Christmas is Love in Action

"God grant you the light in Christmas, which is faith; The warmth of Christmas, which is love...the all of Christmas, which is Christ." ~Wilda English One of my favorite places of late, this picture does it no justice. This is an old church in Historical Town, downtown-midtown not far from where my husband and I were born. It's a literal inner city church and just so very neat. Reminds me a bit of something you would see in a Hallmark movie. We've enjoyed it lately. I cannot explain it but God is using it to really minister to us lately. The messages are not shabby. It's a great mix of people and the older WWII generation are darlings, I would love to get to know some of them, and it's just such a neat mix of people being in the inner city too. The shot above is taken right from where we were sitting in the balcony. Jem brought his tablet ipad thingie with his Bible on it and also took a pic with the ipad tablet. Neat. Been wrapping things up for Christmas, and it's been nice just puttering around. "We expect too much at Christmas. It's got to be magical. It's got to go right. Feasting. Fun. The perfect present. All that anticipation. Take it easy. Love's the thing. The rest is tinsel." ~Pam Brown Nursing home yesterday and I was able to see our buddy: (These photos were taken last fall.) I was so blessed when I walked into his room and he was there, I was afraid he had been moved. The girls and I were dressed up all in our Christmas dress, it reminded me a bit of the movie "Little Women", the one with June Allyson made in the 40s if I'm not mistaken. The part where they are all filing down the sidewalk? It reminded me of us. Dress-coats and bags with little niceties for our friends at the home, we must have looked like little ducks walking single file to our car on stepping stones to avoid the muddy country earth; all fixed up, dolled up as my mama would say. Ha! I had bought a little snowman for my buddy here, and a couple of Christmas cards too. Yes, two. When I walked into his room, he didn't see me. I'm realizing now he doesn't see well out of his right eye, not sure if this is something new or not. He was making his bed, and this really touched my heart. He only is able to barely use his left arm and hand and is in a wheelchair making his bed tucking the blanket in the sides meticulously as he had the entire bed pulled away from the wall. I walk up and touch him on his shoulder and hold the little snowman up smiling big and saying "Merry Christmas!" Aww..... You should have seen him smile, so darling. He quickly points to his dresser drawer and pushes his p.j.s back to reveal a treasured roll of tape. I tape his snowman up on the frame of his mirror and then we put his two cards up on the top of the tiny dresser. I think he needs another card too.... Two cards, one with two cute bears and a one with a glittery snow scene just wasn't enough. I took one more out with Mary and sweet Baby Jesus. We look at each other and nod and I sign that one too and read it really loud so he can hear and he laughs so cute. If I were really, really rich I would take him home and hire a nurse for him if he didn't have family of course. Ya know, so many times we hear people say if they were rich (fill in the blank) I don't like that question much because most of the time I wouldn't know what to fill the blank in with except maybe something like driveway gravel or something of the sort.... ; ) And we were a little scared too because this guy......wasn't in his room. That always gives us a jolt. He's in the hospital again. We'll have to bring his snowman after Christmas. He is a sweetheart too. He says if the girls ever think they are going to get married that they must bring the gentleman to him first to check out. Isn't that darling? He is a whiz bang man, has traveled the world as a geologist, never married.  Zuzu is very close to him and had a framed photo ready and everything, the staff assured me he would be back soon. And it was such a great surprise, JEM CAME! I smiled hugely my tall Chinese friend Betty tells me. She tells me, you and your girls smiled so hugely when your husband came, what a good sign! Betty and I were talking about communication in marriage, it can be difficult at times just getting each other as we both agreed! I relay to Betty... The other day, Jem and I had a misunderstanding because i didn't want to put ridiculously high sodium chili fritos in his lunch and he thought I just didn't want to bother giving him chips. *cross eyed goofy smile* : P Betty is great, she was an optometrist and now has three darling boys she homeschools. She and her husband are both great people. Jem? He closed us in prayer and was clearly broken...he and I both. We do that lately. You could tip us over at times I tell you. "Christmas, my child, is love in action.... When you love someone, you give to them, as God gives to us. The greatest gift He ever gave was the person of His Son, sent to us in human form so that we might know what God the Father is really like! Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas." ~Dale Evans Also had some company the other night. It was nice. Our new friend came and I always get a kick out of talking with him. He brought a friend too, a very new Christian. And a very old friend who is much like a brother to the girls came as well, things just meshed together this night. He shares he's finally taking the plunge to ask a young lady's dad if he can perhaps take the young lady on an outing of sorts. I've watched him grow up quite a bit over the past five years or so. He's been through a lot but the great thing is he channels it for good in his life. Poor guy was in an almost engagement and it was quite a mess for him bless his heart. (If he would have asked me I would have told him a long time ago on that one) : P (That girl needed a spankin' if you ask me) : D God continues to grow and convict and I'm finding I had better be careful with my words at times, I get a bit careless indeed and allow my disgust to show when I shouldn't. I admit, I become discouraged at times but I am so very blessed how in the world could I be discouraged? It's so very ridiculous of me. : ) Really ridiculous. Christmas a little more lean this year, Jem and I didn't even do a Christmas party this year, usually we do a simple one for several of the active agents with lasagna and yada, just a sweet little old fashioned lunch party at our office. Our office is an old fashioned office in what was once a two story old convent built in the 40s. It's the type of party our friend, Joe the mailman can come to. : ) Well, my 30 minutes are long past so I need to say so long, I hope to stop by blogs soon and say Merrrrrrry Chriiiistmasss!!!!!!! I soon hope to write a bit about our friend, Jose who has quite a testimony indeed. He is like the apostle Paul even now. AMAZING. We were blessed to have he and his wife over, the girls met him at a revival conference by Greg Gordon's Sermonindex where he spoke. We watched in the background today: The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) This movie is really pretty funny in places, elements of Christmas there too. : ) Reading? My Bible of course, and my favorite devotional Streams in the Desert. The reading for today really struck home. And lately I've kept leisure reading to just my Christmas Reminisce magazine on my nightstand. Cooking in the kitchen? Lea is cooking enchiladas with poblano peppers tonight, she is a cooking machine today! She made snowcapped chocolate cookies and these wonderful chocolate coated florentine cookies too... Stuff today?  Zuzu and I wrapped gifts and Joycie packed up a gift to send to a friend....Joycie picked up Grace at her little job and they will finish up shopping in the new town this evening. Sweet. Surprises for the week? Sweet long time customers and friends, Harry and Anne sent us not one but TWO boxes of chocolate croissants packed in dry ice from Williams Sonoma to us. We were humbled. And my dad sent us not one but TWO cases of Rush Limbaugh's tea! One peach and one blueberry and it is gooooood stuff folks. : ) Listeng to now? Old 40s Christmas music. Been listening to a lot of Bing Crosby...love that guy. Love to All, ~Amelia To all a goodnight! I may have to come back later! : D Jem is watching the football game.