It was the day after Christmas in 1989. I had only lived in Clinton, IA since the first week of November and had just moved out of the motel into my first apartment in town. I was the store manager of Farm & Fleet at age 25 and was single. One of the many veteran employees of this store felt so sorry for the young single store manager who was new and knew no one in town around the holidays. Barb had just seen her neice over the holidays who also happened to be 25 and single. She took it upon herself to play matchmaker and try and help two young single people make new friends over the holidays.
My assistant manager, Bob, and I had a habit of some how connecting at the front of the store to "check out" the chicks as the came into our store. Much to our wonder, delight and excitement, in came a vision for both of us to behold. This was the woman who would eventually become my wife. I saw her first as she walked in the door. She had on a very fashionable long, black coat, big '90's hair and an angelic face with a beautiful smile. I elbowed Bob and said to him "Hey, check out this one. Way out of my league." We both watched her as she went on back to the Housewares department. The next thing I heard was a page from Barb in the Housewares Department. I said to Bob, "Hey, maybe she's calling me back to hook me up with the beauty queeen."
As I turned to go down the aisle, I was stunned to see Barb standing with that very beauty. I'm sure my eyes popped out of my eye sockets. I know my heart started pounding. My hands instantly became clamy. I couldn't believe my eyes. The very girl who I just kiddingly said to Bob that was out of my league was actually standing before me waiting to be introduced to her by her Aunt Barb. I was extremely nervous and so excited to meet this vision of beauty. Barb made the introductions and I totally lost all control and couldn't remeber a thing that was just said, including the name of this girl that I couldn't believe that I was meeting.
Some how after shuffling my feet and bouncing around nervously for what seemed like an eternity, I finally mustered up enough courage to ask this vision of beauty out. Unfortunately, since I was new to town, having only lived in a motel up to this point, the only place I knew to meet her later after work was that same motel, the Best Western. I'm sure that sent out some weird signals to her and all kinds of red flags and sirens were going off for this young girl who was approached by this nervous weird guy, but she did agree to meet me at the Best Western.
After I got off work, we did meet at Remmingon's the bar for the Best Western. After one partially consumed drink and some nervous chatter we decided to leave the uncomfortable confines of a bar...in a motel and we went on a Chritsmas Light ride through the city of Clinton. After driving all through town, with her navigation, again due to my newness to town, and more nervous chatter, we both seemed to becoming more comfortable with each other. There was one thing that persistnatly bothered me about our chatter though. Any time she felt the need to address me during the night, she would call me "Steve". After several times of this error, I finally decided to correct her error and tell her my name wasn't Steve that it was Scott.
She would not believe me. She absolutely thought I was kidding and she was absolutely convince that my name actually was Steve. Finally after pulling out my driver's license to verify that my name was actually Scott, she was convinced. After we had a nice laugh about that situation I finally had to admit something to her. I couldn't even remember her first name at all. At least she had the first letter of my name right. In the nervousness of the introductions at the store as I was enthrawled with her beauty, and still not beliving I was standing in front of her, I totally missed the part wher Barb told me her name. After all that time I was flat out too embarrassed to tell her, so I was glad the whole situation came up so I could finally admit I didn't know her name.
\ We finished looking at the Christmas lights and the small talk we were able to generate was enough for each of us to realize we needed to at least have a second date. I took her back to the motel where her car was. As she got out of my car she reached down, scooped up some snow, made a snowball and threw it at me while I was sitting in my car. I had an inkling that this could actually develop into something because later I found out that this sort of playing around was an Abbott form of flirting. Now after 21 years of knowing each other, I must get a lot of flirting from her because she still palys around with me like that and on occassion, she still calls me "Steve". I loved that night and many other nights with this beauty ever since over the last 21 years.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Memories of Christmas
This will be our 3rd Christmas living on the Mississippi River. Most recent memories of the river include water lapping up to nearly our door step 3 times this summer alone, eagles playing tag in my fornt yard and sunsets gleaming across the river. Getting into a Christmas state of mind always brings back many memories about the Christmas season and family traditions both long, long ago and of more recent times. Let me just reflect on a few of them for you.
As most of you know, I was raised on a small farm outside of a one horse town called San Jose, IL. I went to San Jose United Methodist Church for many of those formible years. Some of you also know the history of the two Methodist Churches in town, but we won't go down that path right now. Maybe for you outsiders you can ask me about that some other time. But in that small church the most vivid memories of Christmas circle around the Christmas Eve services we had there. Every year the young Sunday School kids were always assigned parts in the re-enactment play of the Nativity. Some kids were the typical characters of Mary, Joseph, the 3 wise men and shepherds. The rest of the kids were given speaking parts or "pieces" that they had to recite to coincide with the actions and familiar story of the Nativity. Every year starting shortly after Thanksgiving we would be assigned our parts and most every Saturday morning we would gather at the church and rehearse our part for the program performed at the church on Christmas Eve. It was always the same story ( I guess for that time of year there was only one story), the same cast of characters and the same people putting the production together.
