Love in Him

It's hard to write anything that would surpass my most recent post, "Speechless," which has received such wonderful commments and response.

It's hard - but not impossible.

Yesterday, our church, Chapel on the Hill, continued its celebration of Christmas, and during that day, we received more gifts. Financial. Material. Sacrificial. Heartfelt. From an envelope that contained a very, very generous, generous love offering, to a little boy's bag of Hershey kisses and Dunkin Donuts gift card, to a new MacBookPro for ministry, to everything in between. And no, I'm not kidding.

I'm still speechless. Yes, in part because I have some bronchitis/laryngitis (which I'm determined will not keep me down this Christmas) - but mainly because of the love - love that flows time and again, in abundance, in so many different ways.

And it's gotten me thinking. I've known Christ as my personal Savior since I was a very little girl. I've been in church more than I've been anywhere else. I've soaked up messages, watched Christians live out their faith, and learned much about God and His Word. I've been blessed beyond measure.

But this year, it started on my surprise 50th birthday party, culminated in our unbelievable gifts from our church a week ago, and had the 'frosting on the cake' yesterday. (I wrote about our "Yesterday" weekend and our wonderful Christmas celebrations at our church - complete with many, many pictures - on our church blog, Chapelccino. Check it out here - enjoy!)

When you are the recipient of overwhelming love, it changes you.

And when it comes to Jesus, and what He did - setting aside heaven's majesty to become a tiny human being in order to die, for me!, then conquer death and hell in the resurrection so that I could live forever -

well, it takes my breath away.

I pray that the readers of this little blog are overwhelmed by the Incarnation. I pray that you know what it is to recognize a Savior who loves you beyond anything you could imagine. And I pray that you have a church family - with its human flaws and faults - that gives you a taste for what heaven will be like.

And if not, I pray that this is the year you find every one of those gifts.

I sign nearly all my letters "Love in Him." Because - that's what matters.

Merry Christmas.

Love in Him,
Donna-Jean

(The above picture is my absolute favorite of this Christmas season. I took it the night of our Christmas Celebration, through a picture window in the back of the sanctuary.)

Speechless

It's hard to know how to start this post. Actually, the whole thing is hard to put into words.

Where do I begin?

Let's just say we needed a car. Badly. (We've had a series of high mileage, older model vehicles. They've served us well at times, but they've also created many, many problems for us.)

In recent years, the vehicle frustrations just seemed to snowball. And finally both of our cars simply gave out on us. One was towed away a few days ago, the other sat in a parking lot awaiting some kind of decision as to what to do with it.

We have spent the last two weeks borrowing cars from people, and wondering what we would do next.

But that's not really where to start....

The story is really about a remarkable group of individuals.

And, I'm getting speechless again. I'm still having trouble expressing all of this.

Friday night, after our church's Christmas Celebration Concert (a great night, I'll post/link to pictures later), we hung around, basking in the evening. As a result of much prayer and inviting, our size was doubled when over three hundred people packed our building. The atmosphere overflowed with joy - pure joy.

About an hour after it ended, Bill and I opened the back door of the church - and a long line of people shouted "Merry Christmas!"

Two men walked up to us, and handed us each a set of keys. The people divided, revealing two shining vehicles facing each other, under the lights.

Vehicles with bows.

A gold-colored Kia Sportage. And a silver 2008 Honda Hybrid.

I'm having trouble even writing about this. It's two days later, and I don't believe it has sunken in yet.

Picture a group of happy, beaming friends, and two stunned, sort of dazed recipients.

No jumping. No shouting. No waving arms all around. Just slow walking, very quiet, complete and total 'speechlessness.'

There were embraces. Many, many embraces. Words of love, words of appreciation for us, and for our input into their lives, and their children's lives.

It was beyond anything I've ever seen or experienced. Over and over, these individuals were thanking us for what we mean to them, and sharing their joy at being able to do this.

And we were still in shock.

And then we were handed an envelope with money for a year of car insurance.

I know I cried at times, and hugged lots of dear friends. I hope I said thank you, but I don't know if I said anything. I remember saying 'this is too much' to a few, who just kept on beaming and smiling and laughing in the night.

Eventually my Dad led us all in prayer, and I know the tears flowed easily then.

