Advent Calendar - Part II

In a recent post I talked about my sister Rebekah and I taking turns each day in pining the ornaments to the advent calendar. I can't believe I have a picture of it but here it is. Mom made it in the '70s along with the three kings wall hangings. Weren't all Christmas decorations made of felt in the 1970s?

As Christmas Eve and Christmas Day inch ever closer, I'm getting more and more excited for the celebrations, times of worship, times of quiet reflection along with the laughter that being with family brings.

I also think about a girl I met about 6 months ago. She is an Iraqi veteran. She is a young girl who since her return to the US, she has lived in shelters due to the red tape and snail like process of getting her disability checks. She told me yesterday that the greatest gift she could have received is the the new apartment she moved into on Friday and the approval of the GI Bill which has allowed her to enroll in college. She begins classes in January. She doesn't have family support but our church staff was able to find a fun family for her to spend Christmas with this year. In your bedtime prayers tonight, please thank God for the love shown my new friend as she continues her path back to a life that every human being deserves. One with purpose, food to eat, clothes to wear and the ability to listen to where God wants us to point the frontside of our body and proceed.

Heaven as a reward?

If you grew up Christian, you were most likely taught that Heaven is your reward for believing in Jesus Christ, doing God's work and living a life that Christ would live. That message is everywhere, including scripture. But I always had an issue with it. When I was little I never received an allowance like my friends. I think that at our house there was no belief in getting a reward for what you should have been doing in the first place. Clean your room...here's a buck...what!?!? If I needed money for a movie with a neighbor kid or to buy a birthday present for a friend's party, I would just ask and get money for that event. So when I thought about heaven as a reward, it didn't make sense to me either...it just didn't follow.

When I think about 'doing the right thing' or trying to live my life as Christ would have me live it, I still don't really think about my 'reward'. Actually, I'm already receiving a reward now...in this life, as I experience the peace of trying to keep my life in order or in learning more about the kingdom of God through study and prayer. What is our motivation is serving God and God's purpose anyway. So we can get a prize like at a Halloween festival?...if you throw the fake fishing line over the sheet just right you get a pack of Sweedish Fish on the end of your clothes pin? It just doesn't seem right. It seems to me like we should be serving God in complete response to what Christ has done for us and in response to that pure love we experience. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to the mystery of 'heaven' being revealed to us all. But Heaven as a Reward??? Makes my faith journey seem less than genuine if I'm acting like it's all about me and what I get for my efforts. My prayer everyday is that I'm looking beyond myself toward the needs and wants of others and in doing that am serving God for the sole reason that I should be doing that anyway...not for my reward.

Family

What is family? My husband's little sister, Beatriz Elena, better known to us all as Nena (the little one), is in town from Cali, Colombia: the same city in which my husband, Alvaro, grew up. Being with his family always brings to me a sense of worldliness...they would laugh at my saying that but I grew up pretty sheltered and not learning much about other cultures. When Alvaro and I are visiting his family in Colombia, we are treated like a king and queen. Not only by his family but by the 'people' of the city and the country. I only thought I was a hospitable person until I first visited. Much that I incorporate into my understanding of Christ's love I get from the Latino understanding of and practice of hospitality . Everything is done with an incredible respect for the recipient and with no expectation of anything in return...only the satisfaction that their guest is "contento"...satisfied...content :) We don't get to see Nena very often and I can't wait for her to stay in our home later in the week. We will have the honor of providing a happy place for her to sleep, visit, laugh, eat and build her family relationships. Welcome Beatriz Elena...mi hermana!!!

Ego Monster

Have you ever attempted to identify your God given gifts? Are you a good listener? Are you amazingly generous? Maybe you're a dynamo at relating to everyone at every age in every situation (man that's a good one). I think I've identified mine...hospitality! What's better than having a bunch of people over to your house and you get to prepare your favorite foods; especially if they plan to stay overnight. You get to put out the red carpet, make sure to tell them to sleep till their hearts content and you get to put out those little juice glasses which double as brushing-your-teeth glasses complete with a folded white paper towel underneath each glass. (Wow, I need therapy!) I'm sorry, this stuff is just so much fun to me...to make someone feel welcomed is the best feeling ever!!! But why is this? Growing up Lutheran, I made sure (a la Martin Luther) to have sufficient and dutiful doubt about the genuineness of my every action....(sometimes a healthy exercise.) Just when I was about to enjoy having done something nice for someone, I'd bite my lip and start the wondering. "What's more important to me? Having that new neighbor enjoy that pie or is it hoping that as I walk away from their front door they're thinking, 'Man, she the nicest neighbor ever!' ewwwww! I don't fret about this as much now (thankfully) but ever so often this questioning rears it's ugly and annoying head. Lucky for me though, today's revelation is that no matter what my intention in a hospitable action, the recipient gets the same result...being loved on, paid attention to and God is working through me in spite of whatever my intention is. So I'll keep on trying to be nice and I'll keep trying to do it for the right reasons. But if that ego monster gets in the way once in a while, I'll smile knowingly as God makes the best of it!

Food for the Grieving

I've been cooking this morning. A friend from my Sunday school class lost her mother this week. An email was sent out to the entire class informing us of this. I called her and all I could think to say (other than I'm sorry) was, "I'm feeling helpless, how can I help you and your family?" As always in this situation, I felt inadequate. She said they could use a couple of meals as they are in the midst of making arrangements for her mom's services. I thought about this and realized that this act of providing food for people who have lost a loved one is a historic act. Generations of people have provided physical nutrition for the grieving. How many meals have been prepared for this reason? I'm not a grief counselor. I'm not a trained minister. But I can make chicken and rice. I realized that this simple thing makes me adequate at this moment. It seems that there are such simple ways to find purpose and meaning in this life. Maybe not some lifelong place where God will send me and boom down, "This is what you're supposed to be doing" but today, I think I'm in the right place at the right time. I also believe my friend (and all of us in our Sunday school class) are in the right place at the right time. A place of support, caring and numerous opportunities to realize that thing of being needed. All our love from Sophia Sunday school class goes out to you and your family today my friend. Peace.