Christmas Card 2012 and The Husband's Christmas Letter

    Merry Christmas from the White Family....

Thanks once again to the marvelous
Emily O. Holmes Paper Lovelies
for our card design!

On another note...

The Husband works for an incredible organization, Pinnacle Bank, that allows him the freedom to send his Christmas reflection to all 750 bank employees each year. It is a special gift that he does not take lightly. I look forward each year to reading what he has written. Here is this year's letter sent just before Christmas:

Christmas Blessing 2012

We are now in the season of “Advent” and with it comes that sense of joyful excitement that Christmas Day is just around the corner.  The word “Advent” itself denotes great anticipation and expectation with the Latin word adventres translated as “coming,” while the Greek word for Advent, parousia, is usually associated with the arrival of royalty.  For us it represents a great sense of “yearning” as we prepare to greet our King.

At the same time, while the traditional sense of excitement and joy is certainly present as we prepare to celebrate one of the two most important (in my opinion) days in history, I must confess that for me there is also a sense of numbness; of sorrow; and lingering mourning which I continue to feel.  Needless to say, the events of last week in Connecticut have shaken people to a level of disbelief possibly never before felt as we contemplate the loss of twenty beautiful young children to a tragic act of both terror and evil that so clearly reflect the fallen state of mankind.  So as I have continued to contemplate these young children and the families who have been devastated by this act, I have begun to realize this is a perfect example of why we celebrate with such great exuberance the birth of the Savior on Christmas Day.  For it is for times such as this that He has come to be among us.  He and He alone is the Master Healer of the wounded of heart; the Prince of Peace; the source of comfort and joy that ultimately supersedes our worldly circumstances.

Born in a obscure village to a peasant woman, Jesus came into our world of pain and suffering through Mary – who suffered the physical agony of childbirth with no pain relief; He was born in the cold of winter with the cleanest thing around Him being the hay covering the floor.  Christmas is about joy, but it is a joy that is reached through and never drifts far from human suffering in a fallen world where this precious Messiah would ultimately redeem our sin and our suffering.  As confusing as it may appear to be, how special it is to know that Jesus came to Earth amidst suffering for the ultimate expressed purpose to suffer because we suffer.  His love for us is so great that His purpose and desire was and is to remove eternal suffering from all who come to Him and proclaim Him as Lord.  As with the recent Connecticut deaths, let us not forget the infanticide that Herod ordered when he killed all male children under the age of two.

It is difficult for me to fathom the transformation which Jesus endured in leaving the glorious perfection of Heaven for a manger in the cold of winter.  Even more so, knowing that his place of birth was prophesied in Micah 5:2 seven centuries prior to this day we celebrate next week – it is indeed amazing that he was willing to leave the glory of paradise to become poor so that we could become rich in eternal things.

In times as we have recently experienced, we may be tempted to cry out to God in anguish and accuse Him of a sense of aloofness – of not answering our questions and our pleas for answers.  And yet we must only look to the story of Lazarus and the confusion which surrounded his death to see two of the most powerful words of the Bible in John 11:35: Jesus wept.  So rather than a sense of separation, we see tears that represent something so different.  While having the power to stop, reverse, or allow any action, God’s wisdom suggests that He keeps specific things from us in order to determine our real trust and faith in Him.  As in the case of Lazarus, He enters into our grief and sorrow as an example of perfect love – showing us that it is okay to have a sense of a broken heart as evidenced by sorrow and weeping.  By His birth on Christmas and living amongst us, He gives us not simply answers to our questions, but much more – He gives us Himself.  He gives us His tears; He gives us His anger at needless tragedy and repudiation of His commands; and most importantly, He gives us His Hope.  In our deepest sense of despair, He offers us not simply consolation, but far greater, He offers us resurrection.

Because Jesus was born into humanity, He opened the door to eternity for each of us.  Let us not be consumed by the gifts – giving and receiving.  Let us not merely celebrate Christmas, but instead know that we are celebrating Christ – the joy of a loving Christ presented to you and me as a gift through the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father.  I encourage you, in the midst of whatever trial, challenge, or disappointment you face – to hold fast and firm to the joy and wonder and glory of it all – the Emmanuel, God with us!  The Christmas story is the ultimate rescue mission – Jesus coming to earth offering us the opportunity to be free from whatever enslaves us.

“Praise To The King of Kings
You Are My Everything
And I Will Adore You”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

No Easy Answers

 Newtown, Connecticut. 

A dot on the map no more. 

Seared in our hearts and minds this day, the fourteenth of December, two thousand and twelve.

