wanderings we discovered this expressive sculpture of Jesus, the Good Shepherd:

Even though it was raining, I could not resist getting out of the car, walking up close, examining this beautiful work of art from every viewpoint.  Here is my favorite…

What a captivating gaze of an obviously deep connection between Jesus and the lamb.  Whatever it is they know and are feeling, it is the same for both of them!

In the Old Testament we are told that a lamb was sacrificed by the people to take away their sin and bring them close to God again.  This was called atonement. It had to be done over and over again.  Jesus came to earth as the Lamb of God to be the sacrifice for all sin once and for all.  In this sculpture the faces of Jesus and the lamb passionately express that they both KNOW…they both understand with all their being what it means to be chosen as the sacrificial lamb.  If you look closely you can see a raindrop has fallen onto Jesus’ face and lingers right at the tip of his nose.  It gives the feeling that a tear has come, and is just about to fall upon the lamb.

Every year I put my lamb under the Christmas tree along with my bears Curly and Dot who are reading “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”.  The lamb is named Beauregard and he is from San Angelo, just like me.

Questions to think about…

Look for any lamb, real or symbolic, that might appear unexpectedly along your path this Advent journey.

Think about the gift of Jesus, Lamb of God.

nk

One of my favorite nativities is the one I found in Africa when I was there on a mission trip.

I love the animals present here.  They are not the typical animals that we associate with the nativity.  However, they would be typical in Africa….the cow, giraffe, rhinoceros, elephant, and hippopotamus.  Can you imagine those enormous animals gathered around the manger and the tiny baby Jesus?  Wow, an amazing sight!

And of course, my mind goes to that Christmas song “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas”.  Such a fun song!  (However, the one about my two front teeth is a whole lot easier to sing).  I still want to give it a try. I’ll google it with the grandkids and we’ll sing it together.  The plural is especially challenging – hippopotamuses!  Makes me laugh just to think about it.

Then in this nativity there is baby Jesus lying on a banana leaf, and covered with another one.  So real and natural!  Those banana leaves are so plentiful there and quite large.  A big part of what I am trying to express here is the opportunity to look at the nativity with fresh eyes.  It helps us open up to Jesus being born again in our hearts when it is not quite so familiar.  I have always said that if I wanted to help someone grow spiritually I would take them by the hand and lead them to a different part of the world.  Together we see with new eyes and new perspective.

Perhaps the best part of this nativity are the wise men and their gifts.  One carries kindling for a fire to keep warm and to cook food.  The other two have laid before the baby a fish which they have just caught.  Simple gifts, but most likely what they had to give and what they felt baby Jesus and his family would most need.  I need to be reminded about the simple gifts of life, so easily taken for granted and overlooked in our abundant culture.

I love this picture!  Those beautiful, hungry, curious, humble, hopeful children watching me handing out mosquito nets to help save their lives.  Simple.  Powerful!  I LOVE these children! I thank God for the opportunity to have been beside them.

Questions to ponder….

What are the simple things for which you are grateful?

When have you been in a place which allowed you to see with fresh eyes?

How might you give a simple gift this Christmas?

nk

 

I have been thinking a lot about my Mom today.  I was 37 years old when she died of cancer….way too young!  She had beautiful gifts, especially in art and music, and she shared those gifts generously and enthusiastically.  Everyone loved her. I treasure the gift of creativity which she passed on to me and nurtured within me.  She was very strong on my doing my own thing and not copying someone else.  So basically I was raised like this…

My Mom took radiation treatments at M.D. Anderson here in Houston.  She had to be there everyday for 6 weeks and I went with her.  It was not something I had to do; it was something I wanted to do.  I wanted to be with her.  There were many hours spent in “waiting rooms”.  Waiting requires patience.  Here is what I ended up working on during that time…

I have no idea why I chose to do this.  This is very elementary needlework, but needlework is not my thing!  It is tedious for me and takes lots of patience.  And it is very “inside the box, stay in the lines”.  I have been tempted out of frustration to throw this sort of stuff across the room.  But not this pillow.  It kept me in my seat, allowed for something productive, and I could talk to Mom while doing it.  I could be fully present with her all those hours of waiting, day after day, and still keep my hands busy.

The next Christmas I decided to give her this pillow.  It ended up being our last Christmas together.  I couldn’t wait for her to open it.  I can see that moment now like it was yesterday.  She looked at the pillow carefully, lovingly…then she hugged it and her eyes met mine across the room.  Our blurry tears could not be held back…we both knew.  It wasn’t about the pillow.  It was a present of “presence”.  The true gift given and received was what the pillow represented – being together.

Advent is a time of being in the waiting room.  And the gift God gave us at Christmas was coming to be with us.  This great God Almighty came to be boxed into our skin and become fully human while still fully divine.  He is Immanuel, God with us!

Gift of PRESENCE!   (Illustration by Julie Vivas)

Questions to think about…

Who comes to mind when you consider the gift of presence?

How might you give a present of presence this year?

nk