It was after 3 a.m. before we got in bed. At 8:00 Saturday morning, we woke up, and Bill said to me in a kind of is-this-really-real-or-did-we-make-this-up wonder, "There are two cars in our driveway." He'd gone to the window at least three or four times in those five hours, just to make sure.


When our nearly twenty-two-year old daughter was still quite little, our church gave my Pastor-Dad a gift at Christmas, as they have since continued to do each year. (Bill had not yet joined the staff as Associate Pastor.)

It was a very generous sum, and it was all in cash. Maybe because it was 'cold, hard cash,' I felt uncomfortable with the way my Dad had begun to put it on the dining room table, and to let Bethany have fun counting it. Dad saw my hesitation, and said something I'll never forget.

He told me, "She's going to see and hear many things as she grows up, of difficulties associated with the pastorate. She needs to also know when people express their love."


Already, the testimony of this over-the-top generous gift from a small band of Christian friends has touched those who have heard about it. And so, I share it here.

I share it for those who need to be encouraged in what Christian love looks like, and acts like. These people gave sacrificially, out of their love and their desire to meet our need (and on into meeting our desires...we had not bought a new car in nearly 27 years of marriage).

Lots of people in ministry can tell about the hardships. I know I can. We've been there, more times than I care to describe. I know the climate in the valley.

But I choose to focus on what it's like when God uses His followers to create a little piece of heaven-on-earth, when He enables us to serve - with joy, and empowers others to give - with love. And when together we are knit as one, as a family, for Him.

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing - and I don't think we'll get over it for a long, long time.

A New Tradition

My heritage is mainly Swedish (on my mother's side; my grandmother "Mormor" - Swedish for 'mother's mother' - was born to brand-new immigrants in a little mining town in Pennsylvania. She spoke exclusively Swedish until she was five years old) and English (my Dad's mother came to America from the Lake District when she was 18). I think there might be some Irish in there somewhere, I had a great-grandmother who insisted somewhere in her past was a Sioux Indian, and my brother thinks he sees an Italian last name two centuries ago in a geneology one of my cousins put together. I mostly just say "I'm American" to any ethnic question.

But at Christmas time, echoes of other worlds, other countries can be heard. While decorating the tree last night, I hung the ornaments with the Swedish "God Jul" (Merry Christmas) and Saint Lucia's Day written on them.

Hannah, our youngest at 11 years old, didn't remember what Saint Lucia's Day was (I must be slipping with passing on all the traditions) - so I told the story of how it's a Swedish holiday in which the oldest daughter gets up before dawn, makes coffee and saffron buns, puts on a white gown with a red sash, wears a wreath of lit candles in her hair, and brings the food in to her parents. By the time I was relating the part about the brothers wearing coned star-boy hats, almost-fifteen-year-old Nathan was looking wide-eyed in a sort of horror at what he imagined I was going to ask him to do.

(This was always oldest-daughter-now-married Bethany's territory. I hope to find a picture of her all dressed up like this when she was little and post it here.)

I didn't think more of it, until I woke up this morning. There, on my (messy) dresser, was this plate and note:


It reads, "I don't know how to make coffee or buns so I made chocolate milk and toast. I love you."

It was a snowy, icy day, with lots to do for this weekend - but a day that starts out with that much love will be remembered throughout this mother's lifetime.

Happy St. Lucia's Day - no matter your ancestry!

Step by step...

Our Christmas tree starts out in a field somewhere in north Jersey


where my husband always does the finding.


In a passing of the baton - or make that the saw -


my Dad watched


as soon-to-be-fifteen year old Nathan


got to do the honors.

The tree spent a few days in a bucket in the garage, while we continued our full life of church ministry and homeschool. Then by morning


the tree was in the house,


by early evening the lights were on it,


and then the first decorations were added (cranberries, popcorn, bows, wrapped packages from our first Christmas in 1981 when we didn't have much money for ornaments, and, of course, apples - even if they are fake).


Before the night was over, all the decorations were up, and we sat by the tree for our Advent reading (two lit candles) of Tabitha's Travels.

I still have much to do, my thoughts (and my prayers) are on my church's Christmas Celebration Friday night, but I'm glad there's a spot I can go, where I can sip some tea and enjoy the tree - this little bit of nature-come-inside.