I was like any other kid, antsy and wanting to be home watching Scooby-Doo or the Monkees, rather than being at the church on a Saturday morning. So these practices didn't ever seem to go very well at all. But some how come Christmas Eve we always seemed to pull it together and put out a great production. At least our parents let on like it was the greatest thing they had ever seen since the previous year's performances. After the performance we would all shuffle down stairs to the basement where they would give us each a Christmas bag of goodies. This bag was generally an orange, a candy cane and a pencil or something like that. But really looking back, I think we really did have a good time with the whole thing and it did get us familiar at a young age with the whole story surrounding the birth of Jesus.
As for my family traditions, I can remember a few things about Christmas that were more of a recurring event more than they were tradition. One thing we as a family always did when I was very little was go to Talbott's Tree Farm near Green Valley to trudge through the snow to cut down the family Christmas tree. I think they really used my family's adventures as the basis for the tree searching scene in Christmas Vacation. It always was dark when we would go out for the tree. It always seemed like a 5 mile hike to find just the right tree and we never could agree as to which one we should get. By the time I was finally old enough to get some sort of enjoyment out of the whole tree searching ritual, my dad had finally had enough and decided to just get an artificial tree and be done with it. But now, like any self respecting father does, I make my kids go out with me to pick out a fresh family Christmas tree as well.
Another aspect about Christmas that is so very important to kids is Santa Clause. There are 2 aspects to the whole Santa thing. One is the events leading up to Christmas in either the letter that you write to Santa telling him about how good you were all year and about the 150 expensive toys that you want him to bring you for Christmas, or the trip to see Santa to tell him in person. Obviously if you're reading this you know about my blog, but this is not my first attempts at writing, oh no. I was first published in 1973 in the Lincoln Courier as a letter writer to Santa Cluase. I know, I know you are green with envy. But I also had to always be sure to go see Santa as well. I could see him at the San Jose fire station where I again receive an orange, a candy cane and a pencil. The town of San Jose must have gotten an excellent price on oranges in those days, because again as most of you know San Jose is not any where near the tropics. I could also go visit Santa at the Logan County Courthouse in Lincoln, IL as well. This was my favorite visit. I always struggled, though, with the fact that Santa was at the SJ fire station at the same time he was at the Lincoln courthouse. Hmmm. I liked that visit because we would go at night and see all of downtown Lincoln lit up well...like a ...Christmas Tree. I used to love to go to the stores down town and see the lights and we walked every where.
The other aspect of the concept of Santa Clause was trying to actually see him. I would stay awake in my bed really late. Oh it had to be way past 10 o'clock. I would look to the sky outside just to see if I could get a glimpse of that sleigh sprinting across the sky. I don't know to this day whether my mom & dad knew this or not, but I even sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night to see if I could see him or to get a sneak peak at my gifts. My guess is that my parents had to of known due to the fact that I had to walk right past their bedroom to get to the livingroom where the Christmas tree was. I never did see the fat old man. No I'm not talking about my dad.
The last fond memory I have about Christmas is the events of the very Christmas Day. We would get up as early as possible or that my mom would allow any way. We would rip open our presents and in a flash it was all over. We kids would get so wrapped up in the toys that we got for Christmas and my mom would then force us to put on the new Christmas clothes that we just got so we could make the trip to my dad's sister, Pat's house to spend the day witht the rest of his family. I hated having to leave my new toys. At that time that trip to Peoria seemed like it took days to get there. In actuality in was less than an hour. We would go there, eat and finally open more presents and get the $2 that my great aunts would give us and the $5 that my grandma would give us and the next thing we knew it was time to leave. I really loved playing GI Joes with my cousin Gary, but that time always seemed to slip away in the blink of an eye.
A blink of an eye. Can you believe it's been more than 35 years since my letter to Santa was published, since I searched for those trees, since I was in those Christmas programs at church. Where does the time go. Where did the family gatherings go. For that matter, where did the people go. Grandma and her 2 sisters have been gone for years. My dad has been gone for, gosh, 3 years now. He never saw me live in the house on the Mississippi River. What would he say about living through 3 floods in 1 year. Idiot. He never saw me relive the same traditions that he made me do. I miss and love that old fat man.
As most of you know, I was raised on a small farm outside of a one horse town called San Jose, IL. I went to San Jose United Methodist Church for many of those formible years. Some of you also know the history of the two Methodist Churches in town, but we won't go down that path right now. Maybe for you outsiders you can ask me about that some other time. But in that small church the most vivid memories of Christmas circle around the Christmas Eve services we had there. Every year the young Sunday School kids were always assigned parts in the re-enactment play of the Nativity. Some kids were the typical characters of Mary, Joseph, the 3 wise men and shepherds. The rest of the kids were given speaking parts or "pieces" that they had to recite to coincide with the actions and familiar story of the Nativity. Every year starting shortly after Thanksgiving we would be assigned our parts and most every Saturday morning we would gather at the church and rehearse our part for the program performed at the church on Christmas Eve. It was always the same story ( I guess for that time of year there was only one story), the same cast of characters and the same people putting the production together.
