My Best Christmas

My best Christmas ever was also one of the most challenging for my parents.  My dad had bought some property in Maryland and had cleared trees and underbrush to build us a house.  While the house was in progress, he moved our 45 ft. trailer onto the lot in order to save the cost of the lot rent in the trailer park.  Without a washer or dryer, my mother had to boil our clothes outdoors in order to get them clean.  My three brothers and I collected “pine knots” to burn under the #3 washtub.  Mother hung the clothes on a line outdoors in order to dry them.  In the fall of ‘65, my dad was laid off work in Baltimore.  He had another job lined up, but it didn’t pay near as much as the big aircraft factory that he had been working at.  So, he took on a second job.  My mother and us four boys would meet him with the car and supper when he arrived in the carpool from his day job.  He would eat supper in the car and talk to all of us over his sandwich.  Then he would drive to the part-time job and we would walk home.  Dad would come home well after we were all asleep.  I remember my dad taking me aside that November day and saying, “Gerald, we aren’t going to have much of a Christmas this year.  Things are tight, but we will make it just fine.”  And then came the surprise.  He said, “I need you to help me this year with a Santa present.”  I was thrilled and felt so grown-up.  My dad had found a sturdy tricycle for my youngest brother that needed some TLC.  I painted it green, my brother’s favorite color, keeping it a surprise.  I painted his name on the seat in white.  I was so excited to see my little brother’s face as he got his tricycle from Santa that Christmas.  Jesus said it best in Acts 20:35, “… It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

The Greatest Work of Jesus Christ

The greatest thing that Jesus did wasn’t feeding 5,000 men with just five small loaves of bread and two small fish.  The greatest thing that Jesus did wasn’t even raising sick folk from their beds of fever and pain.  The greatest thing that Jesus did wasn’t raising dead people back to life, although that was a wonderful thing.  The greatest thing that Jesus did was to die for our sins and to raise again the third day from the dead!  The thousands that Jesus fed got hungry again.  The sick that he raised up became ill again.  And Lazarus, who was raised from the grave had to die again.  But those who trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary will NEVER face their sins again in judgement.  Paul said it best in Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The greatest work of Jesus Christ was our salvation!

Foam or liquid?

We have a crisis in our bathroom.  Well, kind of.  We have been using the foaming hand soap for the past two weeks.  But the scent is “linen” and it is Thanksgiving, so my wife bought some “apple and cinnamon” soap.  But there was a little “linen” left in the pump vessel, so she combined the soap bottles putting the full one on the bathroom counter.  The two soaps did not mix very well, hence the problem.  Sometimes you pump out foam soap and sometimes you pump out liquid soap.  The foam pumps easily, but the liquid soap is very thick.  One time the foam comes out quickly and the next time, you have to push the pump hard to get the thick liquid soap out.  But the next time you pump hard, the foam squirts all over your hands and the counter.  As I said, a very difficult problem to deal with.  Needless to say, the bathroom counter is really, really clean.