(OK, it's not little. It's fat. Or plump. Or wide. Or something. I'm not the tree-chooser. The fact that someone sitting on the chair will not see someone sitting on the couch from now til mid-winter, when we take it down, well, I'm not going to worry about that. We have a tree, it's up, it's decorated, all's right with the world! On with Christmas, I say...)

Happy Birthday!

(No, it's not my birthday, nor my mom's birthday - but I just liked the memory of my own birthday cake this summer :-)

Happy, happy birthday, to two very special women -

Cindy Swanson of Notes in the Key of Life - (radio personality, voice-over diva, blogger, and all-around nice, nice person!)

and Queen Shenaynay of the family-blog, the Beehive (and no, that's not her real name, but it's what we'll stick with for this post!) -

Both are beautiful. Both are Christian women who are touching many lives for the kingdom. Both are moms (Cindy's now a new grandmother, too.) And both are dealing with physical issues (Cindy's been diagnosed with diabetes, the Queen has been battling breast cancer with grace, faith, and style) - and trusting the Lord in their new journeys.

I've talked with Cindy on the phone, enjoyed e-mails back and forth, and it was her blog that pointed our church in the direction of Lakeshore Baptist Church in Mississippi, following Hurricane Katrina (we went there several times, on relief missions trips).

I've known the Queen as a friend for several years now, I've had the privilege of working with her on a fabulous project, and I've even been in her lovely Texas home. She's prayed for me - and I now have the joy of praying for her.

Blessings to you both, and thank you for touching my life.

Anytime, anywhere

I absolutely love this.

I have a Dad like that. Anytime, anywhere, he's there for me.

If you are a Dad, be one like that. If you have a Dad like that, thank him.

And as my grandmother always said, "I have a Heavenly Father." And that's Someone who will be there for me forever.

(Edit: the original video posted here was of Jenna Bush's appearance on the Ellen show, in which Jenna calls up her dad - President Bush - on live TV.)

Christmas Gifts

I'm not a highly organized person when it comes to Christmas. I have a friend who shall go unnamed (She Without a Blog) whose tree is up, outside decorations are hung, every gift is bought, and all of them are wrapped already (and have been for over a week).

I, on the other hand, haven't pulled anything out of the attic space (except for the Advent wreath), not a single present has been bought or made, and it was just yesterday that I had the kids get the sorry-looking frostbitten pumpkins off the front step.

But - I'm the kind that actually believes the Christmas rush is a good and even enjoyable thing. What's the point of adrenaline if not for this time of year? As always, my energy is focused on church first (pictures of what's been happening are
on the church blog here) - and that has been wonderful.

This Christmas, though, there have been unusual gifts given already. The first was a trip to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular.


It wasn't a great day, weather-wise, but we headed into the city


walked through the 'busy sidewalks,


dressed in holiday style,'


(I love sculptures like this -


like macro photos, only in real life.)


It was the 75th anniversary, and what a show it was.


The lights,


the colors, the technology,


the music - it was really great.


They changed some of the program, added a historical retrospective narrated by Tony Bennett, and left out the perennial rendition of "One Solitary Life" - but they kept in the reading of Luke 2, with Christmas carols and the massive living nativity.


Then it was off to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (from the up-close side - hopefully we'll go back in to see it from the 'angels' side)


We ended our adventure - once through the Lincoln Tunnel and back in New Jersey - at the Tick Tock Diner, which apparently will be highlighted in an upcoming episode of Next-Food-Network-Star Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Thrus, and Dives."

It was a gift of a day.

And there have been other gifts since then - gifts that have come early, gifts that were unexpected - gifts that didn't bear the usual bows, wrapping paper, or tags, but that were truly wrapped in love: a thank you card from a church family member with a check enclosed, the generous use of a friend's car when ours bit the dust, an e-mail from my nephew and his new bride, saying they can't wait to come out for Christmas.

And then there was one more. A phone call from my brother today. You'll never know how much that meant to me. What a gift you are.

It's Christmas-time, all over the place, with gifts galore. Definitely time to 'haul out the holly,' crank up the music, and rush right into Christmas.