I was like any other kid, antsy and wanting to be home watching Scooby-Doo or the Monkees, rather than being at the church on a Saturday morning. So these practices didn't ever seem to go very well at all. But some how come Christmas Eve we always seemed to pull it together and put out a great production. At least our parents let on like it was the greatest thing they had ever seen since the previous year's performances. After the performance we would all shuffle down stairs to the basement where they would give us each a Christmas bag of goodies. This bag was generally an orange, a candy cane and a pencil or something like that. But really looking back, I think we really did have a good time with the whole thing and it did get us familiar at a young age with the whole story surrounding the birth of Jesus.
As for my family traditions, I can remember a few things about Christmas that were more of a recurring event more than they were tradition. One thing we as a family always did when I was very little was go to Talbott's Tree Farm near Green Valley to trudge through the snow to cut down the family Christmas tree. I think they really used my family's adventures as the basis for the tree searching scene in Christmas Vacation. It always was dark when we would go out for the tree. It always seemed like a 5 mile hike to find just the right tree and we never could agree as to which one we should get. By the time I was finally old enough to get some sort of enjoyment out of the whole tree searching ritual, my dad had finally had enough and decided to just get an artificial tree and be done with it. But now, like any self respecting father does, I make my kids go out with me to pick out a fresh family Christmas tree as well.
Another aspect about Christmas that is so very important to kids is Santa Clause. There are 2 aspects to the whole Santa thing. One is the events leading up to Christmas in either the letter that you write to Santa telling him about how good you were all year and about the 150 expensive toys that you want him to bring you for Christmas, or the trip to see Santa to tell him in person. Obviously if you're reading this you know about my blog, but this is not my first attempts at writing, oh no. I was first published in 1973 in the Lincoln Courier as a letter writer to Santa Cluase. I know, I know you are green with envy. But I also had to always be sure to go see Santa as well. I could see him at the San Jose fire station where I again receive an orange, a candy cane and a pencil. The town of San Jose must have gotten an excellent price on oranges in those days, because again as most of you know San Jose is not any where near the tropics. I could also go visit Santa at the Logan County Courthouse in Lincoln, IL as well. This was my favorite visit. I always struggled, though, with the fact that Santa was at the SJ fire station at the same time he was at the Lincoln courthouse. Hmmm. I liked that visit because we would go at night and see all of downtown Lincoln lit up well...like a ...Christmas Tree. I used to love to go to the stores down town and see the lights and we walked every where.
The other aspect of the concept of Santa Clause was trying to actually see him. I would stay awake in my bed really late. Oh it had to be way past 10 o'clock. I would look to the sky outside just to see if I could get a glimpse of that sleigh sprinting across the sky. I don't know to this day whether my mom & dad knew this or not, but I even sneaked downstairs in the middle of the night to see if I could see him or to get a sneak peak at my gifts. My guess is that my parents had to of known due to the fact that I had to walk right past their bedroom to get to the livingroom where the Christmas tree was. I never did see the fat old man. No I'm not talking about my dad.
The last fond memory I have about Christmas is the events of the very Christmas Day. We would get up as early as possible or that my mom would allow any way. We would rip open our presents and in a flash it was all over. We kids would get so wrapped up in the toys that we got for Christmas and my mom would then force us to put on the new Christmas clothes that we just got so we could make the trip to my dad's sister, Pat's house to spend the day witht the rest of his family. I hated having to leave my new toys. At that time that trip to Peoria seemed like it took days to get there. In actuality in was less than an hour. We would go there, eat and finally open more presents and get the $2 that my great aunts would give us and the $5 that my grandma would give us and the next thing we knew it was time to leave. I really loved playing GI Joes with my cousin Gary, but that time always seemed to slip away in the blink of an eye.
A blink of an eye. Can you believe it's been more than 35 years since my letter to Santa was published, since I searched for those trees, since I was in those Christmas programs at church. Where does the time go. Where did the family gatherings go. For that matter, where did the people go. Grandma and her 2 sisters have been gone for years. My dad has been gone for, gosh, 3 years now. He never saw me live in the house on the Mississippi River. What would he say about living through 3 floods in 1 year. Idiot. He never saw me relive the same traditions that he made me do. I miss and love that old fat man.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
In His Image...but He became ours
There once was a man who did not believe all of this Christmas stuff. He could not conceive that God would have ever stooped so low as to be a baby on this earth. This man was a husband and a father who lived on a farm. All of his family were believers except for him. No matter how his wife and kids tried to convince him of the miracle of Christmas he could not and would not believe that God would ever come to earth as a baby.
One Christmas Eve, the man's family all loaded up in the family SUV and went to their local church's service. All of the family except the unbelieving man. Shortly after his family left a snow storm kicked up outside. The man heard some comotion outside near his barn. He looked out to see a whole flock of geese wandering around in his barnyard. They all seemed so stressed and confused by the big snow storm. It seemed that they were late in their migration flight and caught in this snow storm and did not know how to react or what they should do. The winds became too strong for them to continue to fly.