Your population of 27,000 has grown exponentially.

Your children have become our children.

Your loss our loss.

Bear ye one another's burdens 
and so fulfill the law of Christ.

We want you to know that you are not alone. 

We are standing with you.

Shoulder to shoulder.

Knees bent.

Hands raised.

Praying.

If our hearts feel raw,

we know that yours feel shredded and torn in two.

The unthinkable has happened.

To you and those you love.

Weep with those who weep.

There is One whose heart breaks with yours.

I am running to Him tonight with your name on my lips.

Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

I am the Good Shepherd. 
My sheep know the sound of my voice, 
and I call them out by name.

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No one can snatch them out of My Hand.

Ever.

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Those who are His are His forever.

Our prayers are with you.

You are not alone.

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The Old Old Story Part II

We pick up the story where we left off yesterday:

     The King was very sad at what had happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but He had already put His plan in motion. Even when they were told to leave the Garden, He knew that He was sending a King from His family, a King who was like Him in every way, a King who would to put things right. The King and His Only Son, who was also a King were so much alike you could not tell them apart. They were like one and the same person. How can that be you might ask? That is part of the wonderful mystery.
    Many years went by. Men and women lived on the earth and continued to do things that were wrong. Yet in every generation there were people who were known as The King's people. These were men and women, who even though they didn't do everything right, still wanted to follow the King. You might have heard about some of these men and women. One man was named Abraham, and he is called the Father of Many Nations. Another was David, the shepherd boy who slew the giant named Goliath. David is known as a man after the King's Own Heart. 

Yet another was Daniel, who went without fear into the den of the lions and survived. In fact, Daniel came out without a single scratch. 


    Then there was a woman named Ruth who would not leave her mother-in-law, even after her first husband died. She is a very special woman who is known for her faithfulness, and she ends up being the earthly great-grandmother to the King's Only Son.
   The King's people knew that something wonderful was going to happen one day. They were waiting for the King's gift, someone called the Messiah. But there was a big problem. Many of the King's people were waiting for someone who would come and change everything around. If they were poor, they wanted to be rich. If they were slaves, they wanted to be free. If they were ashamed, they wanted to be proud. These are some of the reasons that they almost missed the big event. 
   The King knew his people better than anyone else. He knew just what they needed. They needed a King who would change their hearts from the inside out. The King knew that the soul of a man was the most important thing. It was more important than the actual body of the man, or what he owned, or the things that he did. But when Adam and Eve had taken the apple and eaten it, something terrible happened to their souls. Their souls became dark and began to pull away from the love of The King. 
   So The King had to make a way for things to be different. He had to send someone that the people would be able to see was like them on the outside, but who was very different from them on the inside. This person was the Son of the King, and he was just like the King in every way. He was good. He was pure. He was holy. The Son of the King never ever did anything wrong. It is hard to believe that someone could be born who would never do anything wrong, but this was the way that the King wanted it and the way that He knew it had to be. He wanted His Son, to be a human being and to still be The King. And so it was.
    When a king comes to visit a country, there are a lot of things that usually happen. There are parades and special dinners and lots of fancy parties and lots of very important people who come from near and far to see the king. But since this King was coming to change the hearts of men who had become hard and cold and stony, He didn't come like the kings on earth usually come. First of all, He was born in a stable, alongside cows and donkeys and sheep. No one would ever think to look for a king, The King, in a stable, but that was just what the Father wanted for His Only Son. He also sent angels out to deliver a singing message about the baby King who would be born. He did not send the message to the palace or the city or the people who thought they were the most important, he sent the message to some poor shepherds who were watching over their flocks in the field. 

    These shepherds were the first people to get the news about this new King. At first they were very scared when they heard the angels singing because they had never seen angels before. But then they decided to follow the angels' directions, and they went and found the baby lying in a manger, just as the angels had said He would be. The shepherds knew as soon as they saw the baby that he was no ordinary child. They recognized that He was The King. They left as soon as they could and told all of their friends about the arrival of The King. They were happy and excited.

    The Father King also sent a beautiful star to shine over the baby, because after all, His Son, the King, was a star himself. He was the most important person ever born. His name was Emmanuel which means God With Us. His name meant that The King was setting his plan in motion to make things right with the souls of men. 

Part III to follow

Retelling of an Old Old Story

   Do yourself a favor this Christmas. I don't care how old you are or how much you think you know, give yourself permission to become a child again. Be willing to shed your sophistication, your urbanity, your intellectual prowess or your supposed maturity to enter once again into the wonder that is Christmas. Let go of that jaded, self-serving self. The world of mystery is as real to children as the air they breathe. I dare you to become the child again. It's is absolutely imperative if you are to understand what happened then and what is happening now.

