Dear Reader:

Don’t you love this vintage necklace containing various pendant clock styles and parts in the title photograph? Honey gave it to me for Christmas….then Bekah and Ady gave me a watch with BIG numbers on it so I can read  time without squinting….thank you so much Bekah!

Next I casually mentioned to Lee that it took me so long to text because the letters and numbers were so small on my Iphone. Lee said he could enlarge them for me in a flash…and in a flash he did just that.

I felt like singing “I was blind but now I see.”

The pattern of these “timely gifts” was not lost on me. Time moves on with or without our permission and leaves behind only the subtle signs of aging through realizations….like the one that you can’t see as well as you once could.

During Advent….time passes slowly for some of us or quickly for others…but regardless it passes. If we are waiting for the birth of Jesus to personally change our poor personal habits, problems, and mistakes in one day…we are probably going to be sorely disappointed.

God isn’t a magician Who performs magical acts to impress us at the moment we want all our dreams and desires fulfilled. Advent isn’t about just fulfillment…it is about longing and that longing is not going to be satisfied with superficial or material wishes…Our deep longing is really for something different in our lives, Someone to watch over us, to be with us.

Quinn Caldwell says it this way: “Christmas didn’t fix everything…it started fixing everything…the tenor of our wait is different. Now we’re not waiting alone. Now we are waiting with the God Who could have remained above it all but instead chose to dive into it with us and not leave us until the end.” 

Not being alone…The most poignant moment of Christmas this year came right after John took this picture. (Ben and Lee had just left so Lee could help Ben change into a surprise Christmas sweater he and Vikki had gotten him …which matched Lee’s sweater.) John’s seat was vacant since he was taking the photo. But the first two and half rows were filled with the Barbour/Turner/Dingle clan. I was so proud.

A new version of “The Blues Brothers!” Love it Lee!

Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and Rick Carson, my friend Linda’s husband,  whispered to me. “It must feel wonderful doesn’t it?” As he paused I must have looked a little puzzled until he finished his statement saying “It must feel wonderful to be so loved” and he pointed to my family consuming the first few rows of chairs.

And it did….the Barbours had made quite a sacrifice this Christmas Eve to be with the rest of the family and for me to be surrounded by all my children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, great-niece and brother really was “too wonderful.”

So until tomorrow….Isn’t it enough to know that we never have to walk alone…that from the time of the birth of Christ we are one in the spirit? That is Christmas enough for me.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Hope is eternal….so every time we try to get a photo of the four grandchildren together we forget the earlier futile attempts and charge full steam ahead. Call it a Christmas miracle but we came close this time!

*Another God’s Wink from Anne…she and her family were having a “Yankee Swop” and look what she “won.” Too funny!