The man thought, "What can I do? They need some sort of help or they won't survive." He then realized he had a large, nice, warm barn that they could use to stay warm in until the storm calmed down. So he bundled himself up and went outside to see if he could get the geese into his warm barn. He opened the doors wide in hopes that they would go in. They steered away from him and the barn. He then laid bread crumbs down to lead the geese into the barn. They would not go. No matter what he would do the geese would not go into the barn. The man thought "What can I do. Every time I try to do something to save them they run away from me. I'm a human and they are geese. They don't want to have anything to do with something that's not like them. If only there was a way that I could become like them and lead them into the barn I could save them."
If only he could become like them, he could save them. That thought resonated with him. He suddenly realized what he was thinking and how this solved the delima he had been struggling with in his own heart and mind for years. God had been a heavenly Holy Spirit, but until He became like us as a baby, we shyed away from Him. Any attempts that He made to lead us to safety, to truly save us, was averted by us until He became one of us. Once He became one of us we felt more at ease and followed Him so He could save us.
Finally through the grace of God the geese went into the barn for safety out of the storm. The barn was filled with the honking and chatter of the geese and they were saved. Later on the night the family returned. The man shared with his family what had happened both to the geese and in his own heart. He ended his tale about the geese by saying their honking must have been the geese' way of praising Him in the storm. It suddenly became the best Christmas of this family's life, and the first one where the father thoroughly understood what His Father had done for him and for all of us.
As we go through this Christmas season, realize why God came to earth as a baby, to be like us. He created us in His image, but He had to become like us to lead us, to save us. When it's all said and done make sure you become like the geese and praise Him in the storms.
One Christmas Eve, the man's family all loaded up in the family SUV and went to their local church's service. All of the family except the unbelieving man. Shortly after his family left a snow storm kicked up outside. The man heard some comotion outside near his barn. He looked out to see a whole flock of geese wandering around in his barnyard. They all seemed so stressed and confused by the big snow storm. It seemed that they were late in their migration flight and caught in this snow storm and did not know how to react or what they should do. The winds became too strong for them to continue to fly.
The man thought, "What can I do? They need some sort of help or they won't survive." He then realized he had a large, nice, warm barn that they could use to stay warm in until the storm calmed down. So he bundled himself up and went outside to see if he could get the geese into his warm barn. He opened the doors wide in hopes that they would go in. They steered away from him and the barn. He then laid bread crumbs down to lead the geese into the barn. They would not go. No matter what he would do the geese would not go into the barn. The man thought "What can I do. Every time I try to do something to save them they run away from me. I'm a human and they are geese. They don't want to have anything to do with something that's not like them. If only there was a way that I could become like them and lead them into the barn I could save them."
If only he could become like them, he could save them. That thought resonated with him. He suddenly realized what he was thinking and how this solved the delima he had been struggling with in his own heart and mind for years. God had been a heavenly Holy Spirit, but until He became like us as a baby, we shyed away from Him. Any attempts that He made to lead us to safety, to truly save us, was averted by us until He became one of us. Once He became one of us we felt more at ease and followed Him so He could save us.
Finally through the grace of God the geese went into the barn for safety out of the storm. The barn was filled with the honking and chatter of the geese and they were saved. Later on the night the family returned. The man shared with his family what had happened both to the geese and in his own heart. He ended his tale about the geese by saying their honking must have been the geese' way of praising Him in the storm. It suddenly became the best Christmas of this family's life, and the first one where the father thoroughly understood what His Father had done for him and for all of us.
As we go through this Christmas season, realize why God came to earth as a baby, to be like us. He created us in His image, but He had to become like us to lead us, to save us. When it's all said and done make sure you become like the geese and praise Him in the storms.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Of Proverbs
Did you know that God inspired the writings of 66 love letters to each of us? One of my favorites is the book of Proverbs. A proverb is defined as "a saying in which a profound truth is cloaked." All of God's word is the truth, but the book of Proverbs spells out so many truths in just short snippets.
There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. That's one for every day of the month. When you feel you need something from God's Word, but are unsure where to start, then go to Proverbs and get your day started with the golden nugget you need for that day.
The book of Proverbs has something for everyone in it. Proverbs holds the key to unlock answers of every sort of problem there is. Proverbs has answers to problems regarding friendships and relationships of all types. Proverbs speaks tirelessly about gaining wisdom in general and against fooloishness. Proverbs talks about how we should build on the faithfulness of God and on the faithfulness of your spouse. Proverbs advices us on the proper way to handle money and the proper way to handle our children.
Proverbs enlightens us on control. It tells us the importance of self-control and how to achieve it. Proverbs talks about how we should control our money and how God is in control. Proverbs discusses many aspects of the fruits of the Spirit, but self-control must the God wants us to focus on because that is one he definitely focuses on.
Foolishness is another focus of God. Steering away from foolishness and driving towards the Wisdom of Solomon must also be a goal for us from God. He seems to drive that point home whole-heartedly.
Proverbs ends with a section that my Bible entitled "In praise of a good wife". Again, God focuses on what He wants us to focus on. I guess we should always praise our good wives. I know I have one that I don't praise near enough.