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  This is a story overflowing with the Glory of God. And I am not talking about Santa Claus. I am talking about Emmanuel, the mystery of God With Us. It's a story that can hold your heart captive if you let it. This is no ordinary story.

   This is a story about a King, the most powerful and most amazing King the world has ever known. This King is more powerful than you can imagine. He, alone of all the Kings that ever were and ever will be, has the power to create: to make something out of nothing. He created all that is natural in our world. Natural means not made by man. He made the perfect mix of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and other gases into the air that we breathe. He is the first scientist. This King understands proportions perfectly. He made the bird to fly and the man to walk and the cheetah to run like the wind. 
    This King created mankind and the marvelous and complex bodies which we inhabit. He breathed life into the first man, Adam, and then drew the woman, Eve, from Adam's body. He gave to each human being something inside of us that would always remind us of our Creator, the King. He gave us a soul. The soul is the part of us that makes us different from all of the other creatures on the earth. Our soul is like a highway to God, a road that calls us back to Him, and forward with Him, and helps us desire to walk daily beside Him. In short, our soul is filled with longing for Him. When the King calls to us and we meet Him, we feel complete in a way that satisfies our deepest longings. 
     It is important to understand that Adam and Eve were designed to live in perfect harmony with God. That means that everything between God and the man and the woman was "in tune," just like the words and melody of beautiful song. 

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Then something terrible happened. The Man and the Woman could not believe that everything was just as wonderful as the King said that it was. They listened to some terrible advice from a serpent, and it caused some things to happen that have made things so very hard since that time. 
    When Adam and Eve first came into the world, no one got sick, no one died, no one got mad, or lost his or her temper. Everything was peaceful and calm and happy. There was even no winter. Can you imagine that? No frosty fingers, frosty toes, or frosty hearts.

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But then something horrible happened that changed everything for everyone, even you and me. Adam and Eve ate from the apple in the garden, and things have been going wrong ever since. People and children are selfish and greedy and hurt each other. People and children get sick and die. It is not an easy world.
   Thankfully this King was not satisfied to let things just keep going downhill. From the beginning, He has had a plan to restore things, to make things right. He planned to send His Son, a King of the same family, a King just like Him in every way, to set things right. And that is what He did. 

Part II to follow...
    
 

The Love of the Father

Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us

that we should be called the sons and daughters of the Most High God. 

And thus we are.  I John 3:1

Each of us has some experience as a son or daughter. I daresay each of us has had a father or father figure at some point in our journey. For most of us, it is a crucial relationship and one that carries the mark of imprimatur upon our lives.

I lost my father to cancer when I was but a little girl. It was a defining loss for me, and it seems as though I spent a lifetime looking for that Daddy I lost too soon, wrestling with myself and ultimately with God to find the answers for the hole that kept opening up in my life.

Thankfully, I finally was able to obtain that measure of peace that brought me great freedom (see this post entitled David's Daughter)...it was, at times, a hard fought battle to get to the place where the hurt, the pain of loss, and the deep-seated fear of abandonment would ultimately begin to recede into the distance. It was a long journey, but one that I was required to take in order to move forward as a wife, mother, sister, daughter.

I marvel at times at the different cloth from which each of us is cut. No two alike. Each with his or her own path. His or her own story.

Little One has just turned three. My baby sister was younger than she when our father became terminally ill. It staggers me. I watch Little One as she holds her father's hand. She is so safe and secure in her daddy's love for her. She is totally unafraid when she is with him. She trusts his arms to catch her. His love to secure her. And his faith to guide her to her own.

 

Only he can elicit shrieking, body-shaking laughter from her. Only he gets the most tender of her secret smiles. She has his heart and she knows it. It is a wonderfully confident and trusting kind of love.

I am thankful for a son-in-law who loves his children without restraint and with grace and hope. It bodes well for their future.

All of these quite lovely photographs were taken by Debbie Barnett.

Running Chickens Resting Birds

  

 Oh dear Lord, have I ever been the chicken. Running around like my head is chopped off. Home. Porch Repair and cleaning. Booth stuff EVERYWHERE. Tagging and sorting...endlessly. Trips to East Nashville. New baby. Did I mention JOY?! Paying attention to Little One while watching the world unfold for Little Three. Seeking to love The Daughter well during this time of change in her life. Squeezing in time with precious Little Two. More JOY. Setting up my booth in the new antique mall. Painting. Hauling. Unpacking. Arranging. Rearranging. Legs tired. Back aching. More to do. Trying hard not to obsess. Whew.
 
