Remembering with Thanksgiving

Remembering with Thanksgiving

Until I was thirty years of age, Christmas was spent with my parents and siblings, my grandparents, and five aunts and uncles and many cousins.  We talked loudly and late and started again early in the morning.  We played games, sang (often singing through the main selections of the Messiah), and talked. 

But Christmas Day took special meaning.  We had a Christmas program of our own before we opened presents.  Some things were constant:  We sang carols; Aunt Joy read The Bird’s Christmas Carol; Aunt Libby and Uncle Walt sang Silver Bells; Aunt Jessie read Christmas on the Frontier; the younger children often sang special carols or played a Christmas carol on whatever instrument they were learning; when I was in college as a speech major, I often gave a Christmas reading.   All of us together quoted Luke 2, with the younger ones learning a little bit more every year.  The program often seemed much too long.

The end of the program never varied, and that is the part of the tradition that I miss the most.  Granddad would ask what God had taught us during the year, what we were most grateful for.  The youngest might simply say they were glad they got to come to Grandma and Grandpa’s.  But many times we wound up weeping as we heard what God was doing.  Often we praised, sometimes with weeping then too.

            The years have slipped away.  There is no big gathering anymore.  But for just myself, I want to go back to remembering and thanking God for this past year.

                May your Christmas memories be sweet!

                                                                       

                                                                        ~~Faith Himes Lamb

Christmas Programs Past

 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:14

 It started right after Thanksgiving.

 "We have less than two months!  Y'all need to learn these parts."  The ladies of the church--those same ladies who organized the Easter egg hunt every spring and dinner-on-the-grounds every summer--got up a Christmas program every December. 

We gathered one evening after supper, blinking at one another in the familiar place so strangely cold on a Monday when the doors would normally be locked and the lights off. 

Our play wasn't just a children's pageant. Everyone got involved.  One year Ronnie McKinney was King Herod, lounging in an old bathrobe, eating grapes in a display of self-indulgence and cruelty as he ordered all babies in Bethlehem killed.   My dad and some other men were the three kings.  A small choir sang as these men---coal miners and mechanics in their modern lives-- walked reverently down the aisle.  With each verse of "We Three Kings," one of them placed a gift at the manger--gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Sometimes I got to be an angel and wear one of the white robes Aunt  Brookie made.  On the night of the play, it was pinned closed, and the tinsel halo kept in place with bobby pins.   All the tallest girls stood in back while we little ones were perched right out front, smiling at the baby.

The baby Jesus was always someone's favorite doll.  Once or twice a young mother in the church had a real baby of a suitable size, but most of the time it was a stiff plastic doll.  The young mother Mary picked it up and cradled it in her arms, stretching the very limits of credibility to make herself and us imagine the real baby in a manger long ago. 

 

--Sherry Poff

 

He Comes in Winter

He Comes In Winter

by

Susan Lenzkes

He could have come in

            springtime

                        when flowers force their way

            through sod and

                        bleating hope is born.

He could have been spring’s Lamb!

He could have come in

            summer

                        when sun streams down

            to warm that hope and

                        breezes cool the doubts.

Ho, summer’s Brightest Son!

He could have come in

            autumn

                        when hope flames forth

            with blazing joy and

                        crimson paints the earth.

Behold, He’s autumn’s Glory!

But He comes in

            winter

                        when hope lies frozen

            in the night and

                        blizzards rake our souls.

He comes, our Living Hope!

                                                ~~  Shared by Faith Himes Lamb      

THANKFUL FOR GRACE

Thanksgiving Day

by Lydia Maria Child/Adapted by Rebecca Phillips

Over the river and over the wood, To Niece and Nephews' house I go; The plane knows the way To carry my things Through the white and drifted snow. Over the river and over the wood, Oh, how the engines roar! It jostles the head, And puts to sleep my legs, As over the ground we go. Over the river and over the wood, Fly fast, my 747 plane! Soar over the ground, Like a hunting hound, For this is Thanksgiving-Day. Over the river and over the wood, And straight through the airport gate! We seem to go Extremely slow, It is so hard to wait! Over the river and over the wood; Now Niece and Nephews' caps I spy! Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done? Hurrah for the pumpkin pie! I am so thankful for the opportunity to hug the necks and kiss the faces of my niece and nephews (my newest nephew for the first time) this Thanksgiving. Like the poet, I long for the times I can spend with my family and it seems the trip there is longer than the wait! Just thinking about the return trip causes me to choke back sobs and blink away tears, but then I think about the "family" I am coming back to. My tears dry and the sobs wane, because the family that I have away from home is precious. I am thankful for Grace! ~Rebecca Phillips

Thankful Days

Several of my facebook friends are posting things they’re thankful for every day this month. I enjoy reading their notes, and it’s made me think of how all the things we so often appreciate are really manifestations of God and his goodness.