Like anything else in life, we should focus on God and what he has to say to us. He inspired the writings of each of the 66 books in the Bible for a reason. The Bible is a road map. The Bible is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. He uses the Book of Proverbs to give a small snippet, short little sayings cloaked in truth because He knows we all have very short attention spans. These daily tidbits are designed to give us instruction for how to live our lives. These daily tidbits are designed to give us a connection to our Almighty Father when we don't know where else to go.
I would encourage each of you to read the Bible daily. It gives your soul the connection to God that it longs for while you're here on earth. It gives God the connection to you that He longs for. Proverbs is a good place to start for the basic instruction especially when you don't know where else you should go.
There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. That's one for every day of the month. When you feel you need something from God's Word, but are unsure where to start, then go to Proverbs and get your day started with the golden nugget you need for that day.
The book of Proverbs has something for everyone in it. Proverbs holds the key to unlock answers of every sort of problem there is. Proverbs has answers to problems regarding friendships and relationships of all types. Proverbs speaks tirelessly about gaining wisdom in general and against fooloishness. Proverbs talks about how we should build on the faithfulness of God and on the faithfulness of your spouse. Proverbs advices us on the proper way to handle money and the proper way to handle our children.
Proverbs enlightens us on control. It tells us the importance of self-control and how to achieve it. Proverbs talks about how we should control our money and how God is in control. Proverbs discusses many aspects of the fruits of the Spirit, but self-control must the God wants us to focus on because that is one he definitely focuses on.
Foolishness is another focus of God. Steering away from foolishness and driving towards the Wisdom of Solomon must also be a goal for us from God. He seems to drive that point home whole-heartedly.
Proverbs ends with a section that my Bible entitled "In praise of a good wife". Again, God focuses on what He wants us to focus on. I guess we should always praise our good wives. I know I have one that I don't praise near enough.
Like anything else in life, we should focus on God and what he has to say to us. He inspired the writings of each of the 66 books in the Bible for a reason. The Bible is a road map. The Bible is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. He uses the Book of Proverbs to give a small snippet, short little sayings cloaked in truth because He knows we all have very short attention spans. These daily tidbits are designed to give us instruction for how to live our lives. These daily tidbits are designed to give us a connection to our Almighty Father when we don't know where else to go.
I would encourage each of you to read the Bible daily. It gives your soul the connection to God that it longs for while you're here on earth. It gives God the connection to you that He longs for. Proverbs is a good place to start for the basic instruction especially when you don't know where else you should go.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
My Christmas Story
"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."... Most every one knows that beginning of a Christmas story. This is actually a long favorite poem about the activity around Santa Clause's entry into any world-wide homes on Christmas Eve. "God bless us, every one."... is the ending of AChristmas Carol, the Dicken's classic about a miser named Scrooge who sees the ghosts of Christmas Spirits who truly wakes up to become a very benevolent man.
Every story has to have a beginning, a middle and an ending. The pop culture classic that has the best middle of the story relating to Chrstmas is a Charlie Brown Christmas. In 1965 Charles Schultz was commissioned to write a story using his beloved Peanuts charcters as the story tellers. He said he would do it on one condition, that he would be allowed to incorporate Scripture into the telling of his story. That's why I call this the best middle of the story, because in the midst of the typical mis-adventure of Charlie Brown and his sad, good for nothing tree, Schultz brilliantly incorporates Linus' rendetion of what debateabateably is the Greatest Story Ever Told, the birth of Jesus Christ.
There are thousands of Christmas songs that were made popular by the likes of Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Andy Williams. There are hundreds of Christmas movies that range from White Christmas to Christmas Vacation and one of those happens to be named Christmas Story. But the greastest story ever told, Chrstmas or otherwise, was told by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is the true Christmas story. The story about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This story is so great that they named a whole holiday after Him, Christmas.
This story has a great beginning that dates back 2010 years and begins with the miracle of a young virgin becoming pregnant. The birth was heralded by angels, the heavenly host. The birth was in a lowly manger in a nothing little town of Bethlehem. The birth of a baby who was born a King, the Savior of the world. The middle of this story is that of a teacher, a miracle worker and the greatest example of what we are all to live like. The end of this story is nothing less of a miracle. Some one may have asked Jesus how much He loved us. His response was the stretching out of both of his arms and He died for us.
As we go through this Christmas season we can all thoroughly enjoy Christmas carols and tales of the stories from Christmases long long ago. But the one thing that we really all need to remember is the Jesus is the reason for the season. To have a truly good ending to your storied life you need to get to know this Jesus. Not just know about Him, but truly know Him as your own personal Savior. God Bless you and have a very Merry Christmas!
Every story has to have a beginning, a middle and an ending. The pop culture classic that has the best middle of the story relating to Chrstmas is a Charlie Brown Christmas. In 1965 Charles Schultz was commissioned to write a story using his beloved Peanuts charcters as the story tellers. He said he would do it on one condition, that he would be allowed to incorporate Scripture into the telling of his story. That's why I call this the best middle of the story, because in the midst of the typical mis-adventure of Charlie Brown and his sad, good for nothing tree, Schultz brilliantly incorporates Linus' rendetion of what debateabateably is the Greatest Story Ever Told, the birth of Jesus Christ.