The mornings have been cool. No humidity. I grab my coffee and head outdoors to sit in the quiet. My mind is already racing. And then.

The chickadees call me to prayer. And to rest. And to remembrance. They spend at least an hour each morning in my pear tree. Richly laden with ripening fruit, its woody sweet fragrance woos them from afar. Arriving in a darting and swooping chatter of squeaks and tiny trills, they seem to play some meet and greet dance that is theirs alone. I chuckle as I watch the flurry of their activity. At last count, there are nine of them. Just enough for a party. My, they do have a good time.

But wait. It is not long before the quiet descends in the chickadee's world. Occasionally I will see one twirl and dart or hang upside down as only chickadees do, but a pervasive and enveloping sense of peace soon covers the tree. The tiny birds have eaten their fill of the ripening pears. They are satiated and satisfied. So they rest.

Rest.

I close my eyes in sleep each night, but the busyness of my dreams often rouses me one, two, three and sometimes four or five times every night. It seems that I am ever forgetful in that place of dreaming...the carseat in my car has vanished along with the prices on all of the items in my booth. I am running, running, running, but something or someone is always just beyond my reach. I open my eyes to more tired.

I get it, Lord.

Between the restless nights and the lesson of the chickadees in the pear tree, I see what you are showing me. The weariness of restlessness is the product of a cluttered, all-too-busy brain. Not enough soul silence. Not enough time just sitting in your Presence long enough to be satiated. So today I am stepping back. I am posting after a drought. I am meditating on one of my beloved Psalms, the Twenty-Third. You know the one.

"He leads me beside the still waters....He restoreth my soul."

This running chicken is choosing today to be a resting bird.

Amen.

The running chicken photo is from mypetchicken.com; 

the little birdie is from animalphotos.info

The Offering of Worship

    My heart and flesh cry out to you, the Living God....

Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling...

     Whom have I in heaven but thee, and beside thee I desire nothing on earth. 

My heart and flesh are weak and may fail, but the Lord is the strength of my heart

As the deer panteth for the water, so my heart longeth after thee...

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He hath made everything beautiful in its own time

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What is man that thou art mindful of him?

We are like the grass that flowers and withers and fades...

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But the Word of the Lord endureth forever...

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Praying Scripture Over Your Children

   Before each of my children were born, I asked the Lord to lay a scripture on my heart for each one...a verse that I could pray during the pregnancy that would also have significance for all of their lives. It turned out to be something that was and continues to be a source of great blessing...not only to me, but also for each of my children, as well. As soon as they were old enough, I taught each child his or her verse and always referred to it as "their" special verse. I also told them how that particular verse came to be chosen and shared with them how I would pray the verse over them before I ever even saw their face. Even now as adults, my sons and daughters will still talk about their verses and reference them in regard to something particular. One son recently launched a new business, and his dad and I reminded him of the importance of his verse at this specific juncture in his life.
    Thankfully, my children are carrying on this powerful tradition with their children as well...something that warms my heart as a parent and gives me incredible joy. Little One can almost recite her verse word for word at two and a half; Little Two is a bit too young at 18 months, but each of them have verses that I am confident will have great meaning and significance in their lives. It will be exciting to see how the Lord "performs" His word as these little ones grow and mature in him. God is faithful indeed. The verse below is part of the reason that I felt compelled by the Lord to seek a "life verse" for each of my babies when they were still in the womb. I longed then and long now to see His steadfast love and His righteousness displayed to my children and their children...from everlasting to everlasting!

Here are the verses that were chosen for my children when they were but babes in the womb.

 The graphic of the 1 Samuel verse lacks the next verse which was of critical importance to me so I will add it here...."For this child I prayed and the Lord hath granted me the petition which I asked of him. Therefore, I have given him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be given to the Lord."

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For a short time I served as a foster mother for a baby girl many years ago. This is the scripture that I prayed and still pray for her.

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     I also refer to these scriptures as the "key" to my children's hearts. As I have spoken these scriptures aloud over the years, the Lord has revealed specific ways to pray for and encourage each child. I have stood back in awe as I have seen His hand at work. Soli Deo Gloria. To God Alone Be The Glory.
     Ask the Lord to put a scripture on your heart to pray specifically for someone you love. It is a prayer that He longs to answer, for after all, He has revealed Himself in His word. He is the Word, the precious Logos ..."for the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have beheld His Glory..."