Here’s what I mean:  As I think of specific things I’m grateful for, some of the things I notice are clean sheets, the sky, fall leaves, my wonderful husband, good food, brightly colored flowers, little birds flitting around the feeder, heat coming out of the vents in my floor. I know, and have often said to others, that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). Recently, I am learning to see God in all of these things.  I don’t mean that I am becoming a pantheist, but that I see God’s hand and character in the things He made.

My flannel sheets (is anything better on a cold night?) remind me that God is loving and tender, the source of all comfort; fall leaves are a sign of his faithfulness in bringing the seasons around on schedule; my husband—and others who love me—show me that God is love; the coleus sitting in my window depicts His loveliness; the chickadees, cardinals, titmice, and all their friends are evidence of God’s creativity; good food shows his bounty and his goodness to provide not just our needs but also our delights. 

Much has been written about the names of God, and that is certainly a worthwhile study. However, one does not have to be a Hebrew scholar to see God. Psalm 19 reminds us that “the heavens declare the glory of God,” and goes on to assert that “there is no voice or language where their voice is not heard.”  In other words, people all over the world can see God’s glory. Mankind is completely without excuse when it comes to opportunities to know God.  I can see Him even on my facebook wall!

--Sherry Poff

VOTE! TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6

This morning, I watched as thirty-ish children sat around maps of the world and prayed for children in various countries. It dawned on me that our children are living in a country where meeting together to pray and to talk about Christ is legal, while many of the children for whom they prayed do not. What struck me further was that 30% of the children in the room were Chinese. What a different life they would be living if they were in China.

This coming weekend we will remember the persecuted church. We will pray and focus our thoughts to the many who sacrifice their lives to assemble with other believers for the sake of Christ. We will attempt to understand what it is they face in their countries, and we will strive to relate it to our own sufferings for the cause of Christ. 

I'm asking that we remember, pray, focus, understand and relate a few days early. The persecuted church is not an unrealistic outcome in our own country. The decisions, whether large or small, that are made by the men and women who are voted in on Tuesday will directly impact our lives and the lives of our children. 

^{Romans 1:18-25 (HCSB)}

¹⁸ For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, ¹⁹ since what can be known^[o] about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. ²¹ For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

God is ultimately in control, but that does not mean that we should not take a bold stand in our community and in our nation. It is urgent that we get on our faces before God to beg for His mercy on our country. If we are quiet, I believe we are in danger of bringing the persecuted church to the good ol' U.S.A.

Six of the world's most precious children call me Aunt Bec Bec. My vote matters. 

~Rebecca Phillips

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Our kids have been getting sugared up over the last couple of weeks with the many Fall festivals and school parties. Wednesday's "Trunk or Treat" promises to top it all off with enough goodies to last months, and just in time to get them all sweetened up for the holiday season. This morning in Future Church was no different...to get a bag of Skittles tossed in your direction, you only had to conjure up a memory of what had been taught over the past seven weeks.

I really thought I'd give just a few pieces of candy out as we waited for "Big Church" to finish up, but boy was I wrong! Having spoiled their Sunday dinners by feeding them "Lighthouse Celebration" food, now I had managed to spoil dessert as well!

What a SWEET treat to know that all the time of preparation and studying that had been done for the book of Nehemiah did not go to waste. These children managed to come up with over 50 facts from the study in a few short minutes, and were willing to give more had the adults not come in running to save what was left of their child's nutrition for the day. 

While a few wrapped pieces of sugary goodness probably got them through for a few hours before they crashed or turned wild on their siblings, I know the sweetness of God's Word will nourish them much longer. If you get a sweet craving over the next few weeks, find one of our Lighthouse Kids and just ask them to tell you anything they remember about the book of Nehemiah. Your taste buds will never be the same!

Psalm 34:8 (HCSB) 

Taste and see that the Lord is good. 

How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!

~Rebecca Phillips