There are thousands of Christmas songs that were made popular by the likes of Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Andy Williams. There are hundreds of Christmas movies that range from White Christmas to Christmas Vacation and one of those happens to be named Christmas Story. But the greastest story ever told, Chrstmas or otherwise, was told by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is the true Christmas story. The story about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This story is so great that they named a whole holiday after Him, Christmas.
This story has a great beginning that dates back 2010 years and begins with the miracle of a young virgin becoming pregnant. The birth was heralded by angels, the heavenly host. The birth was in a lowly manger in a nothing little town of Bethlehem. The birth of a baby who was born a King, the Savior of the world. The middle of this story is that of a teacher, a miracle worker and the greatest example of what we are all to live like. The end of this story is nothing less of a miracle. Some one may have asked Jesus how much He loved us. His response was the stretching out of both of his arms and He died for us.
As we go through this Christmas season we can all thoroughly enjoy Christmas carols and tales of the stories from Christmases long long ago. But the one thing that we really all need to remember is the Jesus is the reason for the season. To have a truly good ending to your storied life you need to get to know this Jesus. Not just know about Him, but truly know Him as your own personal Savior. God Bless you and have a very Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Give Thanks to Local Heroes
On 9-11,2001 America was attacked. There were more than 3,000 people who were killed that day. Some were American citizens, some were visitors to this land, some were the first responders to the scene. Yesterday in Fulton, IL, a town of fewer than 4,000 people, had 2 devistating fires. Fire fighters from many surrounding communities came to pitch in and assist the local volunteer fire department. The majority of these other community's fire fighters are volunteers as well. There were also EMT's and policemen that responded as well.
I personally had an encounter with EMT's and volunteer firemen after an accident I had on 11-24-81. If you are a follower of this blog you may have seen in a prior blog that my legs were caught in a corn picker on that day. I spent 2 hours in that picker. I had many on-lookers surrounding me. One was a neighbor lady who was a nurse that eventually put an IV in my arm to replish my fluids after I went into shock. The local volunteer fire department came to my rescue to releas me with the jaws of life. Later EMT's came administer some immediate care and carted me off in an ambulance. Over the next 7 weeks as I stayed in the hospital I had 8 different surgeries on either leg. Thankfully the doctors saved both of my legs and by the middle of May I was playing baseball again. ( I dramatically condensed the details on this event so if you want more you may ask me so time.)
As Thanksgiving approaches, we all tend to reflect on the many blessings we have. Those blessings vary from person to person. We can be thankful for employment, health, family and friends. This year I am thankful for all of those things and many more. I give thanks to God Almighty for each of those blessings. But this year I want to express my thanks and grattitude to First Responders: Policemen, Firemen, EMT's, National Guardsmen and our soldiers. After the 9/11 attacks, our local fires and my own accident, I realized that these people do a wonderful job each day and they deserve all of our Thanks. So, I Thank You All.
I personally had an encounter with EMT's and volunteer firemen after an accident I had on 11-24-81. If you are a follower of this blog you may have seen in a prior blog that my legs were caught in a corn picker on that day. I spent 2 hours in that picker. I had many on-lookers surrounding me. One was a neighbor lady who was a nurse that eventually put an IV in my arm to replish my fluids after I went into shock. The local volunteer fire department came to my rescue to releas me with the jaws of life. Later EMT's came administer some immediate care and carted me off in an ambulance. Over the next 7 weeks as I stayed in the hospital I had 8 different surgeries on either leg. Thankfully the doctors saved both of my legs and by the middle of May I was playing baseball again. ( I dramatically condensed the details on this event so if you want more you may ask me so time.)
As Thanksgiving approaches, we all tend to reflect on the many blessings we have. Those blessings vary from person to person. We can be thankful for employment, health, family and friends. This year I am thankful for all of those things and many more. I give thanks to God Almighty for each of those blessings. But this year I want to express my thanks and grattitude to First Responders: Policemen, Firemen, EMT's, National Guardsmen and our soldiers. After the 9/11 attacks, our local fires and my own accident, I realized that these people do a wonderful job each day and they deserve all of our Thanks. So, I Thank You All.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Lost Love
Who can understand what God's plan is for any of us? But Who can fathom the depths of His love? It is really not for us to know why God does anything, but it is up to us to have the faith in Him that He has a plan for each of us.
These are the first thoughts that come to mind as I ponder the loss of yet another loved one in this life. A dear friend of mine through grade school and high schoo and into college,Chris Wagner, just lost her brother, Bruce or Skip as everyone knew and loved him. Skip was only 48. Way too young for our human minds to understand. God's calender is different for all of us. Our age is really not known by our birth date but by how close we are to our death date. And no one knows when that is. A 75 year old woman still may have 25 years of life on this earth making her young but a baby, who dies at only 13 months is old at just 1 year.
