Sweet Surrender: December 2009

Memories of a 5 and 6 year old...

There are often times when something happens during my day... some little encounter or conversation... and I think... I should blog about that! Well, this one was so cute and touched my heart, even has me struck with a bit of curiosity, so I'm not passing up the chance to share it with you all! It was a late night conversation with Teddy and Endy. Adam and our oldest three boys had gone out for the evening to a progressive dinner with our church youth group, so I made Teddy, Endy and I hot cocoa and let them stay up a bit later than normal. We were talking about the fun of sharing gifts for Christmas because a short time earlier our house had been the first stop of the progressive dinner and we had a houseful of about 30 youth and leaders. We played a fun and funny gift exchange game. So an hour or so after everyone had left to the next house... the three of us started talking about sharing gifts... they were happy to find out that they will get gifts from Mommy and Daddy on Christmas. They didn't realize this is also what was inside those hidden packages that Nana and Papa had sent. They wondered what was on them and why. "It's wrapping paper, so that you can be surprized." I explained it with some acting... "Ooooooh." Then I reminded them about the gifts we wrapped up to send to some boys in an orphanage in Mexico. And told them that when those boys get the gifts they will be surprized and excited. Which led to talking about orphans because they wondered about the gifts from their mommies and daddies. "They don't have mommies and daddies to give them gifts right now. That's why we wanted to share gifts with them. Do you remember when you were in an orphanage before you had Mommy and Daddy?" They did, once they realized what an orphanage was, they remembered, and began sharing several memories. One of their memories was of recieving our pictures... and I told them that when they got pictures of us, we also got pictures of them. They wanted to see. So I pulled out the photo album of the pictures taken at the orphanage. As they looked through it, they started sharing other memories... Like when they saw one picture, Endy pointed to the shoes he was wearing and said, "My sandals broke.... and I had no shoes.... wait, wait, wait... and new shoes come!" Teddy saw a colorful bed mat outside in one of the pictures and said "I remember, somebody peed in the bed and very stinky. They took it oustside and cleaned it, then not stinky anymore." Yes, that one made me laugh. I decided to ask if they had any memories from before they were in the orphanage. The information we have about their lives before then is minimal, and they were so young that I doubted they had much memory if any. They were only 3 and almost 5 when they entered the orphanage. But when I asked, they began to share a few things. Endy, who was only 3, only had one memory to share... "So hungry, so hungry.... no food, go to bed, wake up, so hungry... no food." "Yes, that's why you were taken to the orphanage. Because you didn't have any food. But they had food for you at the orphanage." "Little bit of food. But America has a lot (but drawn out like .. a looooot) of food. :) Go to the store, get more food. A lot of food." (Waving his arms in a big circle like it's everywhere.) How heartwarming and heartbreaking this conversation was for me! I wondered if they had any memory of their dad; the man who took them to the orphanage when he had no food for them. Endy didn't seem to remember, but Teddy did. He thought for a minute then called him "my man". He scrunched up his face and tapped the side of his head with his finger like he was deep in thought and said, "My man...... what his name?...... I don't remember what I call him." I explained that he was his dad; That they had a dad and a mom in Ethiopia, but they both got sick and didn't have medicine or enough food to eat, so they died and were now in heaven with Jesus. Another "Oooooooh". Said like, "now I get it!" :) Then Teddy filled my heart with enough joy to last me for a long time... "I like you guys!" "I'm sooo glad! I like you guys too!" :) I searched for more memories of "his man". Which brings me to my curiosity. He shared... "Walking, walking, walking...long time walking... then at zoo I touched a zebra... then see a lion.... run, run, run." Which made me wonder: If they were at a zoo, would he need to run? So I asked him about this zoo. "Was the lion in a cage? Were there fences?" "No, no cages. Just walking around outside." Then the Ooooooh came from me. :) A small piece of information that we do have about their life before the orphanage is that they lived in a region in the north of Ethiopia, but when their mom died, their dad decided to travel to a region in the south because he had family there that he thought might be able to help him. They had walked. Teddy continued... "Then my man help me shoot the lion." Wow. Now at this point I think Endy was feeling a little out of the conversation so he chimed in... "Then a bear chase me... I run, run, run. and he bite me." (pretending to bite his hand.) I said, "really?" But I thought, "Are there bears in Ethiopia?" "Ya, and we build a house, little house. Then a wolf come." (Here he began expressively blowing as hard as he could.) Yes, I laughed!! We did just read the story of the three little pigs a few nights ago. So it seemed the perfect opportunity to explain the difference between real and pretend. He giggled and said it was pretend. But Teddy said the lion was real. I'm so curious. I wish I knew more about their life before they were with us. But I am so thankful that I can rest in knowing that the Lord has known them since before time began. He has walked with them and cared for them, and He knew all about this moment... this very conversation!