I have had to endure many losses over the last five years. My 19 year old nephew died 5yrs. ago, my father-in-law died 4 yrs ago. My own dad died 2 1/2 yrs ago and this past summer we lost precious Noah, our great nephew at just over 1 year of age. In the past I have lost countless aunts, uncles and grandparents. Each one of these losses are devistating and I miss each one of them dearly.
But in some way, when you lose a loved one from your school days it hits exceptionally hard.
We lost Allen Trone shortly out of high school. Ken Wheat died at a young age, shortly after college. We lost Sherry to cancer and others to even more tragic deaths over the years. I currently have a couple of friends that I loved dearly in college who are clinging on to this earthly life due to cancer as I speak. Each of these will be or already are dearly missed in this life. And now, just in the last couple of days, we have lost Skip. But oh, what a wonderous life each of these will have in heaven if they knew their Savior here on earth! I can't wait to be able to rejoin them and rejoice with them when I meet my maker!
I have very fond memories of each of these that I have mentioned. As for this most recent loss, Skip, I remember him most through 4-H and sports in school. Skip was 2 yrs ahead of me in school. I can remember as a 6th grader how most of our basketball team looked up to him both literally and figureatively. Skip was a good role model at this point in his life as well as being very tall so we looked up to him. I also remember him in high school baseball as part of our "Lickety Split" outfield. I also remember him and his family as the only famers raising and showing Spotted hogs at the 4-H fair in our area. There are a lot of fond memories for me in the by-gone days.
Oh what a wonderful life it will be for all of those lost loved-ones that knew their Savior here on earth. I was just reading in the book of Luke this morning that we don't know when that day is coming so we need to be ready in our hearts and except Jesus as our savior. I can't wait to see those loved-ones again as we rejoice together in the presence of our glorious King in heaven. Maybe then we will finally realize why God does what he does when he does it. Or maybe, at that point we just won't care any more.
These are the first thoughts that come to mind as I ponder the loss of yet another loved one in this life. A dear friend of mine through grade school and high schoo and into college,Chris Wagner, just lost her brother, Bruce or Skip as everyone knew and loved him. Skip was only 48. Way too young for our human minds to understand. God's calender is different for all of us. Our age is really not known by our birth date but by how close we are to our death date. And no one knows when that is. A 75 year old woman still may have 25 years of life on this earth making her young but a baby, who dies at only 13 months is old at just 1 year.
I have had to endure many losses over the last five years. My 19 year old nephew died 5yrs. ago, my father-in-law died 4 yrs ago. My own dad died 2 1/2 yrs ago and this past summer we lost precious Noah, our great nephew at just over 1 year of age. In the past I have lost countless aunts, uncles and grandparents. Each one of these losses are devistating and I miss each one of them dearly.
But in some way, when you lose a loved one from your school days it hits exceptionally hard.
We lost Allen Trone shortly out of high school. Ken Wheat died at a young age, shortly after college. We lost Sherry to cancer and others to even more tragic deaths over the years. I currently have a couple of friends that I loved dearly in college who are clinging on to this earthly life due to cancer as I speak. Each of these will be or already are dearly missed in this life. And now, just in the last couple of days, we have lost Skip. But oh, what a wonderous life each of these will have in heaven if they knew their Savior here on earth! I can't wait to be able to rejoin them and rejoice with them when I meet my maker!
I have very fond memories of each of these that I have mentioned. As for this most recent loss, Skip, I remember him most through 4-H and sports in school. Skip was 2 yrs ahead of me in school. I can remember as a 6th grader how most of our basketball team looked up to him both literally and figureatively. Skip was a good role model at this point in his life as well as being very tall so we looked up to him. I also remember him in high school baseball as part of our "Lickety Split" outfield. I also remember him and his family as the only famers raising and showing Spotted hogs at the 4-H fair in our area. There are a lot of fond memories for me in the by-gone days.
Oh what a wonderful life it will be for all of those lost loved-ones that knew their Savior here on earth. I was just reading in the book of Luke this morning that we don't know when that day is coming so we need to be ready in our hearts and except Jesus as our savior. I can't wait to see those loved-ones again as we rejoice together in the presence of our glorious King in heaven. Maybe then we will finally realize why God does what he does when he does it. Or maybe, at that point we just won't care any more.
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Adoption of Our Bundles of Joy
The first topic that has been burning on my heart here recently is adoption. I have 2 primary reasons for discussing this topic. One's name is Jake and the other is Sam. My wife and I adopted these two opposites from South Korea when they were each babies. They are the love of my life and wouldn't trade them for the world. Or for the trip they made half way around this world to get here. Adoption to me is one of the true expressions of love because it's an expression that is a two-way street. It's our expression of and the desire for our kids Jake & Sam and their desire and need to have place in a loving two parent stable environment. I believe adoption is a true gift from God. Without going into a lot of detail right now, we were having problems conceiving and carrying to term our own natural babies. Jake and Sam were born to young girls that were not in a position to be able to raise them so God put the 4 of us together as a family.
I look at life as sort of a chess game that God plays. He gave us free will so we can make some moves on the board and he makes counter moves based on our dumb decisions. He always knows how everything turns out. To everything there is a reason and a time for every purpose under heaven. When I was 17 for example, I made a decision or a move, if you will that changed the course of my life for ever. At the time I had no idea that this tragic error would eventually lead to the most beautiful additions to my life that I could ever imagine. That decision was to try to get 1 stalk of corn out of the head of a corn picker while the picker was running. What followed is a series of events that will both haunt me and bless me the rest of my life. On November 24, 1981 (2 days before Thanksgiving and what would be my future wife's birthday) I got both of my legs caught in a corn picker. This event landed me in the hospital for 7 weeks and had me endure 8 surgeries on my legs in that time as well. There was an insurance settlement that came from this whole ordeal. (I am simplifying this part extremely for right now. Maybe I'll blog on that part another time.) This insurance settlement would be put in place for the blessings to come down the line but at the time I could care less about the money, I just wanted to keep my legs and walk again.
Fast forward 10 yrs. To when I married my lovely bride Connie. She was a school teacher and had always been surrounded by nieces and nephews so naturally she wanted children of her own. After about 2 years of marriage we decided to start trying to have kids. We struggled with conceiving and then struggled with being able to carry to term. After a long process of trying to medically to over come infertility through pills, and shots and God only knows what else, we decided to take a different path. I can still remember my wife standing in my mom's living room attempting to give herself a hormone shot with 1 of the longest needles I've ever seen in my life. After 3 or 4 phantom practice runs she finally tossed down the syringe and said I can't do this any more. The next day she started scouring the internet to find out what it would take to get the ball rolling to adopt children.
She checked into as many domestic sites as possible like Lutheran and Catholic Social Services, etc. We started the process of filling out paper work and meeting with social workers etc. We had a meeting with Lutheran Social Services filled out a bunch of paper to adopt a baby. At the end of all of that the lady calmly and politely said we should be able to get a baby in 3 to 5 yrs. And sirens went off in Connie's had that screamed 3 to 5 years are you kidding me.
After that visit and the disappointing news there she decided to check into international adoption. This is where she was introduced to a wonderful agency; the first to bring babies home from Korea after the Korean War. This was Holt International. Did I say it was a wonderful agency? It was fantastic! Grandma & Harry Holt not only had 6 of their own kids, but they went to Korea in the '50s to see the babies that the American soldiers left behind that were unwanted in their culture and decided to bring 8 more home to live in the U.S with them and that is what opened up the flood gates that would eventually bring more than 50,000 babies home from Korea alone from 1953-1997 when we brought our own first bundle of joy, Kim Su Nam (that's Jake to you and me)
Remember I talked about the chess game and the insurance money yadda yadd yadda. Well this is where that all ties in. Were it not for that insurance money from my dumb choice in 1981, I would not have had the money to bring home and adopt that bundle of joy. The whole process went smooth as silk primarily because we were working with the most experienced most professional adoption agency, Holt International, that there was. I think God knew we had struggled enough so this process went without a hitch. We started the process (paper work, FBI check home study) in January of 1996 and after Jake was born in October of '96 he was home by January of 1997. Just think only 3 more months than if Connie would have carried him to term. We could not have had a more pleasant experience. I thank God for his chess moves, provision and for giving a young Korean girl the courage to let us have a beautiful baby boy. Three years later we decided that our little Jakey needed a playmate and we wanted another bundle of joy so we went through the whole process again with Holt and we were able to bring home our Sam. The laws had changed a little so it was a little different process but one of the best things that Bill Clinton did was to have a 1 year adoption tax credit for those who adopted and we were able to take advantage of that. Again using pretty much the rest of that chess money from 1981. The process is tough. The waiting in tougher, but neither is as tough as a young mom in Korea to make the decision to give up a boy that she knew she couldn't raise on her own and allowed us to bring our boys home and raise them in a healthy 2 parent environment in the U.S.A.
There you have it. I thank God every day that he knows what moves to make even when we make our dumb moves. I thank Him for provision of both money and 2 beautiful boys who are now 14 and 10
Thursday, November 18, 2010
This is a new venture for me. If you know me at all you know I'm not real high tech and I don't like change. So this is really branching out for me. I just wanted to have an avenue for me to be able to spout off every once in a while. Some where I can run to and either hide or to truly express what's rattling around in my brain. In this blog I will be discussing what is on my mind, thus the Just Me title. I will tend to rant about the things that influence and affect me. I will become very political because that's a big part of my life. So if you don't like that kind of discussion, you better jump off now. But if that's right up your alley I look forward to the debate, but I hope you eventually agree with me. I will also discuss my family because they are important to me. I will dabble in sports, but primarily in the baseball season because that's really the only sport that matters to me. I will jump head first into life on the Mississippi River because that's where I live. I will talk about religion or rather my relationship with Jesus Christ because I like to talk about my king. There will be many other topics that will be discussed as the need or urge arises. So climb aboard we're heading for a fun ride. Thanks for joining me.
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