Keeping Christ in Christmas... # 4

(To Start with #1, click here)

Ok, our Christmas traditions are filled with symbolism... An evergreen tree represents eternal life, Covered with lights to represents His life as the light which shines in the darkness of the world. The star on the top of our tree represents the star that led the wisemen to that eternal life which was found in Jesus, which is why it sits above the tree like that star sat above the manger where Jesus was found. The wreaths we decorate with represent the eternity of God which has no beginning and no end, the candy cane like a shepherds staff, represents Jesus as the good shepherd. The red stripes to remind us of His blood shed for us and the white stripes to remind us that He wipes our sins away and makes us white as snow. The gifts we share with one another are to remind us of the gift of Jesus that was shared with us that wonderful day... and remind us of the gifts the wisemen shared to show the kingship, priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus. There are more of course, but as far as I know, there is no Biblical symbol to be found in the tradition of hanging stockings. (Perhaps there's one that I'm not aware of. Do you know of one?) So I confess in past years when a family member spoke of some of our traditions as originating from pagan rituals, I began to wonder if this was an inappropriate pagan custom. And I asked the Lord if He wanted me to give it up. But the Lord is SOOO good! He showed me that the only thing that makes it pagan is if we did it to honor a pagan God. The Lord looks at the heart! He looks at the motive of our actions. It's about WHY we place the evergreen tree in our living room and stockings by the fire. The reason WHY we do these things should be to honor the Lord. Hanging up stockings is no exception and this 4th idea is a way to honor the Lord through the tradition of stockings! We can honor Him with the gifts we place in those stockings.

One of the ideas I was given for a good Christ-centered stocking stuffer for the kids is to place specific candies in a plastic bag and attach the following story... "God sent His son to us. He came in the form of a baby (Baby Ruth). His name was Jesus. The angels told of the great joy (Almond Joy) He would bring to all people. The shepherds took their staffs (candy canes), and hurried to worship the One who is our good shepherd, who would lay down His life for His sheep. The wise men (3 Musketeers) followed the star (Starburst) to Bethlehem. They brought gold (kisses) because He is the king of kings, Frankincense because He is our High Priest, and Myrrh because He would die for our sins. Because God gave us the greatest gift, His Son, we can never forget the reason (Riesen) for the season. Thank you God for the gift of Jesus!"

Another way to honor Him with our stockings (and my personal favorite!) is to include Him! Right next to the family stockings, place a stocking for Jesus! Ask each family member to spend time throughout the Christmas season praying about what gift they will give to Jesus this year. But remember that it is not our good works that please Him most. The one gift we can give to truly please the Lord is a surrendered heart. One that is willing to follow Him, be used by Him, and most importantly to be cleansed by Him. The gift we choose to give Him should be an area of our life that needs His cleansing. We should choose to give Him that bitterness we've been hanging onto, the unforgiveness we've had toward a friend or family member perhaps, our impatient attitude toward our little ones, our quick judgement we've had toward our neighbor, our attachment to a habit that doesn't please Him, our unwillingness to obey Him in an area we know He has been calling us to obey, the list can go on and on. You know what you've been hanging onto, unwilling to surrender to Him. Write it down. And choose to give it to Him! Have each family member write down their "gift" and place the slip of paper in Jesus' stocking. This can be done anonymously if that is what your family prefers, or on Christmas morning you can gather together to open Jesus stocking together and take the time to pray together... lifting up each of these gifts to the Lord, asking for His Holy Spirit to work in each of your lives enabling you to let go of these things.

I pray that as Christmas is fast approaching... each of you will be reminded that our Christmas traditions can be just another activity to fill our "to do" lists, or they can be an opportunity to honor our Lord and draw closer to Him. And I pray you will choose the latter! God bless you!

Check back for more great ideas throughout the month (OK, next year.) to help Keep Christ in Christmas!! (Just like probably most of you... I ran out of time and didn't get to finish sharing all of my ideas. But now I have something to share with you all next Christmas! Hope you had a blessed celebration!)